Morgan Arritola and Luke Pletcher were golden for the Sun Valley Junior Nordic ski team/Intermountain Division during last week's 2005 Junior National cross-country ski championships hosted by the Auburn Ski Club at sunny, warm Truckee, Ca.
Arritola, 18, went unbeaten for her three-event week by winning Friday's 5-kilometer classic race and anchoring the gold medal-winning Older Junior Intermountain Division women's relay in Saturday's 3x5k team race. She also won Wednesday's 10k freestyle race.
The results gave Arritola four gold medals in the last two Junior Nationals, three of them in individual events.
Pletcher, 18, captured his first-ever Junior National gold with a 42-second victory in Friday's 10k classic event. His coach Rick Kapala said, "Luke had a great race and it was well deserved after a long career of hard work."
They joined a list of JN champions for Kapala, SV coach since 1988, that includes Mike Sinnott, Kaelin Kiesel, Lars Flora, Jedd Young, Jess Kiesel, Heidi Poehling, Morgan Hogue, Pat Casey, Michael Lloyd and three-time national queen Abi Holt. The coach has guided 12 national champions.
Kapala said it was a great week for the Sun Valley racers and for the Intermountain Division squad that finished second behind New England in the Alaska Cup team standings.
"It was amazing weather—clear blue skies, a ton of snow and it got warmer through the week. All the parents came over and we had a big cheering section. It was the best organized Junior Nationals we've been to, besides our trip to Fairbanks a couple of years ago," said Kapala.
Highlights at Truckee
Arritola, fourth during last year's 10k classic race at JNs in Lake Placid but the 5k freestyle winner a year ago, let it loose and won Friday's 5k classic race by 43 seconds over University of New Mexico's Tiffany Callahan, 18.
Saturday, Intermountain sent two highly-regarded J1 racers (ages 16-17), Rosie Brennan of Park City and Alexa Turzian of Sun Valley, into the 19-team Older Junior (18-19) relay. Brennan and Turzian put down two solid 5k legs and trailed New England by only 24 seconds going into the anchor.
Arritola did the rest, nailing the fastest anchor leg by an amazing 55 seconds over the next-fastest anchor and providing Intermountain with a 41-second triumph over New England.
Turzian, 16, enjoyed an excellent week as well. She brought home a medal of every color with a second place in Wednesday's J1 10k skate race, a third just 32 seconds behind Brennan in Friday's J1 5k classic event and the gold in Saturday's OJ relay.
"It's great to see the progress Alexa has made," said Kapala.
Luke Pletcher (29:57) won Friday's OJ 10k classic race over Bill Bowler of NMU and earned All-American status along with Montana State University and former Sun Valley racers Jackson Harris and David Vanderpool.
Other All-Americans for Sun Valley in the final two events, besides Arritola, Turzian, Luke Pletcher, Harris and Vanderpool, were Reid Pletcher, 16, and Delamon Rego, 17.
Reid Pletcher moved up to sixth place in Friday's J1 boys 10k classic race and Rego was 10th. Together, they joined the bronze medal-winning Intermountain J1 boys relay team. Pletcher had the fourth-fastest anchor. "Reid skied a tremendous anchor leg for that team," said Kapala.
In the national high school rankings, the Wood River High boys placed fifth overall and the Wood River girls finished seventh at JNs.
New England, dominating the sprints and coming on strong in relays, captured the coveted Alaska Cup with 1265 points over the runner-up Intermountain Division team (1128). Rocky Mountain finished third (975). There were 10 teams in the field.
The Intermountain Division team that included Sun Valley and a strong Montana contingent accumulated its highest point totals in J2 girls (266) and OJ men (216), while New England did the best in J2 boys (294 points) and J1 girls (254).
Kapala said about the team standings, which represented an improvement of one place by Intermountain over 2004, "New England got a big jump in the sprints but Intermountain closed the gap to 60 points. We had too much to make up in the relays."
In the sprints, New England (367) and outdistanced Alaska (265) and Intermountain (200). Intermountain won freestyle 294-253 over New England and captured classic 314-313 over Rocky Mountain. But New England captured three of the six relays and outscored Intermountain 390-320.
