Beautiful blue sky days greeted 90 cross-country skiers taking part in the Christmas Classic races at Galena Lodge 23 miles north of Ketchum Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 17-18.
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) national ranking race was open to USSA and non-USSA skiers. Nordic SuperTour contenders Mike Sinnott and Nicole DeYong led the way in skate races Saturday and classic Sunday.
Said Chief of Race Rick Kapala, "The turnout was really good, especially on the classic day with former Olympians Betsy Youngman and Laura Todd. We had good representation with skiers from Park City, Wasatch Academy and Bogus Basin. And very gracious hosts, in Erin Zell and Don Shepler, at Galena Lodge."
Many Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation juniors coached by SVSEF Nordic Program Director Kapala took part in the two-day racing event.
Kapala said, "Conditions were great considering the lack of snow. There were no surprises with Mike Sinnott and Nicole DeYong winning both races. They set the pace for a pack of juniors learning to hammer."
"Our post-grad Cole Morgan had a solid weekend. He's in good form right now as we approach U.S. Nationals. Sloan Storey also had a solid weekend with a third overall in skating and second in classic. She's skiing well enough right now that if she's healthy can do well at nationals in January."
"Nate Thomas won the J2 boys class Sunday. I think that is Nate's first-ever win. Other notable shout-outs went to Zach Williams and Peter Wolter in J3 boys, Emily Siegel for winning J3 girls Saturday, and Lilly Brunelle for her double win in J4 girls."
"We're so lucky we have resources like the Harriman Trail and Galena Lodge in our community, especially in a low snow year. Chris Mallory, Eric Rector and Nate Scales put together a really nice course. And thanks to our always awesome parent crew led by Nancie Krankkala and Heidi Watanabe."
Interval start freestyle prologues were Saturday on 1.2-kilometer courses for J5/J6 boys and girls, 2.3k for J3/J4, and 3.6k courses for others. Sunday's mass start classic races measured 1.2k for J5/J6, 3.6k for J3/J4, 5k for J2 and older women, 5k for J2 boys, 7.5k for J1 boys and older men.
Cash prizes for the top men and women each day was $150 for first place, $100 second and $50 third. There were 89 racers finishing the prologue and 95 completing the classic.
Next local event is the Prairie Creek Snowmaker sponsored by The Elephant's Perch on Saturday, Jan. 7 along 15k, 7.5k and 2k classic courses.
Results follow by day:
Interval start freestyle prologue
Senior Men: 1—Mike Sinnott (SV), 26, 8:16. 2—Scott Phelan (SV), 20, 8:50. 3—Thomas Nelson (XC Oregon), 32, 9:29.
Senior Women: 1—Nicole DeYong (SV), 29, 9:29. 2—Kristen Monahan (SV), 24, 10:07. 3—Carrie Heagney (MSU), 20, 10:13.
Men (born 1900-41): 1—Peter Maier, 71, 16:52.
Men (1942-51): 1—Del Pletcher, 67, 10:20. 2—Tullio Celano, 69, 13:20.
Men (1952-61): 1—Dave Knoop, 53, 9:42. 2—Pat Simpson, 60, 11:12. 3—Jimmy Donaldson, 51, 12:10. 4—Jay Hagenbuch, 60, 14:43.
Women (1952-61): 1—Muffy Ritz, 54, 11:04. 2—Vicki Wiseman, 58, 13:59.
Master Women: 1—Liv Jensen, 40, 11:53.
Men (1962-71): 1—Eric Jensen, 44, 9:23.
Men (1972-81): 1—Joseph Jensen, 38, 9:15.
Older Junior boys (ages 18-19): 1—Will Wicherski (Williams), 18, 8:22. 2—Kevin Bolger (SV), 18, 8:41. 3—Jackson Steele (SV), 18, 8:51. 4—Torin Tucker, 18, 9:02. 5—William Spiller, 19, 9:13. 6—Gray Riedinger (SV), 18, 9:28.
Older Junior girls: 1—Morgan Atkinson (SV), 18, 11:07.
J1 boys (16-17): 1—Cole Morgan (SV), 17, 8:25. 2—Karsten Hokanson (Wasatch), 16, 8:39. 3—Bridger Dunnagan (BBNT), 17, 9:02. 4—Stephen Pfeiffer (SV), 16, 9:11. 5—Kyle Beling (PCNSC), 16, 9:15. 6—Jackson Long (SV), 17, 9:16. 7—Henry Gorman (Wasatch), 16, 9:22. 8—Ketchum Wilt (SV), 17, 9:27. 9—Jackson Carnigan (BBNT), 17, 9:29. 10—Danny Kaiser (BBNT), 16, 9:31. 11—Zach Lindahl (SV), 17, 9:33. 12—Jake Adicoff (SV), 16, 9:35. 13—Ty Reinemann (SV), 16, 10:09.
