It was a good weekend of cross-country skiing under beautiful, sunny Idaho skies when 29 Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Junior Nordic ski racers traveled to McCall Feb. 16-17 for the third and final Junior National qualifying weekend race events for the 2008 season.
The McCall Junior Nordic Ski Team hosted classic and freestyle races at the newly opened Bear Basin Nordic Trail system just west of McCall. Teams from across Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming competed. In all, there were 133 skiers.
Racers in the Older Junior (ages 18-19), Junior 1 (16-17) and Junior 2 (14-15) classes were completing their two-and-a-half month quest to land Intermountain Division berths for the 2008 Chevrolet Cross Country Junior Olympics at Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska. March 10-14.
Coach Rick Kapala said the SVSEF J1 boys stole the show with dominant podium sweeps at McCall.
Max Durtschi won Saturday's 15-kilometer freestyle interval start race by nearly two minutes. Travis Job was third and Connor Brown fifth. In Sunday's 5k classic interval start event, Durtschi, Phelan and Brown podiumed with a 1-2-3 sweep. It was Brown's first podium of the winter.
Danny Sundali earned a silver medal finish in Saturday's J2 5km skate. Among Older Juniors, Taylor Sundali earned two silver medals and Mali Noyes cranked out a 41-second win among all women in 10km skate.
Also earning top-10 results for the weekend were J2s Claire Bowman and Emily Williams. Julia Bowman, Rosie Gilchrist, Marissa Dreyer, Makayla Cappel and Courtney Hamilton all posted top-10 finishes in the J1 women's class.
The SVSEF also had a contingent of J3s (ages 12-13) and J4 (10-11) skiers at Bear Basin. Showing promise of good things to come were J4 winners Eron Bates and Kailey Wilt. Drew Morse scored a J4 bronze while Zach Lindahl and Tyler Spence also earned top 10s for Sun Valley.
Next big event for the SVSEF Nordic Team is the Western States J3/J4/J5 Youth Ski Festival Saturday and Sunday, March 1 and 2 at the Lake Creek trails north of Ketchum. An estimated 200 skiers ages 13-and-under will assemble for a weekend of racing and fun.
Here are Sun Valley results by class and race from McCall:
Older Junior
Boys 5k classic interval start, Sunday: 1—Erik Anderson (Glacier) 13:00. 2—Taylor Sundali 13:25. 4—Scott Krankkala 14:06.
Boys 15k freestyle interval start, Saturday: 1—Daniel Guiney (Park City) 38:10. 2—Taylor Sundali 38:16. 4—Scott Krankkala 39:59.
Girls 5k classic interval start, Sunday: 1—Mali Noyes 15:19, a winner by 23 seconds.
Girls 10k freestyle interval start, Saturday: 1—Mali Noyes 27:46, a winner by 1:37.
J1 boys and girls
Boys 5k classic interval start, Sunday: 1—Max Durtschi 13:38. 2—Scotty Phelan 13:46. 3—Connor Brown 13:48. 6—Travis Job 14:03.
Boys 15k freestyle interval start, Saturday: 1—Max Durtschi 37:06, a winner by 1:39. 3—Travis Job 39:09. 5—Connor Brown 39:24. 8—Scotty Phelan 40:19.
Girls 5k classic interval start, Sunday: 1—Kate Dolan (Bridger) 14:56. 4—Julia Bowman 16:13. 7—Rosie Gilchrist 16:19. 10—Marissa Dreyer 16:30. 12—Courtney Hamilton 17:17. 17—Keller Gibson 18:20.
Girls 10k freestyle interval start, Saturday: 1—Kate Dolan 28:27. 5—Marissa Dreyer 30:18. 7—Makayla Cappel 30:32. 8—Julia Bowman 30:37. 9—Rosie Gilchrist 31:04. 10—Courtney Hamilton 31:11. 21—Keller Gibson 37:00.
J2 boys and girls
Boys 5k classic interval start, Sunday: 1—Charlie Fereday (Bogus) 13:56. 4—Danny Sundali 14:16. 17—Chase Caulkins 15:54. 18—Will Spiller 16:09. 22—Jake Anderson 17:16. 24—Nicol Wheeler 17:42.
Boys 5k freestyle interval start, Saturday: 1—Johnny Springer (Jackson Hole) 12:38. 2—Danny Sundali 12:44. 11—Chase Caulkins 13:58. 12—Will Spiller 14:03. 23—Jake Anderson 15:54. 24—Nicol Wheeler 15:57.
Girls 5k classic interval start, Sunday: 1—Katie Gill (Bridger) 15:53. 7—Emily Williams 18:08. 8—Claire Bowman 18:15. 10—Maranda Stopol 18:55.
Girls 5k freestyle interval start, Saturday: 1—Katie Gill 14:35. 7—Claire Bowman 16:01. 8—Emily Williams 16:04. 13—Maranda Stopol 16:37.
J3 boys
Boys 2.5k classic interval start, Sunday: 7—Zachary Lindahl 9:29. 13—Jake Adicoff 10:28. 15—Ty Reinemann 10:38. 16—Ketchum Wilt 10:42.
