Over Presidents' Day weekend Sun Valley Junior Nordic ski team racers showed the fruits of their training during the third of three Junior National qualifying events this winter, this one at Ketchum's Lake Creek trail system.
Classic racing on a glorious sunny Monday capped the two-day meet. Sun Valley excelled.
Older Junior/J1 (ages 16-19) Reid Pletcher led a first- through fourth-place Sun Valley sweep of the top 15-kilometer honors followed by teammates Mike Matteson, Taylor Sundali and Ian Havlick. National champ Alexa Turzian was second in the girls' 5k classic race Monday.
Sun Valley also dominated Monday's J2 (ages 14-15) classic races—Travis Job, Max Durtschi and Scotty Phelan ending 1-3 among the boys, Julia Bowman, Bronwen Raff, Makayla Cappel and Rosie Gilchrist second-fifth in girls.
Kicking off the two-day competition was Sunday's 1.3k freestyle sprints and finals.
Placing second and sixth in the OJ/J1 girls' 1.3k sprint Final A heat were Alexa Turzian and Mali Noyes, with Tess Dahlgren and Marissa Dreyer making quarterfinals.
Local boys dominated the OJ/J1 boys' sprint finals. Reid Pletcher and Colin Struthers placed first and second, Taylor Sundali and Ian Havlick fourth and fifth, Mike Matteson seventh, Chris Holmquist ninth and Scott Krankkala 10th.
In the J2 girls' sprint finals, Makayla Cappel and Julia Bowman finished fourth and fifth, Bronwen Raff seventh, Courtney Hamilton ninth and Rosie Gilchrist 12th.
And, in Sunday's boys' J2 sprint finals, Max Durtschi ended up second, Travis Job fifth and Scotty Phelan ninth.
Masters freestyle winners were Jon Engen in Sunday's 10k race, Del Pletcher and Kate Whitcomb in Monday's classic event, with Muffy Ritz and Katharine Sheldon placing 2-3 in Sunday's Masters event.
Check next week's Local Life for more race photos.
In all, Sun Valley's team had 66 racers in the 187-racer field from Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and Utah. Local results in classic follow:
OJ/J1 women 5k classic: 1—Rosie Brennan (Park City) 16:36.7. 2—Alexa Turzian 16:37.4. 5—Mali Noyes (2nd J1) 17:25. 15—Marissa Dreyer (10th J1) 19:25. 19—Tess Dahlgren 19:46. 24—Elsa Sweek (15th J1) 21:12 (32 finishers).
OJ/J1 men 15k classic: 1—Reid Pletcher 45:48. 2—Mike Matteson 46:06. 3—Taylor Sundali (1st J1) 46:08. 4—Ian Havlick 46:37. 8—Colin Struthers 48:48. 11—Scott Krankkala (6th J1) 49:58. 13—Chris Holmquist 50:35. 14—Sam Farnham (8th J1) 51:06. 18—Connor Brown (12th J1) 52:59 (33 finishers).
J2 girls 5k classic: 1—Elizabeth Guiney (Park City) 17:30. 2—Julia Bowman 17:45. 3—Bronwen Raff 18:07. 4—Makayla Cappel 18:25. 5—Rosie Gilchrist 18:45. 7—Courtney Hamilton 18:57. 18—Keller Gibson 21:34 (26 finishers).
J2 boys 5k classic: 1—Travis Job 15:14. 2—Max Durtschi 15:20. 3—Scotty Phelan 15:40. 16—Sean Dumke 17:01. 21—Daniel Sundali 17:50. 22—William Spiller 17:56. 30—Nicol Wheeler 22:00. 32—Colby Benz 24:34 (33 finishers).
J3 boys (ages 12-13) 3k classic: 9—Andrew Pfeiffer 15:27. 11—Brandon Barry 16:09. 13—Jackson Long 16:51. 20—Ketchum Wilt 19:34 (22 finishers).
J3 boys 3k classic: 10—Brandon
Barry 11:18. 12—Andrew Pfeiffer 11:53. 13—Jackson Long 12:01 (18 finishers).
J3 girls 3k classic: 3—Maranda Stopol 12:29. 4—Maggie Williams 12:39. 5—Claire Bowman 12:42. 7—Emily Williams 13:35. 8—Michele Krankkala 13:44. 9—Jessica Hamilton 13:47. 10—Mateja Heinrich 13:57. 11—Haley Cooper 14:28. 12—Kaitlyn Landis 14:32. 13—Sloan Storey 14:40 (15 finishers).
Novice boys 3k classic: 1—Jake Anderson 12:07.
J4 boys (ages 10-11) 2k classic: 2—Stephen Pfeiffer 7:42. 4—Jake Adicoff 8:53. Also competing in the wave start race was Drew Morse.
J4 girls 2k classic: 4—Spencer Thomas 8:47. 5—Catherine Henry 9:14. 7—Brooke Lawrence 10:39. 8—Cheyanne Stopol 12:35. Also competing in the wave start race were Haley Montgomery and Katie Feldman.
J5 boys (ages 8-9) 1k classic: 3—Jack Seiller 4:41. Also comlpeting in the wave start skate race were Alex Feldman, Cade Schott and Jake Dwyer.
J5 girls 1k classic: 1—Katie Morell 4:24. 2—Emily Siegel 5:06. 4—Jackie O'Reilly 6:17. Also competing in the wave start skate race were Annika Landis, Tatum Morell, Samantha Busby, Kenya Schott and Loni Unser.
J6 boys (ages 6-7) 1k classic: 1—Zack Williams 3:53. 2—Henry Raff 5:03. Also competing in the wave start skate race was Sophia Coplin.
Sun Valley?s Reid Pletcher won the OJ/J1 boys? sprint and classic races during last weekend?s Junior National qualifying races at Lake Creek. Photo by Willy Cook
