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For the week of Jan. 19 through Jan. 25, 2000

Nordic skiers picked for European races

Scandinavian Cup selections


Sun Valley Junior Nordic ski teamers had a good experience during last week’s 2000 U.S. Nordic Nationals staged at the Soldier Hollow Olympic venue near Midway, Utah.

And Sun Valley’s top J1 (ages 16-17) cross-country skiers along the Wasatch Mountain State Park tracks were selected for an international traveling team.

Matt Stevenson, Jedd Young, Jess Kiesel and Kelley Sinnott were chosen for the 12-racer U.S. team competing in the Scandinavian Cup developmental series to be held in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Estonia.

The four Sun Valley skiers left Sunday for Mora, Sweden. They’ll train for a week, and start competing at the end of January.

Sun Valley head coach Rick Kapala said, "They pick the best J1 kids in the country for this preparatory high-level competition series, which is the step before they start making World Junior teams."

Stevenson, Young, Kiesel and Sinnott had the best Sun Valley ski team placings for the two-day pursuit event at the 2000 U.S. Nationals.

The two-day men’s pursuit included Wednesday’s 10-kilometer freestyle and Thursday’s Thursday’s 15k classic event. The women’s pursuit courses on the same days were 5k freestyle and 10k classic.

Overall U.S. winners were Marcus Nash, 28, of Maine and Nina Kemppel, 29, of Anchorage, Ak. It was Nash’s ninth national title.

Top female racer of the week was Beckie Scott, 25, of Canmore, Alberta, Canada. Scott was bulletproof, winning her four races at Soldier Hollow.

Here are Sun Valley overall placings for pursuit, also covering current collegians and former ski teamers:

Men (183 racers): 32—Lars Flora. 51—Matt Cleveland. 72—David Lloyd. 87—Ian Skinner. 105—Matt Stevenson. 106—Jess Kiesel. 111—Jedd Young. 118—Michael Lloyd. 127—Andrew Slough. 129—Patrick Sinnott. 134—Bryce Turzian. 166—George Collier. 180—Will Resko.

Robert Parker finished 118th freestyle and Chad Cleveland was 174th.

Women (96 racers): 38 (tie)—Morgan Hogue and Davina Webb. 64—Kelley Sinnott. 65—Heidi Poehling. 73—Ashley Wells. 79—Crystal Ward. 84—Josie Bradford.

Also competing in freestyle were Ashley McQueen, with a promising 73rd place and Kaelin Kiesel 95th. Middlebury College’s Hilary Patzer was highly placed at 23rd in 5k freestyle pursuit, just 1:50 behind winner Scott. Patzer didn’t start classic.

Saturday, Carl Swenson (1.59:55) earned his third national title by winning the men’s 50k freestyle in a close finish over runner-up Nash and Kemppel (1.25:03) captured her 13th national championship by nearly three minutes in women’s 30k skate.

Ketchum’s Peter Webb (2.09:21) finished 16th overall in men’s 50k.

 

Lake Creek races

The rest of the Nordic kids are gearing up for the Wood River Cross Country Ski Championships Jan. 22-23 at the Lake Creek trail system north of Ketchum. It will be an Intermountain Division qualifying race for Junior Nationals.

 

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