For the week of January 21 - 27, 2004

Strong weekend for SV at Soldier Hollow

Arritola leads the women in JN races

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It was quite a weekend at Soldier Hollow, Utah for Sun Valley Junior Nordic ski team kids. There were awesome snow conditions, the Olympic trails and a competitive field.

Coach Rick Kapala’s competition team carried off a bunch of top placings Saturday and Sunday in the first of three Intermountain Division qualifying races for the 2004 Junior Nationals. "It was a good start to the season," he said.

Leading the way was 17-year-old Morgan Arritola.

The lean skiing machine from Fairfield won Saturday’s girls’ 16-17 5-kilometer freestyle race by 63 seconds over teammate Fraiser Opel. Arritola added Sunday’s 10k classic victory by one minute, 32 seconds.

Arritola’s winning times were 15:12 in 5k skate and 34:25 in 10k classic.

The Community School senior clocked the fastest times of all 95 girls in six age classes at Soldier Hollow.

Last weekend’s racers came to the 2002 Olympic site from Idaho, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. It was a joint qualifier between the Intermountain Division and Rocky Mountain (Colorado).

Kapala’s Sun Valley boys dominated the three upper age classes, 14-15, to 16-17 and 18-19. In Sunday’s 10k classic race, for example, OJ (18-19) racer Alex Hamlin (29:33) was the fastest of all men at the 10k distance.

"It was the first time Alex won a qualifier," Kapala said.

Chase Cleveland (30:00) tied for first in 16-17 combined at 10k classic—and Cleveland led a 1-2-3-4 Sun Valley sweep of the Intermountain rankings in the class that also featured Luke Pletcher, Delamon Rego and David Vanderpool. Saturday, Pletcher (28:07) was second in 16-17 combined for 10k skate.

In 5k classic, Reid Pletcher (15:00) won the Intermountain’s 14-15 race and was second in combined. And Erin Magee posted a pair of second-place finishes in OJ girls 18-19.

The following are class placings for the 33 Sun Valley racers, starting with their finish within the 161-racer Intermountain Division field and including in parentheses their combined finish in the total field of 264.

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Girls 10-11:
Nellie Brown 4-CL (8-CL combined) and 3-FR (7-FR).

Girls 12-13:
Bronwen Raff 7-CL (13-CL combined) and 9-FR (14-FR); Keller Gibson 8-CL (14-CL) and 12-FR (17-FR).

Girls 14-15:
Alexa Turzian 3-CL (7-CL combined) and 3-FR (6-FR); Mali Noyes 11-CL (17-CL) and 7-FR (13-FR); Courtney Perry 9-CL (15-CL) and 13-FR (20-FR); Tess Dahlgren 15-CL (23-CL) and 16-FR (24-FR); Chelsea Vanderpool 16-CL (24-CL) and 18-FR (27-FR).

Girls 16-17:
Morgan Arritola 1-CL (1-CL combined) and 1-FR (1-FR); Fraiser Opel 2-CL (4-CL) and 2-FR (3-FR); Erin McQueen 4-CL (8-CL) and 3-FR (4-FR); Ruth Anderson 5-CL (11-CL) and 6-FR (11-FR); Margii Driscoll DNF-CL and 9-FR (19-FR).

Girls 18-19:
Erin Magee 2-CL (2-CL) and 2-FR (2-FR).

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Boys 12-13:
Scotty Phelan 9-CL (17-CL combined) and 8-FR (14-FR); Connor Brown 12-CL (20-CL) and 15-FR (22-FR); Daniel Henry 18-CL (28-CL) and 24-FR (35-FR); Luke Anderson 21-CL (32-CL) and 22-FR (33-FR); Sean Dumke 24-CL (35-CL) and 21-FR (32-FR).

Boys 14-15:
Reid Pletcher 1-CL (2-CL combined) and 3-FR (7-FR); Artie Livingston 5-CL (13-CL) and 4-FR (10-FR); Max Danielson 7-CL (17-CL) and 6-FR (14-FR); Conor Davis 8-CL (22-CL) and 14-FR (28-FR); Mike Matteson 12-CL (28-CL) and 20-FR (35-FR).

Boys 16-17:
Chase Cleveland 1-CL (2-CL combined) and 2-FR (4-FR); Luke Pletcher 2-CL (3-CL) and 1-FR (2-FR); Delamon Rego 3-CL (6-CL) and 3-FR (7-FR); David Vanderpool 4-CL (7-CL) and 7-FR (15-FR); George Livingston 6-CL (9-CL) and 5-FR (13-FR); Brad Bradford 12-CL (26-CL) and 21-FR (39-FR); Dawson Paschall 14-FR (26-FR); Chris Holmquist 22-FR (40-FR).

Boys 18-19:
Alex Hamlin 1-CL (1-CL combined) and 5-FR (7-FR).

 

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