Wednesday — February 18, 2004

Nordic team sends
15 to Lake Placid

On Intermountain junior team

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Fifteen Sun Valley Junior Nordic ski teamers have qualified on the 44-racer Intermountain Division team for a trip to the 2004 Chevy Truck U.S. Junior Nationals March 8-15 at Lake Placid, N.Y.

The team was named after last weekend’s final of three Junior National qualifiers. The classic and freestyle races were held at Bogus Basin near Boise.

"Everyone raced hard and we are really proud of our whole group," said Sun Valley coach Rick Kapala. "It was good we qualified 15 kids."

Older Junior (ages 18-19) qualifiers for Junior Nationals from Intermountain include Alex Hamlin and Erin Magee.

The Sun Valley J1 (ages 16-17) qualifiers are Morgan Arritola, Fraiser Opel, Erin McQueen, Chase Cleveland, Luke Pletcher, Delamon Rego and David Vanderpool.

Jackson Harris already prequalified for JNs by being named to the U.S. Scandinavian Series through U.S. trials held in Maine during January.

Going to Lake Placid from the J2 (14-15) group are Alexa Turzian, Mali Noyes, Courtney Perry, Reid Pletcher and Artie Livingston.

Alternates from Sun Valley are Margii Driscoll, Max Danielson and George Livingston.

At Boise last weekend, Arritola won the J1 freestyle race by 1:48 and the classic event by 40 seconds. Erin McQueen (skate) and Fraiser Opel (classic) were second in the J1 class.

Alexa Turzian had a good battle with Kate Dolan of Bozeman (Mt.). Turzian captured the J2 skate race by 10 seconds over Dolan, then Dolan turned around and won the classic event by 31 seconds.

Erin Magee won the OJ freestyle event, while Alex Hamlin skied to a pair of OJ thirds.

David Vanderpool (skate) and Chase Cleveland (classic) were the top J1 boys with Jack Harris and Luke Pletcher right behind. Reid Pletcher placed second to Boise’s Luke Studebaker in both skate and classic.

Coming up: Other Sun Valley skiers will attend the Western Region Championships at West Yellowstone, Mt. March 11-14, then the U.S. International Spring Series is March 26-April 1 in Colorado.

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