Yesterday was the classic races, individual starts, day at Junior Nationals. The original format for mass starts had to be changed when the venue was changed from Mt. Van Hoevenberg to the Olympic Jump Site last week. Team New England had another strong day of results, and two new National Champions ~ Ben Ogden, SMS, won the men’s 10k, and Julia Kern, SMS Elite, won the women’s 10k! Congratulations to both of them!

New England had 13 top 10 results (for All American Honors) and placed 28 of our skiers into top 20, for Alaska Cup points scoring.

For the U20 Women: The gold medal went to Julia Kern, SMS Elite. 4th place was Alex Lawson, Craftsbury Nordic; 6th place Mackenzie Rizio, UVM; 11th place Mary Kretchmer, Gunstock Nordic; 17th place Avery Ellis, Craftsbury Nordic; 19th place Ingrid Thyr, Williams College; and rounding out the top 20 was Annika Landas, Middlebury College in 20th.

For the U20 Men: 4th place went to Daniel Streinz, Mountain Endurance; 7th place to Koby Gordon, Dartmouth College; 12th place to Finn O’Connell, UVM; 13th place Kamran Husain, SMS; and 14th place to Conor Hrynuk, UMPI.

For the U18 Women: 5th place went to Rena Schwartz, GMVS; 7th place to Gabby Vandendries, CSU juniors; 14th place went to Mae Chalmers, SMS; and 19th place went to Hannah Reiders, CSU juniors.

For the U18 Men: The gold medal went to Ben Ogden, SMS. 7th place went to Elliot Ketchel, GMVS; 8th place to Adam Gluck, Ford Sayer; 11th place to Russell Boswell, SMS; 12th to Nick Wilkerson, GMVS; 15th to James Kitch, CSU juniors; and 19th to Walker Bean, GMVS.

For the U16 Girls: 12th place went to Anna Lehmann, SMS; and 16th place went to Charlotte Ogden, SMS.

For the U16 Boys: 4th place went to Josh Valentine, Gunstock Nordic, 5th place to Will Koch, SMS; and 16th place to Zander Martin, SMS.

Today’s Team Relay Races are delayed until 12 noon, due to extremely cold temps. Team New England is leading in the Alaska Cup points going into today’s Team Relays(!), but we can not take anything for grated, and Team New England is excited to defend this lead today!