Opening races in Craftsbury, celebrate venerable skiing figures.

Day 1 – Rodrigues Sprints

Saturday greeted us with rain and enthusiastic skiers excited to be back on snow, wearing a bib.  83 skiers toed the line for the 1.5km freestyle sprint qualifier, followed by three rounds of sprint heats.  In the sprint heats we saw masters, juniors, and collegiate skiers mixed together, often regardless of gender, skiing together in hone of the late Jim Rodrigues.  The Queens Court format was a dizzying affair, with 14 heats of six skiers executed in each round.  The rule of thumb for the day was that everyone got to race all the rounds.  As each round went on, athletes were filtered into heats that were closer and closer together in ability range, resulting in some close finishes throughout the day!  

2020 Nordic Combined World Cup Overall Champion, now biathlete, Tara Geherty-Moats of the Green Racing Project (GRP) put in a late surge to hold off University of Vermont’s (UVM) Anna Bizyukova (2nd) and GRP teammate Kelsey Dickinson (3rd) for the win in the open women’s field.  In the girl’s U16 age group, Craftsbury Ski Club’s Ruth Krebs outpaced Mansfield Nordic’s Julia Thurston (2nd) and teammate Annika Leahy (3rd) for top spot.  Stowe Nordic’s Sara Graves led the master’s women category in 15th overall.

In the open men’s race, Colby College skier Jack Young took the win over Elvis McIntosh of the Green Mountain Valley School (2nd) and Finn Sweet of UVM (3rd).  Meanwhile, finishing fourth overall, Mansfield Nordic’s Adam Terko took top spot in the master’s men category.  Ellis Slover of the Quarry Road Ski Club had a strong showing for 10th overall and first in the U16 age group, followed by Charles Kehler (2nd) of the Craftsbury Ski Club and Lucas Barstow of Gould Academy (3rd).

Craftsbury Ski Club led the way in the Club Cup for the day, with 169 points, followed by Mansfield Nordic Club and University of Vermont Ski Team with 149 and 140 points respectively.

Day 2 – Kendall Classic

The rain departed overnight and the sun came out to greet us for the second day of racing action.  Skiers did either two or three laps of the manmade 2.5km loop at Craftsbury.  With granular to icy snow classic tracks and snow temps just below freezing, klister was the flavor of the day.  The Kendall Classic was hosted to remember Tom Kendall, our beloved timer of many years, with FIS and Popular racing opportunities for all abilities of skiers.  Craftsbury also donated 25% of proceeds to the Muscular Dystrophy Association to honor the Kendall Family.

The participants came from all over the Northeast and Quebec, with representatives from 27 clubs.  We also saw U14 racers all the way up to M10’s, with a pretty even distribution of participants between U14/U16’s, U18/U20’s, and 20+ age groups, including a large contingent of masters. 

Mansfield Nordic Club led the way in the Club Cup for the day, with 253 points, followed by Northwest Vermont Endurance (NWVE), and the UVM Ski Team with 230 and 211 points respectively.

In the open women’s field Annie McColgan and Anna Bizyukova, both from UVM went one and two, with Mansfield’s Ava Thurston snatching third.  Ruth Krebs of Craftsbury was on top of the U16 girls podium a second time this weekend, followed by teammate Claire Serrano (2nd) and Beth McIntosh of Frost Mountain Nordic (3rd).  

The open men’s race saw a clean sweep of the podium by UVM, with Finn Sweet leading Jacob Nystedt (2nd) and Greg Burt (3rd).  In the U16 boys race Quarry Road Ski Clubber Ellis Slover led the way, with Mansfield Nordic’s Brady Morigeau in second and Gunstock Nordic’s Tyler Watt in third.

With nearly 30 masters participants in the field — the greatest win of the weekend was seeing everyone again.

Link to Rodrigues Sprints results.

Link to Kendall Classic results.

Link to Zak point standings.

Link to Club points standings.

Up next on the NENSA calendar is the Roy Varney Eastern Cup at Quarry Road, December 18-19th and the Jackson Jaunt on January 2nd.