WOODFORD – The second day of high school cross country ski championships took place at Prospect Mountain, Tuesday, Feb. 25, under Spring-like conditions. Waxing was tricky for the classic race with skiers using warm klisters for kick. The Woodstock Union boys continued where they left off in the Division II skate race the week before taking first place along with the overall D-II team title. The Montpelier girls rose to the occasion and held off Middlebury for one of their best seasons ever in Division II. Mount Mansfield Union won both girls and boys D-1 titles.
photo by Phil Belena
For local skiers, brother-sister combo Sisu and Tillie Lange skied for first and fourth place finishes, respectively in D-1 for St. Johnsbury. Both ski with the Craftsbury Ski Club for regional races. Anika Leahy of Craftsbury Academy (CA) placed fifth, Lake Region’s Nora Demaine was 18th, and CA’s Ada Allen 46th. Two other CSC skiers, Claire Serrano (U-32) was third and Sara Saligman-McGill (Montpelier) placed fourth. For the boys, CA’s Soren Stelma-Leonard was 42nd and Lake Region’s Max Demaine and Xavier Chapdeline were 22 and 44. Some top CSC skiers skiing for their local schools included Magnus Hayden 5 (People’s Academy) and Zeb Whitlock 10 (Lamoille Union). In the relay in the fourth and final leg, Hayden (PA) was seven seconds in back of Whitlock (LU) at the final exchange. Hayden caught up to Whitlock during the 3 km ski, but Whitlock held on finishing half a second ahead for fifth- and sixth-place team finishes. Woodstock took top honors. In the girls’ relay, Montpelier finished about a minute ahead of Middlebury in D-II.
Team results: D-II girls: 1. Montpelier 91, 2. Middlebury 131, 3. Woodstock 153, 4. Lamoille 180, 5. U-32 235, 6. Stowe 265, 7. BFA Fairfax 268, 8. Peoples Academy 388. D-II Boys: 1. Woodstock 63: 2. Montpelier 108, 3, Middlebury 171, 4. Stowe 236, 5. Lamoille 244, 6. Peoples 284, 7. BFA Fairfax 382, 8. Burr and Burton 484.
photo by Phil Belena
Nearly 100 participants in Community Biathlon Races
CRAFTSBURY – The Craftsbury Outdoor Center hosted an increasingly popular biathlon race on February 23 with both experienced and novice divisions. People from as far away as Massachusetts, Saratoga, N.Y., and Quebec traveled to compete in some fun and diverse races. For novices, there was a training session prior to the races to learn how to properly and safely shoot a 22 rifle at tiny targets 50 meters away. During the races, many of the experienced youth skiers from the Craftsbury Ski Club assisted newer participants through the shooting process between ski legs. The novice skiers skied three legs with two shooting periods of five shots each lying down (prone) and standing. For every shot missed, the skiers had to ski a penalty lap with some fun twists and turns over the snow piles. For the experienced skiers, they had to ski five legs with four shooting stages.
photo by Phil Belena
The Craftsbury Ski Club (CSC) has over 15 regular kids learning the sport and they showed their progress at the races with Aemilia Terrone (CSC) clocking the fastest female youth time in 16:42 hitting 16 of 20 targets. Oakley Crawford (CSC) led the youth male time in 16:04 hitting 15 of 20 targets. In the experienced female adult category, 16-year old Tillie Lange (CSC) placed first in 28:41 hitting 12 of 20 and Andrew Donahue had the fastest men’s time in 27:23 hitting nine of 20. He made up for the misses by skiing fast. In the novice cateogories, Lena Scavone (Hanover, N.H.) hit seven of 10 targets skiing to a fast time of 13:36 in the youth division and for the boys Isaac Nadzam (CSC) had the fastest time of 11:41 hitting six of 10 targets. For the novice adults, Nora Bartlett (22:22) and Lars Searles (19:25) both hit 10 of 10 to lead the women and men’s fields. For complete results, go to the craftsbury.com news page.
Jack Young 18th at Cross Country Skiing World Championships Sprint
TRONDHEIM, Norway – I have been following the skiing of Jack Young this winter as he’s made a name for himself as an up-and-coming sprinter. Young has skied with the Craftsbury Ski Club for over a decade growing up in Jay, Vt. He’s currently a senior at Colby College, where they have allowed him to spend a chunk of winter in Europe racing for the U.S. National team. He made one last trip this past week to ski in the skate sprint at the World Championships in Norway before 27,000 cheering fans on Feb. 27. All four American men placed in the top 30 moving them into quarterfinal heats of six skiers each. In his quarterfinal, Jack finished fifth right behind teammate J.C. Schoonmaker. Only the top two from the six-person heat move onto 1-of-2 semi-finals. Ben Ogden (Landgrove, Vt.) placed sixth in a semifinal. Perennial favorite, Johannes Klaebo of Norway, finished first once again. Young returns to this week to race in the NCAA Ski Championships hosted by Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H., starting March 6. Craftsbury Academy graduate, Finn Sweet (UVM), will also be racing at NCAAs.