J1 girls: 1—Anika Miller (Payette Lake), 16, 9:51. 2—Sloan Storey (SV), 17, 10:05. 3—Jesse Knori (SV), 17, 10:34. 4—Amelia Anderson (Wasatch), 16, 10:39. 5—Maggie Williams (SV), 16, 10:44. 6—Maranda Stopol (SV), 17, 10:53. 7—Dessie Weigel (BBNT), 17, 11:35. 8—Sarah Williams (SV), 16, 12:43. 9—Brooke Lawrence (SV), 16, 12:52.
J2 boys (14-15): 1—Ben Grodner (Wasatch), 15, 9:23. 2—Cole Greenberg (BBNT), 15, 9:34. 3—Nate Nasvik (SV), 15, 10:05. 4—Nate Thomas (SV), 15, 10:11. 5—Andrew Graves (SV), 16, 10:23. 6—Liam Getzloff (BBNT), 15, 10:37. 7—Drew Morse (SV), 15, 10:58. 8—Thomas Gillespie (SV), 14, 11:29. 9—Peter Marx (BBNT), 15, 11:32. 10—Tristan Pitt, 14, 12:01.
J2 girls: 1—Sophie McDonald (PCNSC), 15, 11:03. 2—Leah Lange (PCNSC), 14, 11:19. 3—Brenna Egan (PCNSC), 15, 11:31. 4—Katie Feldman (SV), 15, 11:43. 5—Devon Dunmire (PCNSC), 15, 11:47. 6—Annika Landis (SV), 14, 11:48. 7—Haley Montgomery (SV), 15, 12:29. 8—Ellie Burton (PCNSC), 15, 13:00. 9—Grace Gorham (SV), 14, 13:05. 10—Cheyanne Stopol (SV), 15, 14:02. 11—Tess Goodwin (BBNT), 14, 15:27.
J3 boys (12-13): 1—Eli Jensen (BBNT), 13, 6:40. 2—Zach Williams (SV), 12, 6:48. 3—Peter Wolter (SV), 13, 6:55. 4—Grady Anderson (Wasatch), 13, 7:41.3. 5—Lukas DeWolfe (SV), 13, 7:41.7. 6—Carter Ros (SV), 13, 7:53. 7—Alex Feldman (SV), 13, 8:00. 8—Taylor Koth (SV), 12, 8:21. 9—Landon Nurge (SV), 12, 8:57. 10—Isaac Chrisman (BBNT), 13, 10:00. 11—Jorgen Lawrence (SV), 12, 11:05.
J3 girls: 1—Emily Siegel (SV), 13, 8:39. 2—Sarah Verst (SV), 13, 9:12. 3—Brooke Dunnagan (BBNT), 12, 9:45.
J4 boys (10-11): 1—Johnny Hagenbuch (SV), 10, 9:04.
J4 girls: 1—Lilly Brunelle (SV), 11, 8:47. 2—Eve Jensen (BBNT), 11, 9:01. 3—Ella Wolter (SV), 10, 9:49. 4—Jenna Nurge (SV), 10, 10:08.
J5 boys (8-9): 1—William DeWolfe (SV), 8, 5:56.
J5 girls: 1—Anja Jensen (SV), 9, 5:12.
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Mass start classic
Senior Men: 1—Mike Sinnott, 26, 18:59. 2—Didrik Smith (UU), 24, 19:21. 3—Scott Phelan, 20, 19:37. 4—Rolf Figi (UU), 24, 20:04. 5—Chris Mallory 20:37. 6—Eric Jensen (Idaho Nordic), 44, 22:33. 7—Thomas Nelson, 32, 25:41.
Senior Women: 1—Nicole DeYong, 29, 13:36. 2—Makayla Cappel (DU), 20, 14:07. 3—Kristen Monahan, 24, 14:40.
Men (born 1942-51): 1—Bob Rosso, 64, 23:50. 2—Del Pletcher, 67, 24:39. 3—Andrew Pfeiffer, 62, 24:46.
Women (1942-51): 1—Gabriele Andersen, 66, 18:00.
Men (1952-61): 1—Dave Knoop, 53, 24:21. 2—Jimmy Donaldson, 51, 29:23. 3—Tom Pomeroy, 59, 31:50.