The annual Nordic team banquet is set for Saturday, April 9 in the Wood River High School commons area, Hailey.
Meanwhile, coach Kapala is traveling to Rovaniemi, Finland with Arritola and Dartmouth College's Mike Sinnott for the World Junior Championships March 19-26. Arritola and Sinnott are two of 14 members of the U.S. team. Sinnott placed 19th in the NCAA National Collegiate men's 10k classic race March 10 at Stowe, Vt.
Here are Friday's classic results followed by Saturdays' relay outcome at Junior Nationals in California:
CLASSIC
OJ (18-19) girls, 5k: 1—Morgan Arritola (SV) 15:33. 2—Tiffany Callahan (UnivNewMexico) 16:16. 10—Erin McQueen (SV) 17:27 (42 racers). OJ boys, 10k: 1—Luke Pletcher (SV) 29:57. 2—Bill Bowler (NMU) 30:40. 7—Jackson Harris (MSU) 30:58. 13—David Vanderpool (MSU) 31:54 (54 racers). All-American status to Arritola, Pletcher, Harris and Vanderpool.
J1 (16-17) girls, 5k: 1—Rosie Brennan (IM) 15:52. 3—Alexa Turzian (SV) 16:24. 32—Ruth Anderson (SV) 17:59. 60—Tess Dahlgren (SV) 18:57. 62—Courtney Perry (SV) 19:01. 65—Margii Driscoll (SV) 19:19 (83 racers). J1 boys, 10k: 1—Simi Hamilton (AspenValleySC) 29:26. 6—Reid Pletcher (SV) 31:09. 10—Delamon Rego (SV) 31:15. 21—Mike Matteson (SV) 32:35. 28—Max Danielson (SV) 33:18 (88 racers). All-American status to Turzian, Pletcher and Rego.
J2 (14-15) girls, 5k: 1—Sadie Bjornsen (Methow Valley) 15:13. 10—Mali Noyes (SV) 16:30. 32—Devyn Parnes (SV) 17:41 (64 racers). J2 boys, 5k: 1—John Gerstenberger (Durango) 13:16. 30—Taylor Sundali (SV) 15:05. 31—Conor Davis (SV) 15:10 (59 racers).
RELAYS
OJ (18-19) girls, 3x5k: 1—Intermountain (Rosie Brennan, Alexa Turzian, Morgan Arritola) 52:32. 2—New England 53:13. 11—Intermountain (Erin McQueen; Claire Rydell and Emily Allison from Bridger Ski Foundation) 57:21 (19 teams). All-American status to Turzian and Arritola.
OJ boys, 3x5k: 1—New England 48:21. 3—Intermountain (Jackson Harris of MSU; Daniel Lewis of Jackson Hole and Luke Pletcher) 48:45. 4—Intermountain (David Vanderpool of MSU; Tim Downey and Dylan Mogk of Bridger Ski Foundation) 49:27 (23 teams). All-American status to Harris, Pletcher and Vanderpool.
J1 (16-17) girls, 5k: 1—New England 53:18. 6—Intermountain (Melina Park of Bridger Ski Foundation, Ruth Anderson, Sarah Armstrong of McCall) 55:57. 14—Intermountain (Lucy Collins of Bogus Basin, Tess Dahlgren, Courtney Perry) 59:05 (22 teams).
J1 boys, 3x5k: 1—Rocky Mountain 48:20. 3—Intermountain (Delamon Rego, Rick Grahn, Reid Pletcher) 49:07. 10—Intermountain (Mike Matteson, Luke Studebaker of Bogus Basin, Max Danielson) 50:13 (25 teams). All-American status to Rego and Pletcher.
J2 (14-15) girls, 3x3k: 1—Intermountain (Ase Carlson, Erika Flowers, Kate Dolan of Bridger Ski Foundation) 30:58. 5—Intermountain (Mali Noyes, Sarah Pierce and Gretchen Sellegren of Bridger) 32:44. 10—Intermountain (Gracey Lewis of Jackson Hole, Casey Seibert of Bridger, Devyn Parnes) 34:00 (21 teams).
J2 boys, 3x3k: 1—New England 26:08. 7—Intermountain (Taylor Sundali, Daniel Guiney, Conor Davis) 28:10 (20 teams).
