15 Nordic kids going north to Alaska
Nordic Junior National qualifiers
Heading north to Alaska in March are 15
skiers of the Sun Valley Junior Nordic ski team.
They’ve qualified after a series of three
Intermountain Division point races for the U.S. Junior Nationals beginning March
9 in Fairbanks.
Sun Valley coach Rick Kapala said, "We’ll
be taking a nice blend of younger skiers and more experienced kids to Alaska.
It’s a good group. In general we’re skiing well now."
The girls are Eva Bach, Morgan Arritola,
Erin McQueen, Alissa Praggastis, Alexa Turzian, Margii Driscoll and Ashley
McQueen. The alternate is Courtney Perry.
Boys getting ready for the trip are
Delamon Rego, Reid Pletcher, Artie Livingston, Matt DeCarufel, Mike Sinnott,
Robert Slough, Jack Harris and Martin Isaakson. Alternates are David Vanderpool,
Luke Pletcher and Chase Cleveland.
The final Junior National qualifier took
place in McCall this past weekend. The event featured skate races Saturday and
classic races Sunday for 126 kids from Idaho, Wyoming and Utah—including 27 from
Sun Valley.
Posting the most notable achievement for
Sun Valley at McCall was Artie Livingston, Kapala said. Livingston worked his
way onto the JN team with a sixth-place skate and second-place classic in J2
boys.
Alexa Turzian continued her hot skiing
with a pair of dominating J2 wins—by 34 seconds in the skate race and 47 seconds
in the classic event.
Others winning their skate classes were
Eva Bach, Martin Isaakson and Morgan Arritola by 50 seconds in J1 girls.
Emerging victorious in classic were Sinnott by 40 seconds in J1 boys and
Isaakson in Older Junior Guest.
Sun Valley’s Matt DeCarufel and Tom
Troutner of McCall had a terrific race in OJ classic, Troutner nipping DeCarufel
by less than one second.
The Sun Valley qualifiers will leave March
6 for Alaska and return March 17. Date of the team banquet has been pushed back
to April 20.
Weekend class placings (freestyle,
classic) for Sun Valley Nordic kids:
OJ boys: Matt DeCarufel 2-FR
(42:13), 2-CL (14:19).
OJ guest: Martin Isaksson 1-FR
(42:31), 1-CL (13:49).
OJ girls: Eva Bach 1-FR (31:36),
4-CL (17:32).
J1 boys:
Mike Sinnott 2-FR (41:28), 1-CL (13:48); Robert Slough 9-FR (43:52), 5-CL
(14:53); Luke Pletcher 4-CL (14:51); Chase Cleveland 6-CL (15:01); George
Livingston 18-FR (46:56), 10-CL (15:15);
David Vanderpool 7-FR (43:19), 11-CL
(15:22); Jack Harris 8-FR (43:45); Alex Hamlin 11-FR (44:54), 12-CL (15:26);
Hannes Thum 17-FR (46:21), 17-CL (15:37); Brennan Rego 25-FR (50:56), 26-CL
(16:51); Dawson Paschall 27-FR (51:58), 28-CL (17:30); Brad Bradford 27-CL
(17:15).
J1 girls: Alissa Praggastis 2-FR
(32:39), 4-CL (17:37); Morgan Arritola 1-FR (31:49), 7-CL (18:12); Erin Magee
10-FR (34:10), 10-CL (18:22); Lexie Praggastis 11-FR (34:45); Mollie Parker
13-FR (36:42), 16-CL (21:20).
J2 boys: Artie Livingston 6-FR
(15:27), 2-CL (16:20); Delamon Rego 2-FR (14:42); Robbie Hamlin 8-FR (15:32),
9-CL (17:32); Chris Holmquist 12-FR (17:15), 11-CL (19:02); Max Danielson 12-CL
(19:17).
J2 girls: Alexa Turzian 1-FR
(14:55), 1-CL (17:01); Courtney Perry 7-FR (16:29), 8-CL (18:33); Hayley Stommel
10-FR (17:14); Margii Driscoll 13-FR (17:56), 10-CL (19:24).