Women (1952-61): 1—Muffy Ritz, 54, 16:20. 2—Betsy Youngman, 52, 16:45.
Master Women: 1—Liv Jensen, 40, 11:53.
Men (1962-71): 1—Mike Wolter, 46, 24:12.
Women (1962-71): 1—Laura Todd, 42, 14:47. 2—Tricia Swartling, 46, 19:31. 3—Ellen Vonderheyden 23:32.
Men (1972-81): 1—Joseph Jensen, 38, 21:53. 2—Don Shepler, 38, 23:26. 3—Ben Young, 37, 25:52.
Older Junior boys (18-19): 1—Will Wicherski, 18, 19:06. 2—Kevin Bolger 18, 20:04. 3—Gray Riedinger, 18, 20:56. 4—William Spiller, 19, 21:18. 5—Torin Tucker, 18, 21:19. 6—Brandon Wade, 18, 23:12.
Older Junior girls: 1—Morgan Atkinson, 18, 15:11.
J1 boys (16-17): 1—Cole Morgan, 17, 19:08. 2—Ketchum Wilt, 17, 20:32. 3—Karsten Hokanson, 16, 21:03. 4—Bridger Dunnagan, 17, 21:16. 5—Stephen Pfeiffer, 16, 21:26. 6—Henry Gorman, 16, 21:56. 7—Jackson Long, 17, 21:58. 8—Jake Adicoff, 16, 21:59. 9—Kyle Beling, 16, 22:13. 10—Jackson Carnigan, 17, 22:15. 11—Andrew Graves, 16, 22:44. 12—Danny Kaiser, 16, 23:15.
J1 girls: 1—Sloan Storey, 17, 14:05. 2—Jesse Knori, 17, 14:49. 3—Anika Miller, 16, 15:13. 4—Maranda Stopol, 17, 15:16. 5—Amelia Anderson, 16, 15:18. 6—Margaret Pope (SV), 17, 16:07. 7—Dessie Weigel, 17, 16:53. 8—Sarah Williams, 16, 19:25.
J2 boys (14-15): 1—Nate Thomas, 15, 13:36. 2—Cole Greenberg, 15, 13:39. 3—Ben Grodner, 15, 14:13. 4—Drew Morse, 15, 14:26. 5—Nate Nasvik, 15, 14:33. 6—Danny Graves, 14, 15:25. 7—Liam Getzloff, 15, 15:56. 8—Thomas Gillespie, 14, 16:09. 9—Tristan Pitt, 14, 16:58. 10—Peter Marx, 15, 17:23. 11—Sumner Pitt (BBNT), 14, 18:27. 12—Xavier Haemmerle (SV), 14, 20:07.
J2 girls: 1—Sophie McDonald, 15, 15:29. 2—Leah Lange, 14, 15:35. 3—Annika Landis, 14, 15:53. 4—Brenna Egan, 15, 15:55. 5—Devon Dunmire, 15, 16:25. 6—Katie Feldman, 15, 16:29. 7—Haley Montgomery, 15, 17:24. 8—Ellie Burton, 15, 17:33. 9—Cheyanne Stopol, 15, 19:58. 10—Tess Goodwin, 14, 22:41.
J3 boys (12-13): 1—Zach Williams, 12, 11:58. 2—Peter Wolter, 13, 12:00. 3—Eli Jensen, 13, 12:23. 4—Ben Brunelle (SV), 13, 13:04. 5—Carter Ros, 13, 13:07. 6—Grady Anderson, 13, 13:24. 7—Lukas DeWolfe, 13, 13:56. 8—Keene Morawitz (SV), 12, 15:01. 9—Nick Edwards (BBNT), 13, 16:18. 10—Noah Brown (BBNT), 13, 18:32. 11—Isaac Chrisman, 13, 19:12.
J3 girls: 1—Brooke Dunnagan, 12, 15:21. 2—Sarah Verst, 13, 15:59. 3—Sasha Daniels (BBNT), 13, 19:20.
J4 girls (10-11): 1—Lilly Brunelle, 11, 15:56. 2—Eve Jensen, 11, 16:23. 3—Ella Wolter, 10, 17:09. 4—Emma Kerr (BBNT), 11, 18:38.
J5 boys (8-9): 1—Felix Gerlach (SV), 9, 6:59.
J6 girls (6-7): 1—Liesl Gerlach (SV), 7, 10:08.
Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation racer Keene Morawitz poles along during Sunday’s classic racing. Photo by Roland Lane
