Ketchum's Alexa Turzian, 18, kept up the good work Saturday at Soldier Hollow, Utah in her first racing appearance since becoming the youngest-ever American cross-country skier to win a national championship in Michigan Jan. 4.
Action took place in the first of three 2007 Junior National qualifying races, this one held on the Soldier Hollow trails, site of the 2002 Winter Olympic Nordic races.
Sun Valley Junior Nordic ski teamer Turzian, who captured the U.S. national 10-kilometer freestyle race on the Michigan Tech trails three weeks ago, was just too much for the other 86 women in the OJ/J1 (ages 16-19) classes.
Turzian tore around the 10k course in 29:08, a full 84 seconds ahead of Kate Dolan of the Bridger Ski Foundation.
Alexa's teammates Mali Noyes (32:02, 2:53 back) and Tess Dahlgren (34:11, 5:02) made the top 25. Meanwhile, Colin Struthers and Taylor Sundali of Sun Valley finished 2-4 in the OJ/J1 men's 15k.
Turzian was featured in a New York Times article written by Aimee Berg and published in the Jan. 17 edition of the online paper. Check the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Web site (svsef.org) for a link to the article.
In J2 girls' 5k freestyle races Saturday, Sun Valley put four in the top 10 with fourth-place Bronwen Raff plus Courtney Hamilton, Julia Bowman and Makayla Cappel. For the J2 boys' skate over 5k, Max Durtschi was fourth and Scott Phelan ninth.
In Friday's sprint heats, Sun Valley's Courtney Hamilton and Makayla Cappel placed 3-4 in the J2 (ages 14-15) women's finals while Bronwen Raff was seventh and Julia Bowman placed 10th. Rosie Gilchrist made the quarterfinals
Max Durtschi was fourth in the J2 boys' final heat followed by Scott Phelan seventh and Travis Job 11th.
The best Sun Valley could do in the OJ/J1 men's sprint final Friday was a sixth place by Ian Havlick. Making the quarterfinals were Chris Holmquist and Scott Krankkala.
In all, Sun Valley had 34 racers in the 702-racer field from Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and Utah at Soldier Hollow.
Younger racers ages 8-13 took part in classic wave start events Friday (157 racers) and freestyle (184) Saturday over short distances (2k classic, 3k skate). Sun Valley entered five boys and five girls in the J3 (12-13) class. Those placings follow, below, preceded by Saturday's skate races results for the older racers:
OJ/J1 women 10k skate: 1—Alexa Turzian 29:08. 9—Mali Noyes 32:02 (2:53 back). 22—Tess Dahlgren 34:11 (5:02). 28—Marissa Dreyer 35:10 (6:01 back) (78 finishers).
OJ/J1 men 15k skate: 1—Noah Hoffman (Aspen Valley) 37:42. 2—Colin Struthers 38:55 (1:12). 4—Taylor Sundali 38:56 (1:13). 8—Scott Krankkala 40:05 (2:22). 13—Ian Havlick 40:27 (2:44). 35—Sam Farnham 43:26 (5:44). 46—Chris Holmquist 44:30 (6:47 back) (101 finishers).
J2 girls 5k skate: 1—Elizabeth Guiney (Park City) 15:11. 4—Bronwen Raff 15:31 (0:19). 8—Courtney Hamilton 16:08 (0:56). 9—Julia Bowman 16:08 (0:56). 10—Makayla Cappel 16:12 (1:01). 25—Rosie Gilchrist 17:25 (2:13). 43—Keller Gibson 19:14 (4:02). 53—Lina Klumpp 20:12 (5:00 back) (75 finishers).
J2 boys 5k skate: 1—Scott Lacy (Aspen Valley) 12:43. 4—Max Durtschi 12:48 (0:04). 9—Scott Phelan 13:23 (0:40). 13—Travis Job 13:50 (1:07). 21—Sean Dumke 14:20 (1:37). 44—Daniel Sundali 15:57 (3:13). 57—William Spiller 17:06 (4:23). 69—Nicol Wheeler 19:30 (6:46 back) (79 finishers).
J3 boys: Andrew Pfeiffer 14-CL, 15-FR; Brandon Barry 17-CL, 25-FR; Jackson Long 23-CL, 27-FR; Ketchum Wilt 30-CL, 33-FR; Jake Adicoff 34-CL, 38-FR.
J3 girls: Claire Bowman 9-CL, 18-FR; Maranda Stopol 17-CL, 20-FR; Jessica Hamilton 20-CL, 25-FR; Kaitlyn Landis 27-CL, 22-FR; Michele Krankkala 28-CL, 27-FR.
