They've had three qualifying events this winter—at Jackson Hole, Wyo. Jan. 14-15, at Soldier Hollow, Utah Jan. 27-28, and at Bozeman this past weekend.
From those events, 18 Sun Valley Junior Nordic ski team racers have qualified for the U.S. Junior National Championships in Michigan.
Sun Valley qualifiers will be part of an Intermountain Division squad of up to 51 competing March 6-11 at Houghton, Mich., home of the Michigan Tech Huskies. The national event is expected to attract up to 400 Nordic racers ages 14-19.
Coach Rick Kapala is excited about the prospects of the Intermountain team featuring racers in the Older Junior (ages 18-19), J1 (16-17) and J2 (14-15) age classes. He said, "I'm psyched about it. Our guys' team is particularly strong."
Those who pre-qualified prior to last weekend's Bozeman races were Morgan Arritola, Jack Harris, Luke Pletcher, Reid Pletcher and Alexa Turzian. Arritola won't be competing in Michigan because she'll be racing in Europe, according to Kapala.
Nailing down their Junior National trips with their efforts in Bozeman were OJ/J1s Mike Matteson, Taylor Sundali, Artie Livingston, Robbie Hamlin, Scott Krankkala, Mali Noyes, Devyn Parnes, Margii Driscoll, Tess Dahlgren and Chelsea Vanderpool, plus J2s Julia Bowman, Max Durtschi and Travis Job. Second alternate is J2 Courtney Hamilton.
The Sun Valley team leaves Friday, March 3. Classic sprint racing is Monday, March 6 followed by mass start classic distance racing Wednesday, March 8. Freestyle time trials are Friday, March 10 and relays Saturday, March 11.
In all, 161 racers from Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming took part in last weekend's Bridger Ski Foundation Lindley Cup races at Lindley Nordic Center and Bohart Ranch near Bozeman. That total included 26 from Sun Valley. After, the Intermountain Division Junior National team was named.
Highlights from Bozeman included Luke Pletcher's pair of OJ victories—by 20 seconds among OJ/J1 men in Saturday's sprints on a 1,000-meter course, and by 23 seconds over teammate Mikey Matteson in Sunday's 10-kilometer skate.
Mali Noyes, Alexa Turzian and Max Durtschi also posted Sun Valley wins. Noyes captured the OJ/J1 sprint final Saturday. Durtschi won Sunday's J2 men's 5k freestyle race by 15 seconds. Turzian was an 18-second winner in Sunday's OJ/J1 women's 5k freestyle.
Besides the wins, Sun Valley racers also produced some memorable moments and best-of-winter results, among them:
Third place for Devyn Parnes in the OJ/J1 sprint; eighth place for Makayla Cappel in the J2 5k freestyle; fifth place for Travis Job and 12th place for Scotty Phelan in J2 5k skate; seventh place for Courtney Hamilton in J2 sprint.
In his first year skiing, Scott Krankkala needed a good result in Sunday's OJ/J1 men's 10k freestyle event. He put the hammer down and got the good result with a ninth place, 2:06 back, good enough for his first-ever Junior Nationals trip.
Here are local results from Bozeman last weekend:
OJ/J1 boys—10k skate: 1—Luke Pletcher (1-OJ) 29:17. 2—Mikey Matteson (1-J1) 29:40. 6—Taylor Sundali (4-J1) 30:32. 9—Scott Krankkala (7-J1) 31:24. 12—Robbie Hamlin (3-OJ) 31:50. 16—Chris Holmquist (5-OJ) 32:02. 17—Artie Livingston (12-J1) 32:03. 18—Max Danielson (13-J1) 32:23 (36 racers). Sprints: 1—Pletcher. 5—Sundali. 8—Hamlin. 11—Holmquist. 13—Matteson. 17—Danielson.
OJ/J1 girls—5k skate: 1—Alexa Turzian (1-J1) 16:29. 4—Mali Noyes (3-J1) 17:03. 14—Chelsea Vanderpool (10-J1) 19:00. 16—Tess Dahlgren (12-J1) 19:07. 21—Margii Driscoll (6-OJ) 20:30 (26 racers). Sprints: 1—Noyes. 3—Parnes. 6—Driscoll. 15—Vanderpool. 19—Dahlgren.
J2 boys—5k skate: 1—Max Durtschi 15:42. 5—Travis Job 16:08. 12—Scotty Phelan 16:58. 15—Connor Brown 17:10. 16—Sam Farnham 17:27. 27—John Leavell 19:14 (29 racers). Sprints: 5—Durtschi. 10—Job. 14—Phelan. 17—Brown. 18—Farnham. 21—Leavell.
J2 girls—5k skate: 8—Makayla Cappel 18:54 (1:40 back). 11—Bronwen Raff 19:22. 12—Julia Bowman 19:30. 13—Courtney Hamilton 19:33. 20—Marissa Dreyer 20:35. 22—Rosie Gilchrist 20:40. 23—Elsa Sweek 21:04 (26 racers). Sprints: 7—Hamilton. 10—Bowman. 13—Cappel. 15—Raff. 21—Gilchrist. 23—Sweek. 25—Dreyer.
Mikey Matteson looks down the course during last weekend's races at Bozeman, Mt. Courtesy photo by Mike Turzian.
