Seventeen Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation cross-country skiers booked tickets for a special California trip last weekend during the third of three Junior National qualifiers at West Yellowstone, Mt.
At the conclusion of Sunday's classic races staged in two inches of fresh snow, the Intermountain Division team was named for the 2009 USSA Cross Country Junior Nationals March 9-14 at Truckee, Ca.
Sun Valley JN qualifiers are: Older Junior (ages 18-19): Miles Havlick and Willie Neal.
J1 boys (16-17): Max Durtschi, Danny Sundali, Scott Schoen, Scotty Phelan and Travis Job.
J1 girls: Makayla Cappel, Julia Bowman, Bronwen Raff and Courtney Hamilton.
J2 boys (14-15): Torin Tucker and Brandon Wade (alternate Andrew Pfeiffer).
J2 girls: Maggie Williams, Maranda Stopol, Emily Williams and Sloan Storey.
Coach Rick Kapala said, "It took us a while to hit our stride this season, but with a display of good classic skiing, our local SVSEF juniors laid down some great results at West Yellowstone and in particular during Sunday's classic races.
"All told, we took 10 of 18 available podiums Sunday among J2 through OJ classes. We've had big days before, but this was an exceptional effort because so many kids produced best-ever results."
Sun Valley swept the interval start 10-kilometer classic podium in both OJ boys, Miles Havlick winning by 14 seconds over second-place Willie Neal and third-place Sam Farnham, and also among the J1 boys—Max Durtschi 28 seconds ahead of silver medalist Scott Schoen, with Danny Sundali third.
Kapala said, "Going into these races, Scott Schoen was on the outside looking in, sitting 13th on the selection points list. He needed to lay down a huge race and he responded with a second place in the J1 guys—his best result to date."
Saturday's freestyle sprints were good training events for nationals because the sprint track at Truckee is very similar, Kapala said. Post-graduate Havlick continued his sprint excellence by winning his second Intermountain Division sprint of the season.
Also earning sprint podiums were Maggie Williams, Makayla Cappel and Annika Landis. Other classic podium skiers were Bronwen Raff, Maggie Williams, Maranda Stopol, Torin Tucker and Maddy Watts.
In all, there were 166 junior skiers at West Yellowstone including 39 SVSEF racers.
Saturday freestyle sprint finals
Older Junior/J1 men (ages 16-19)—Men's "A" final: 1—Miles Havlick. 5—Scotty Phelan. 6—Danny Sundali. Men's "B" final: 5—Willie Neal. 6—Travis Job.
OJ/J1 women—Women's "A" final: 3—Makayla Cappel. 6—Bronwen Raff. Women's "B" final: 2—Courtney Hamilton.
J2 boys (14-15)—Boys' "A" final: 5—Brandon Wade. Boys' "B" final: 6—Torin Tucker.
J2 girls—Girls' "A" final: 3—Maggie Williams. 5—Emily Williams. Girls' "B" final: 1—Maranda Stopol. 4—Sloan Storey.
J3 girls (12-13)—Girls' "A" final: 4—Haley Montgomery. 5—Katie Feldman. 7—Elana King-Nakaoka. Girls' "B" final: 5—Montana Tucker. 6—Sarah Williams. 7—Brooke Lawrence.
J4 girls (10-11)—Girls' final: 2—Annika Landis. 4—Maddie Watts.
Sunday classic
Older Junior men 10k: 1—Miles Havlick 29:53. 2—Willie Neal 30:07. 3—Sam Farnham 32:12.
J1 boys 10k (ages 16-17): 1—Max Durtschi 30:50. 2—Scott Schoen 31:18. 3—Danny Sundali 31:45. 11—Travis Job 32:30. 12—Scotty Phelan 32:40. 19—Sean Dumke 33:49. 20—William Spiller 34:10. 23—Chase Caulkins 34:23.
J1 girls 5k: 3—Bronwen Raff 18:16. 5—Julia Bowman 18:54. 6—Courtney Hamilton 19:03. 12—Keller Gibson 20:17.
J2 boys 5k: 3—Torin Tucker 16:12. 6—Brandon Wade 16:36. 8—Andrew Pfeiffer 17:01. 13—Zach Lindahl 17:30. 22—Ketchum Wilt 18:56.
J2 girls 5k: 2—Maggie Williams 18:51. 3—Maranda Stopol 19:18. 4—Morgan Atkinson 19:24. 5—Sloan Storey 19:25. 12—Emily Williams 20:21. 14—Claire Bowman 20:48. 17—Kaitlyn Landis 23:00.
J3 boys 3k: 7—Stephen Pfeiffer 10:16. 11—Jake Adicoff 10:44. 14—Andrew Graves 11:08. 16—Nick Krekow 11:40.
J3 girls 3k: 4—Haley Montgomery 11:27. 7—Katie Feldman 11:57. 8—Montana Tucker 12:02. 9—Elana King-Nakaoka 12:05. 13—Sarah Williams 13:08. 14—Brooke Lawrence 13:23.
J4 girls 2k: 1—Maddy Watts 9:34. 6—Annika Landis 10:06.
