What a weekend for Sun Valley Junior Nordic kids!
The Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation showed how to stage a race event and pile up the podiums during the Feb. 19-20 Junior National qualifying races at the Lake Creek trail system north of Ketchum.
After a weekend of freestyle and classic racing for 190 juniors plus 20 Masters racers, the Sun Valley Junior Nordic ski team showed this kind of booty:
Seventeen SVSEF skiers qualified for the U.S. Junior National Cross Country Ski Championships scheduled for March 7-12 at Truckee, Ca.
It's a step up from the 15 skiers that Sun Valley qualified for the 2004 JNs at Lake Placid, N.Y. and also 15 for the 2003 competition in Fairbanks, Ak.
They qualified based on their results at Lake Creek last weekend along with their results at previous JN qualifying races in West Yellowstone, Mt. and Soldier Hollow, Utah.
Not only that, but the Sun Valley skiers captured 10 of the 16 gold medals in the Lake Creek skate and classic races covering the Older Junior (ages 18-19) through J3 (ages 12-13) age classes. They dominated.
Steadily improving Morgan Arritola, this year's Boulder Mountain Ski Tour women's runner-up, ran away with the OJ girls' 10k skate and 5k classic races. Luke Pletcher won golds in OJ boys' tests at 15k freestyle and 5k classic.
Alexa Turzian captured the J1 girls' 10k skate race and Delamon Rego won the J1 boys' challenge at 5k classic. Double winners in the younger age classes were Bronwen Raff and Max Durtschi in J3 girls/boys.
Here are the 19 Sun Valley qualifiers for the 2005 Junior Nationals at Truckee, Ca. Seventeen are currently members of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Nordic team:
Older Juniors: Montana State University skiers Jack Harris and David Vanderpool, plus Morgan Arritola, Erin McQueen and Luke Pletcher.
Harris and Vanderpool are making their fourth trip to JNs. So is Erin McQueen. Arritola and Luke Pletcher are going for the third time to the big meet.
Arritola won the J1 5-kilometer skate gold last March at Lake Placid. Vanderpool, fifth in J1 boys' 10k skate last March, was a member of the Wood River boys' team that won its third national team championship in six years.
J1 boys and girls: Reid Pletcher, Alexa Turzian, Ruth Anderson, Margii Driscoll, Courtney Perry, Tess Dahlgren, Delamon Rego, Mike Matteson and Max Danielson.
Driscoll, Rego, Turzian and Perry are going for the third time. Noyes, Reid Pletcher and Anderson are making their second trip, and everybody else is new to the competition.
Turzian has been a JN silver medalist two straight years in J2 girls 5k skate. Reid Pletcher was an All-American last March for placing sixth in J2 5k classic and eighth in 5k skate.
J2 boys and girls: Mali Noyes, Conor Davis, Taylor Sundali, Devyn Parnes and Chelsea Vanderpool. Noyes is going for a second year, and all others are making their first trips to Junior Nationals.
Veteran Nordic racers joined the juniors at Lake Creek. Here are the Masters placings from last weekend:
Freestyle—Men 1 (15k): 1—Chad Anderson 39:09. 2—Sam Young 45:40. Men 2 (15k): 1—Will Hovey 44:27. 2—John Seiller 48:09. Men 3 (15k): 1—Per Hjalmarsson 46:09. 2—Tim Inch 56:25. Men 4 (15k): 1—Jim Egnew 58:09. Men 5 (15k): 1—Jim McClatchy 47:09. Men 6 (15k): 1—Pat Armstrong 51:59.
Women 2 (10k): 1—Tricia Swartling 33:01. Women 3 (10k): 1—Muffy Roy 30:46. Women 4 (10k): 1—Kim Nalen 33:39. 2—Katharine Sheldon 37:04. Women 5 (10k): 1—Lili Simpson 44:11.Women 6 (10k): 1—Linda McClatchy 36:24.
Classic—Women 4 (5k): 1—Muffy Ritz 20:26. Women 5 (5k): 1—Lili Simpson 26:05. Senior Women (5k): 1—Barb Jones 20:01.
Junior results from Lake Creek follow:
Saturday, freestyle:
OJ (18-19) girls (10k): 1—Morgan Arritola 28:00. 2—Erin McQueen 31:10. 4—Rachael Richards 40:21.
OJ boys (15k): 1—Lucas Pletcher 39:21. 5—Dawson Paschall 41:57. 6—David Vanderpool 41:59. 14—Brad Bradford 52:29.
J1 (16-17) girls (10k): 1—Alexa Turzian 29:59. 6—Ruth Anderson 32:49. 9—Tess Dahlgren 33:18. 11—Courtney Perry 34:24. 14—Hannah Richards 42:52.
