Junior Nationals

What a day yesterday was ~ classic New England weather here in Lake Placid NY!  The day dawned with a mix of tissue paper snow, then rain, with low hanging thick clouds – a dreary day – cold and damp.  Our amazing wax crew was at the NE wax trailer at 5:30am testing skis and planning wax combos for the day.  By 9am, no joke, the sky cleared, the sun came out, and it was a beautiful bluebird day, and temps rose to 42 degrees midday.  But by 3pm, thick grey clouds rolled in over the top of the jump site, the wind picked up, and the heats that started in warm sun, suddenly changed to a windy blizzard – it was crazy!  But our New England wax techs and athletes are used to this, and stepped up to this challenging weather and racing conditions and came out on top again yesterday, for the classic sprints!

We qualified 35 of our 49 athletes into the afternoon heats, and of those, 29 made the top 20 overall (top 5 of each age group in the top 20 score for AK Cup team points).

By 5pm, we had eight NE athletes on the podiums – including two new National Champions, four sliver medals, and 2 bronze, and every single age group and gender represented on each podium!  Way to go New England!

For the U20 women, Julia Kern, SMS Elite, got her second National Title of the week!  Alex Lawson, Craftsbury was 10th; Ingrid Thyr of Williams College was 15th; and Annika Landis, Middlebury College was 19th overall.

The U20 men had a podium sweep(!) – with Kamran Husain, SMS, taking the sprint National Title; Finn O’Connell, UVM earning the silver medal; and Daniel Streinz, Mountain Endurance, with the bronze.  Koby Gordon, Dartmouth College, was 9th; and Lance McKinney, Mountain Endurance, was 13th overall.

For the U18 women, Rena Schwartz, Craftsbury Nordic, was on the podium for the silver medal!  Callie Young, Craftsbury, was also in the A finals, and was 6th; and Phoebe Sweet, Craftsbury, was 20th overall.

For the U18 men, Adam Glueck, Ford Sayre, was on the podium for the bronze medal!    James Kitch, CSU was 7th; Elliot Ketchel, GMVS, was 8th; and Connor Munns, SMS, was 9th; Adam Witowski, SMS, was 13th; Walker Bean, GMVS, was 16th; and Russell Boswell, SMS, was 20th overall.

For the U16 girls, Anna Lehmann, SMS, was on the podium for the silver medal!  Charlotte Ogden, SMS, was 9th; Olivia Cuneo, GMVS, was 11th; Laura Appleby, CSU, was 18th; and Abigail Streinz, OSI, was 20th overall.

For the U16 boys, Will Koch, SMS, was on the podium for the silver medal!  Josh Valentine, Gunstock Nordic, was 7th; Matt Moreau, CSU, was 10th; Tim Cobb, Mansfield Nordic, was 16th; and Griffin Wright, Craftsbury, was 17th overall.

Last night, our athletes enjoyed the mid-week awards ceremony, where medals are awarded to the top 10 athletes in each race so far.  That was followed by an ice cream social and ice skating on the 1932 rink.

Tomorrow’s mass start classic races have been changed to interval start races (15k men, 10k women, and 5k for U16’s) due to the  venue change last week.  Our athletes are previewing the course today as the wax techs continue to nail down the wax for tomorrow.

Team New England continues to lead the points for the AK Cup, but we have tough competition here, and are only half way through the week, so we can not rest on our laurels, and will continue the fight for the AK Cup for the next two races coming up!

 

 

New England had a great start yesterday, with the freestyle interval start races, in the USSA Junior Nationals, being held at the Olympic Jump Site in Lake Placid NY this week.  We had four podiums, including one gold medal and 3 bronze.  Julia Kern, SMS elite won the women’s U20 race, and Mackenzie Rizzo, UVM, took the bronze.  Ben Ogden, SMS also won the bronze medal in the U18 men’s race, and Will Koch, SMS won bronze in the U16 boys race.

New England showed some nice depth in the first day of racing, with 11 of our athletes getting in the top 10 (All American) for their age group races, and 29 in the top 20 results – which scores the overall National title, a.k.a, the Alaska Cup, at the end of this championship.

For the U16 boys – New England had 5 in the top 20:  Third place Will Koch, SMS; 4th place Josh Valentine, Gunstock Nordic; 10th place Matthew Moreau, CSU; 11th place Griffin Wright, Craftsbury Nordic; and 13th place Tim Cobb, Mansfield Nordic.

For the U16 girls NE had 4  girls in the top 20:  5th place Anna Lehmann, SMS; 7th place Abigail Streinz, OSI; 16th place Lilly Bates, Dublin XC; and 17th place Laura Appleby, CSU.

For the U18 men NE had 7 in the top 20:  Third place Ben Ogden, SMS; 8th place Adam Glueck, Ford Sayre; 12th place Elliot Ketchel, GMVS; 15th place Walker Bean, GMVS; 16th place James Kitch, CSU; 19th place Conor Munns, SMS; and 20th place Isaac Freitas-Eagen, Brattleboro Union HS.

