Robbie Hamlin and Max Durtschi were double winners for the Sun Valley Junior Nordic ski team during the first of three 2006 Junior National qualifying events staged Saturday and Sunday at Trail Creek Ranch near Jackson Hole, Wyo.
Hamlin won Older Junior (ages 18-19) class in both Saturday's 15-kilometer freestyle race and Sunday's 5k classic event. Durtschi was the J2 (ages 14-15) 5k skate winner by 30 seconds Saturday and added the 5k classic win Sunday.
Of the 28 Sun Valley skiers ages 12-18 competing in the field of 299 racers from Idaho, Utah and Wyoming, there were 10 podium finishes. Capturing other podiums were Taylor Sundali, Mike Matteson, Margii Driscoll, Chris Holmquist and J1 girls' (16-17) 5k classic winner Mali Noyes.
Head coach Rick Kapala said, "It was a good first opening weekend—a few wins here and there and some podiums."
The final two Junior National qualifiers are Jan. 27-28 at Soldier Hollow, Utah and Feb. 11-12 at Bozeman, Mont. Here are local results by race from Trail Creek last weekend:
OJ boys—15k skate: 1—Robbie Hamlin 43:07. 4—Chris Holmquist 44:41. 5k classic: 1—Hamlin 18:19. 2—Chris Holmquist 18:42.
OJ girls—10k skate: 3—Margii Driscoll 37:33. 5k classic: 2—Driscoll 23:26.
J1 boys—15k skate: 2—Taylor Sundali 41:32. 3—Mike Matteson 41:56. 8—Scott Krankkala 43:48. 10—Artie Livingston 44:06. 26—Max Danielson 48:53. 5k classic: 3—Sundali 17:44. 7—Matteson 18:12. 9—Livingston 18:15. 11—Krankkala 19:02. 12—Danielson 19:32.
J1 girls—10k skate: 8—Tess Dahlgren 35:53. 10—Chelsea Vanderpool 36:58. 5k classic: 1—Mali Noyes 20:58. 7—Devyn Parnes 22:31. 10—Vanderpool 24:04. 15—Dahlgren 24:54.
J2 boys—5k skate: 1—Max Durtschi 15:30. 5—Travis Job 16:07. 13—Sam Farnham 16:39. 14—Scotty Phelan 17:02. 20—Sean Dumke 17:34. 5k classic: 1—Durtschi 19:02. 7—Phelan 20:20.2. 8—Job 20:20.5. 11—Farnham 20:38. 16—Connor Brown 21:23. 24—Dumke 22:46.
J2 girls—5k skate: 7—Bronwen Raff 18:31. 8—Courtney Hamilton 18:41. 10—Julia Bowman 19:01. 11—Makayla Cappel 19:05. 16—Marissa Dreyer 19:40. 18—Elsa Sweek 19:48. 20—Rosie Gilchrist 19:55. 26—Jen Tormey 20:21. 5k classic: 8—Bowman 23:05. 11—Raff 23:12. 12—Cappel 23:26. 14—Hamilton 23:51. 16—Gilchrist 24:14. 22—Tormey 25:55. 23—Sweek 26:01. 28—Dreyer 27:04.
J3 boys (ages 12-13)—3k skate: 7—Andrew Pfeiffer 11:03. 8—Nicol Wheeler 11:40. 3k classic: 8—Pfeiffer 13:16. 9—Wheeler 14:28.
