8 Durango Athletes Skiing at Nationals

This past weekend the Durango Nordic Ski Club hosted the last two qualifiers in an eight race series to determine who will ski at USSA Junior Nationals next week.  The official team naming was done directly following the final race on Saturday.  Durango Nordic will send eight athletes to the week long series of races to be held at the Olympic Venue in Midturn, UT.  Congratulations to Kaylee Blevins, Cully Brown, Charlie Greenberg, Rachel Hampton, Amy Katz, Sepp Kuss, Hannah Peterson, and Haakon Sigurslid.

These skiers were named to the team following races at the Durango Mountain Nordic Center on Friday 2/24 and Saturday 2/25.  Friday everyone competed in a Classic technique Sprint Race.  The morning started off with a qualifier around the 1.2km course to determine the seeding for the head to head sprint heats later in the day.  In total, to make it to the final, the skiers will need to race around the course four times.  From Durango, Haakon Sigurslid won the J1 boys race, followed by Sepp Kuss in 10^th and Levi Kurlander in 12^th.  In the girls J1 field, DNSC was lead by Rachel Hampton in 2^nd, Amy Katz in 3^rd, Kaylee Blevins in 8^th, Lily Oswald in 13^th and Emma Greenberg in 16^th.  Charlie Greenberg lead the way for the J2 boys in 7^th place, followed by Abe Ott in 8^th, John Rhoades in 10^th, and Gordon Gianniny in 13^th.  In the J2 gils field, Hannah Peterson placed 5^th.  In J3 boys, Dylan Williamson placed 11^th, followed by Stan Ott in 12^th, Liam O’Neil in 14^th, Leo Bruell in 15^th, and Perrin Kileen in 16^th.  Marit May lead DNSC in the J3 females with a 6^th place finish.  She was followed by teammates Maggie Wigton in 7^th, Katja Freeburn in 8^th, Camryn Sippy in 10^th, and Hannah DeKay in 11^th.  Carter Kileen lead Durango in the J4 boys group with a 7^th place finish.  He was followed by Quinn Luthy in 10^th and Cobe Freeburn in 11^th.   Wiley Corra won the J5 boys race with his teammates Ethan Craig in 4^th, Mason James in 5^th, Jack Tescher in 6^th, and Wyatt Gober in 8^th.  Jordan Taylor placed 2^nd in the J5 girls race and Claudia Luthy was 5^th.  Cian O’Neil won the J6 boys race.  Durango’s Ruby May won the J6 girls race, followed by her sister in 2^nd.

Saturday was the final qualifier for the Junior Nationals.  J1 and older skiers race 10km around a grueling course.  J2’s race 5km, J3’s and J4’s raced 3km, and the J5’s and J6’s raced 1.2km.  Rachel Hampton of DNSC placed 1^st in the J1 girls group.  She was followed by her teammates Amy Katz in 4^th, Kaylee Blevins in 9^th, and Lily Oswald in 13^th.  Sepp Kuss lead Durango in the J1 boys race, placing 2^nd.  He was followed by Levi Kurlander in 12^th and Haakon Sigurslid in 15^th.  In the J2 girls race, Hannah Peterson of Durango finished strong to win her first race of the year.  In the J2 boys race, Charlie Greenberg place 7^th ahead of teammates John Rhoades in 8^th, Gordon Gianniny in 11^th, and Abe Ott in 13^th.  In the J3 girls race, Maggie Wigton was 4^th, Marit May was 6^th, Katja Freeburn was 8^th, and Camryn Sippy was 9^th.  Dylan Williamson lead Durango in the J3 boys category with a 10^th place finish.  He was followed by Stan Ott in 14^th, Perrin Kileen in 15^th, and Liam O’Neil in 20^th.  Carter Kileen placed 7^th in the J4 boys race, just ahead of teammates Cobe Freeburn in 10^th and Quinn Luthy in 14^th.  Jordan Taylor was again 2^nd in the J5 girls and Claudia Luthy was 6^th.  Wiley Corra edged out the competition to win the J5 boys race.  Teammates Ethan Craig was 4^th, Mason James was 6^th, Jack Tescher was 7^th, and Wyatt Gober was 8^th.  Ruby May again won the J6 girls and Cian O’Neil won the J6 boys.

“It is awesome to have the last RMN qualifier on our home course” said Head Coach Josh Dalley.  “We get to train on these trails everyday, so racing well on them comes naturally.  I’m very proud of how all DNSC athletes preformed this weekend as well as all of our volunteers.”