For the U18 women NE had 3 in the top 20:  7th place Kirsten Miller; 9th place Rena Schwartz, GMVS; and 15th place Callie Young, Craftsbury Nordic.

For the U20 men NE had 4 in the top 20:  5th place Daniel Streinz, Mountain Endurance; 12th place Kamran Husain, SMS; 13th place William Haig, SMS; 16th place Koby Gordon, Dartmouth College.

For the U20 women NE had 6 in the top 20:  First place Julia Kern, SMS Elite; 3rd place Mackenzie Rizio, UVM; 13th place Alexandra Lawson, Craftsbury Nordic; 15th place Mary Kretchmer, Gunstock; 17th place Skylar Tupper, Colby College; and 19th place Avrey Ellis, Craftsbury Nordic.

Today is an official training day for our athletes, and our awesome New England wax crew is busy testing skis and waxes for the classic sprint races tomorrow, Wednesday March 8th.  The organizers are doing a great job of running these races, and the condition of the course(s) is fantastic.  Stay tuned for more news from Lake Placid soon!

 

Congrats to the 59, yes, 59 New England athletes who qualified for our New England Junior National Team this year!  NENSA takes a minimum of 42 athletes who qualify through racing in our four weekends of Eastern Cup races, as well as a few out-of-region JNQ races. This year the OOR races included the three junior races at US Sr. Nationals, and one Mid-A JNQ/SLU Carnival race in Lake Placid.  In addition to the 42 athletes who qualified, we had an additional 17 New England athletes who auto-qualified based on their stellar results out at US Sr. Nationals in Utah in early January.  Click here to see a complete list of those athletes who have qualified for the 2017 New England Junior National Team on our NENSA.net RANKINGS page.  Click here for U18/U20 Women,  for U18/U20 Men,  for U16 Girls , and for U16 Boys

On March 4th, this team, along with 13 New England staff members – which include a trip leader, head coach, 6 age-group coaches and 5 wax techs, will arrive in Lake Placid NY, the site of the 1980 Olympics, for a week of USSA Junior National Championship racing, against 10 other regions of the country – including New England, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Central CXC/Great Lakes, High Plains, Rocky Mountain, Intermountain, Far West,  Pacific Northwest, and Alaska.  For full information on Junior Nationals, including the weeks schedule and parent/visitor information, click on their website:  http://www.xcjuniornationals2017.com

The 59 athletes who qualified and auto qualified have until NO LATER then this MONDAY 2/20 to complete all the on-line forms, waivers and payment, if they want to attend.  Athlete and parents, please go to:  http://nensa.net/jn-packetpayment/  to complete ALL information, and make your payment, as well as info on uniform ordering, ASAP.  Any athlete who misses this 2/20 sign up deadline will not be able to attend, and the next qualified athlete on the ranking list will be chosen.  If you will be declining your spot on the team for any reason, please email Amie Smith, Trip Leader, ASAP at Amie@NENSA.net.

Congratulations to all ~ we look forward to defending our National Title, for hopefully, the 4th year in a row, and to bring home the Alaska Cup to New England once again!  #bringbacktheAKCup,again!  #4-peat!

 

Drum roll please….the 2017 New England JN team qualifiers have been listed!!  We take the top 6 each for U16’s boys and U16 girls, and the top 15 each for U18/U20 men and women (min. 3 U20 and 6 U18’s), not including auto qualifiers. Go to our RANKINGS tab to see the list of qualifiers.  If you are on the list, and need to decline, please email Amie@NENSA.net ASAP so we can name the next athlete on the list. Thank you, and CONGRATS to all!

Greetings potential JN Team athletes and parents ~

This Sunday is the last weekend of Eastern Cup racing for JN qualifying.  Immediately following the last men’s race at Holderness, NENSA will be having our NE JN Team informational meeting, for all potential JN Team athletes and their parents.  This meeting will be at 1:15pm in the gymnasium.  Please come to hear about the upcoming Junior National trip to Lake Placid starting March 4th, meet the JN coaches and staff, ask questions, try on the NE SWIX uniforms for sizing for ordering, and pay by check if you already know you will be making the team.  Here is the link on NENSA.net to our 2017 JN Packet/Payment info, including all waivers.

To find this link – go to the homepage TABS and click on > Programs > Competitor > JN Team > 2017 JN Packet/Payment.

We look forward to seeing you in both Craftsbury and Holderness this weekend, and best of luck to all our athletes on this final weekend of Eastern Cup/JNQ racing!

REMINDER – on-line registration closes at 5pm SHARP today on SkiReg.com.  There will be DOR registration both days this weekend – $50 each day, and you must be both a current and valid NENSA and USSA/FIS member to race – bring you membership numbers with you.  DOR open 9-10 am on Saturday at Craftsbury, and 8-9am on Sunday at Holderness.