Boys 2.5k freestyle wave start, Saturday: 6—Zachary Lindahl 7:43. 11—Ketchum Wilt 8:24. 12—Ty Reinemann 8:25. 17—Jake Adicoff 9:01.
J4 boys and girls
Boys 2.5k classic interval start, Sunday: 2—Eron Bates 10:20. 4—Tyler Spence 10:53. 7—Drew Morse 11:20.
Boys 2.5k freestyle wave start, Saturday: 1—Eron Bates 8:36. 3—Drew Morse 9:04. 5—Tyler Spence 9:07.
Girls 2.5k classic interval start, Sunday: 1—Kailey Wilt 12:16.
Girls 2.5k freestyle wave start, Saturday: 1—Kailey Wilt 9:29.
Junior national qualifiers
The Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation's Junior Nordic ski team has qualified 18 skiers for the 52-skier Intermountain Division team headed to the U.S. Junior National Championships at Anchorage, Alaska March 10-15.
Four older SVSEF skiers pre-qualified during January's U.S. Senior Championships at Houghton, Mich. by virtue of being ranked at those races among the top 20 juniors.
Older Junior (ages 18-19) Reid Pletcher is currently competing at the FIS World Junior Championships Feb. 23-29 at Malls, Italy. He will join the Intermountain Division team at Anchorage after those races.
Sun Valley's other pre-qualified Older Juniors are Noah Hoffman, Taylor Sundali and Mali Noyes.
SVSEF skiers qualifying through the three-event 2008 IMD Junior National race series held at Soldier Hollow, Utah, Bozeman (Mt.) and McCall were the following:
Older Junior—Scott Krankkala. J1s (ages 16-17)—Max Durtschi, Scotty Phelan, Travis Job, Connor Brown, Julia Bowman, Bronwen Raff, Makayla Cappel, Courtney Hamilton and Rosie Gilchrist
J2s (14-15)—Danny Sundali, William Spiller, Emily Williams and Claire Bowman. First alternate for OJ/J1 girls is Marissa Dreyer.
SVSEF coaches who will attend Junior Nationals are Rick Kapala, Abi Holt and Chris Mallory.
The Intermountain Division team is the defending Junior Nationals Alaska Cup champion, having used a monster 408-point day in the freestyle sprints to beat four-time defending team champion New England 1,423 to 1,002 last March at Soldier Hollow, Utah. It was Intermountain's first Alaska Cup win in nine years.
Sun Valley's contingent is the largest, but here is the rest of the Intermountain team with its 11 Older Juniors (8 boys, 3 girls), 23 J1s (10 boys, 13 girls) and 18 J2s (9 boys, 9 girls):
From University of Utah—Former SVSEF racer Ian Havlick.
From Bogus Basin (5)—Charlie Fereday, Will Wicherski, Rose Kemp, Kaelin Ryan and Emma Donohoe.
From Bridger (Mt.) Ski Foundation (10)—Jake Morgan, Tanner Wiegand, Kate Dolan, Ase Carlson, Erika Flowers, Natalie Flowers, Gretchen Sellegren, Katie Gill, Kara Baldwin and Johanna Rydell.
From Jackson Hole (5)—Willie Neal, Eliot Neal, Johnny Springer, Ellery Leeds and Betsy Neal.
From Glacier Nordic (4)—Erik Anderson, Marshall Opel, Jack Steele and Stella Holt.
From Park City Nordic (5)—Nick Hendrickson, Dan Guiney, Andrew Putt, Tanner Putt and Elizabeth Guiney.
From Tuna of Salt Lake City (2)—Wilson Dippo and Henrik Burns. From Rossland, B.C., Canada (1)—Monica Markvardsen. From West Yellowstone (1)—Rebecca Konieczny.
Ritz tops women at Payette Lakes
Ketchum's Muffy Ritz led the 30-kilometer women with a time of 1.32:23 in Saturday's "Ski the Bear" Payette Lakes Ski Marathon on the Bear Basin Nordic Trails in McCall.
A total 37 skiers finished the 30k marathon and 41 more tackled the 15k course in a race sponsored by the McCall Nordic Ski Team. Results for Wood River Valley skiers follow:
30k women: 1—Muffy Ritz 1.32:23 (1st 50-54). 2—Becky Bjork of McCall 1.34:46 (1st 30-39).
30k men: 1—Matt Grover of Boise 1.17:39 (1st 30-39). 9—Rick Knoebel 1.29:31 (2nd 50-54). 10—Jim McClatchy 1.29:48 (1st 55-59). 30—Ed Miller 1.45:53 (3rd 60-64).
15k women: 1—Denise Jantzer of McCall 51:14. 5—Brenda Spackman 57:49 (3rd 50-54). 12—Lindy Cogan 1.04:14 (6th 50-54). 17—Jan Toohey 1.15:53 (1st 60-64).
15k men: 1—Lyle Nelson of McCall 44:11 (1st 30-39). 5—Greg Wilt 49:55 (1st 40-44).
