After skiing competitively for four years for Dartmouth College, Ketchum's Mike Sinnott is continuing to train and compete at the highest level.
Sinnott, 22, finished second to Garrott Kuzzy of Hayward, Wisc. Friday in the 2008 USSA Cross Country Super Tour men's 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint final on the Rendezvous trails at West Yellowstone, Mt.
CXC Team racer Kuzzy, 25, was an NCAA All-American at Middlebury College who is doing his post-collegiate racing on the CXC team in Hayward.
Now training in Sun Valley, Sinnott won his quarterfinal and semi-final heat as the 22-race Super Tour development race series opened its 12th season of competition.
Sun Valley racer Reid Pletcher, 19, made the quarterfinals of the men's freestyle sprints and Ketchum's Kate Whitcomb finished sixth in the women's 950-meter sprint.
In Sunday's classic technique races on the 6,600-foot elevation trails, Bozeman's Leif Zimmerman (38:31) paced the men over 16 kilometers and Sinnott (38:50) was fifth, just 19 seconds off the winning pace.
Winning the women's 8k classic race was Kristina Strandberg of Sweden (22:01). Skiers with local ties in the 78-racer finishing field were Morgan Arritola ninth in 23:16 (1st U23 class), Kate Underwood 13th in 23:38, Mali Noyes 40th 24:54, Kaelin Kiesel 41st in 25:01 and Fraiser Opel 44th 25:28.
Younger Sun Valley skiers opened their season in Friday's junior classic races. Max Durtschi (21:40) won the boys' J1/OJ 10-kilometer race. Scotty Phelan (22:44) was fourth.
Sun Valley girls swept the podium in the J1/OJ 5k event for ages 16-19 led by first-place Jaime Devin 13:11, second-place Bronwen Raff 13:25 and third-place Julia Bowman 13:29.
Others were Courtney Hamilton in eighth place at 14:11, Rosie Gilchrist 10th 14:18, Marissa Dreyer 11th 14:21 and Keller Gibson 15th in 15:36. Placing 3-10-11 in J2 (14-15) boys over 5k were Danny Sundali (11:58), Will Spiller (12:59) and Chase Caulkins (13:28).
West Yellowstone race officials drew praise from coaches and racers for their course preparation following up to 13 inches of snow overnight from Monday into Tuesday, Nov. 19-20 prior to Thanksgiving.
