Sunny skies were welcomed by competitors, coaches and spectators but led to tricky course conditions during a Rocky Mountain Nordic junior qualifier race over the weekend at the Durango Nordic Center.
“It was a really great event,” said Durango Nordic Ski Club coach Gary Colliander. “It was nice to have a home race.”
About 200 youths from 11 clubs around the state came to Durango for races Saturday and Sunday. Durango hosts a Rocky Mountain Nordic event only every couple years or so. The races are important to youths who are trying to qualify for the XC Junior Nationals on March 8-14 in Truckee, California.
He said that two-thirds to three-fourths of the Durango team’s competitors are middle school-aged and have joined fairly recently. Many are still learning to ski and race. A local Coke Series race the weekend before helped many prepare, Colliander said.
“A lot of them were really nervous beforehand, knowing that it was a bigger event,” Colliander said Monday.
Coaches worked with the youths on many aspects of the race, including how to warm up, how to ski certain sections of the course and how to wax.
And it was actually the coaches who did much of the waxing, which was important for Saturday’s classic sprint race. Conditions changed in the afternoon, when sun made the course a bit slushy in places.
Saturday’s event included a series of qualifiers and heats around a 1.5-kilometer course leading up to finals, in which six racers started simultaneously.
Katja Freeburn in the girls U16 race, Wiley Corra in boys U12 and Kiri May in girls U10 were the Durango team’s winners Saturday. Marit May finished just behind Freeburn in third, and Ethan Craig finished just behind Corra in second.
Sunday’s race was a freestyle, or skate ski, competition. Corra and Craig again went 1-2 in the boys U12. Andre Craig won the boys U8 and Kiri May won the girls U10. Colliander gave kudos to Avra Saslow for placing eighth in the girls U18 race despite being sick.
Other Saturday finishers: Tanner Coddington (sixth, boys U10), Andre Craig (first, U8 boys), Kiri May (first, girls U10), Charlie Greenberg (seventh after winning the “B” final, boys U18), Anna Fake (fifth, girls U18), Maggie Wigton (10th, girls U18), Avra Saslow (14th, girls U18), Corbin Reiter (26th, boys U16), Carter Reiter (17th, girls U16), Alma Wolf (20th, girls U16), Anna Smagacz (25th, girls U16), Cobe Freeburn (fourth, boys U14), Luke Tichi (20th, boys U14), Cecilia Compton (11th, girls U14), Jordan Taylor (13th, girls U14), Carmen Hall (15th, girls U14), Rebecca Bowers (16th, girls U14), Stevi Cameron (17th, girls U14), Kendall Floyd (18th, girls U14), David Smagacz (11th, boys U12), Ivan Sippy (12th, boys U12), Ruth Holcomb (eighth, girls U12), Ruby May (ninth, girls U12), Georgia Mynatt (10th, girls U12), Halle Moore (12th, girls U12), Carter Taylor (14th, girls U12) and Lilly Tichi (15th, girls U12).
Top 10 Sunday finishers: Anna Fake (eighth, girls U18), Katja Freeburn (fourth, girls U16), Levi Tichi (ninth, boys U12), Jordan Taylor (ninth, girls U14), Georgia Mynatt (eighth, girls U12), Tanner Coddington (sixth, boys U10).
Durango Nordic skiers will remain at home this coming weekend and compete in the Langlauf, an annual local marathon-type event at the Durango Nordic Center.
The weekend after that they will travel to Soldier Hollow, Utah, and compete at the 2002 Winter Olympics cross country and biathlon venue. Although skiers from several Western states will compete, the Colorado clubs will use this as a qualifier for the junior nationals.
johnp@durangoherald.com
