Twenty-eight Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Junior Nordic ski racers traveled to Bozeman's Lindley Park Feb. 2-3 for the second of three Junior National qualifying weekend race events for the 2008 season.
Sun Valley's traveling group including coaches Rick Kapala, Ashley McQueen, Kelley Sinnott and Ashley Wells busted out of town Thursday and stayed ahead of a snowstorm.
J2 (ages 14-15) racer Daniel Sundali won Sunday's 5-kilometer interval start skate race by seven seconds and added a gold medal in sprint race for the J2 boys.
In Older Junior/J1 (ages 16-19), Max Durtschi of Sun Valley placed second overall (1st J1) of 28 in Sunday's 10k skate distance race. Bronwen Raff (3rd J1) and Scotty Phelan (2nd J1) placed fifth overall in their respective OJ/J1 races.
Top 12 classic sprint finalists and places by class for Sun Valley were—OJ/J1: 4—Durtschi (1st J1). 7—Connor Brown. 8—Raff (5th J1). 9—Makayla Cappel and Phelan. 10—Courtney Hamilton. 11—Julia Bowman and Travis Job. 12—Rosie Gilchrist. J2: 1—Sundali. 6—Will Spiller. 7—Emily Williams. 11—Chase Caulkins. 12—Claire Bowman.
In J4 (10-11) girls, Katie Feldman and Haley Montgomery placed 1-2 Saturday in classic distance races.
Sun Valley kids also compete Feb. 16-17 at McCall in order to earn berths for the 2008 Chevrolet Cross Country Junior Olympics at Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Ak. March 10-14.
Coach Kapala said, "Many of the skiers made great strides toward earning a berth on the Intermountain Team."
Here are Sun Valley results by class for Sunday's skate:
OJ/J1 boys 10k: 1—Willie Neal (Jackson Hole) 25:01. 2—Max Durtschi 25:10. 5—Scotty Phelan 26:08. 6—Travis Job (3rd J1) 26:13. 8—Connor Brown (4th J1) 26:25. 15—Sam Farnham 27:16. 22—Sean Dumke 28:16.
OJ/J1 girls 10k: 1—Ase Carlson (Bridger Ski Foundation) 28:40. 5—Bronwen Raff 30:01. 7—Julia Bowman 30:14. 8—Courtney Hamilton 30:35. 9—Makayla Cappel 30:40. 12—Rosie Gilchrist 31:16. 15—Marissa Dreyer 32:22. 25—Keller Gibson 34:39.
J2 boys 5k: 1—Daniel Sundali 13:04. 9—Chase Caulkins 14:21. 10—William Spiller 14:23. 19—Brandon Wade 15:02. 20—Andrew Pfeiffer 15:12. 24—Jake Anderson 15:39.
J2 girls 5k: 1—Katie Gill (Bridger) 14:43. 7—Emily Williams 16:07. 11—Claire Bowman 16:52.
J3 (12-13) boys pursuit: 13—Ketchum Wilt 14:02. 17—Jake Adicoff 14:58.
J3 girls pursuit: 9—Elana King-Nakaoka 15:29. 10—Sarah Williams 15:30.
J4 girls 2k: 1—Katie Feldman 8:17. 2—Haley Montgomery 8:36. 4—Kailey Wilt 9:06.