J1 boys (15k): 1—Luke Studebaker (Bogus) 40:53. 4—Mike Matteson 41:45. 6—Max Danielson 43:30. 7—Chris Holmquist 44:04. 8—Rob Hamlin 44:27. 9—Artie Livingston 44:49.
J2 (14-15) girls (5k): 1—Elizabeth Guiney (NSF) 15:30. 4—Devyn Parnes 15:42. 12—Chelsea Vanderpool 17:20. 13—Jen Tormey 17:21. 20—Madison Deffe 20:04. 21—Amy Buchanan 20:39.
J2 boys (5k): 1—Willie Neal (Jackson) 12:53. 3—Conor Davis 13:22. 16—Conor Brown 15:07. 21—Travis Job 15:34. 23—Sam Farnham 15:51. 24—Lukas Anderson 16:00.
J3 (12-13) girls (3k): 1—Bronwen Raff 11:51. 4—Courtney Hamilton 12:33. 6—Julia Bowman 12:52. 8—Nellie Brown 13:11. 11—Keller Gibson 14:14. 14—Lina Klumpp 15:06.
J3 boys (3k): 1—Max Durtschi 9:56. 3—Sean Dumke 10:30. 6—Scotty Phelan 10:37. 14—Dan Henry 12:02. 15—John Leavell 12:09. 16—Nicol Wheeler 12:29. 23—Mat Farley 16:04. 24—Jake Anderson 16:43.
J4 (10-11) girls (2k): 6—Claire Bowman 8:16. 7—Laura Kunz 8:37. J4 boys (2k): 4—Andrew Pfeiffer 6:46. 7—Harlan Collins 8:11.
J5 (8-9) girls (1k): 2—Maggie Williams 3:19. 3—Sloan Storey 3:21. 4—Mateja Heinrich 3:24. 6—Catherine Henry 3:37. 7—Spencer Thomas 3:56. 8—Emily Seiller 3:59. 9—Kaitlyn Landis 4:01. 10—Tara Bingham 4:12.
J5 boys (1k): 2—Drew Deffe 3:18. 3—Zach Lindahl 3:25. 4—Jake Adicoff 3:36. 5—Ben Kanellitsas 3:43. 9—Andrew Graves 3:51. 16—Chandler Gifford 4:25.
J6 (6-7) boys (1k): 2—Danny Graves 4:18. 3—Jack Seiller 4:33.
Novice girls (3k): 1—Elsa Sweek 14:08.
Sunday, classic:
OJ girls (5k): 1—Morgan Arritola 17:36. 2—Frasier Opel 19:00. 3—Erin McQueen 19:31. 5—Rachael Richards 24:18.
OJ boys (5k): 1—Lucas Pletcher 15:41. 5—David Vanderpool 16:54. 8—Dawson Paschall 17:45. 13—Brad Bradford 19:25.
J1 girls (5k): 1—Rosie Brennan (NSF) 18:14. 2—Alexa Turzian 18:40. 8—Tess Dahlgren 20:04. 9—Ruth Anderson 20:12. 10—Courtney Perry 20:34. 11—Margii Driscoll 20:40. 15—Hannah Richards 26:14.
J1 boys (5k): 1—Delamon Rego 16:01. 3—Mike Matteson 16:57. 4—Max Danielson 17:05. 5—Rob Hamlin 17:09. 6—Chris Holmquist 17:17. 8—Artie Livingston 17:23.
J2 girls (5k): 1—Elizabeth Guiney (NSF) 19:26. 2—Devyn Parnes 19:28. 5—Chelsea Vanderpool 20:48. 16—Jen Tormey 24:00. 18—Amy Buchanan 24:52. 19—Madison Deffe 26:21.
J2 boys (5k): 1—Erik Anderson (Glacier) 16:13. 4—Conor Davis 16:59. 13—Sam Farnham 19:13. 14—Conor Brown 19:18. 21—Lukas Anderson 20:07.
J3 girls (3k): 1—Bronwen Raff 13:58. 3—Makayla Cappel 14:04. 5—Courtney Hamilton 14:29. 6—Julia Bowman 14:44. 8—Keller Gibson 15:31. 9—Nellie Brown 15:34. 11—Lina Klumpp 16:14.
J3 boys (3k): 1—Max Durtschi 11:29. 3—Travis Job 12:07. 10—Sean Dumke 12:50. 12—Dan Henry 13:48. 14—John Leavell 13:59. 18—Nicol Wheeler 15:17. 23—Jake Anderson 17:52.
J4 girls (2k): 5—Madison Tidwell 10:50. J4 boys (2k): 4—Harlan Collins 8:10.
J6 girls (1k): 1—Sloan Storey 4:18. J6 boys (1k): 2—Jake Adicoff 4:21. 3—Ty Reinemann 4:33.
Novice girls (3k): 1—Elsa Sweek 15:25.
