Ketchum's Mike Sinnott, 25, made it onto the podium for the first time in a U.S. Nordic Nationals individual event Sunday at Black Mountain in Rumford, Maine.
Sinnott finished second to Olympian Torin Koos of Leavenworth, Wash. in the men's 1.4-kilometer classic sprint that kicked off the week-long series of national championship races at Rumford.
A member of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Olympic Development Team, Sinnott placed second in his quarterfinal heat and third in his semi-final heat before coming home second behind Koos.
Sinnott has been racing in the nationals since the early 2000s including four years as a Dartmouth College racer. But SVSEF head coach Rick Kapala said Sinnott's silver medal effort wasn't unexpected.
He said, "He skied extremely well against a strong Canadian field at Nor-Am races in November. And it was really nice for Mike to go out and throw down in that race. He is in good form and I expect he'll have more great results this week."
Other SVSEF results Sunday among the Senior Men and Senior Women included Reid Pletcher and Nicole DeYong 13th, and Colin Rodgers 14th. Matt Gelso won the U-23 Men's Sprint Final. Scotty Phelan was sixth in Junior Boys and Annie Pokorny seventh Junior Girls.
The championships continue today, Wednesday with men's and women's 15k and 10k classic races. Those events, originally scheduled for Tuesday, were postponed a day to make and move snow for the best possible course conditions.
