The rain came, but the Durango Nordic Ski Club’s women persevered Wednesday at the 2015 Cross County Junior Nationals in Truckee, California.
Wednesday’s weather was completely different from Monday’s, when it started icy, then turned slushy in the heat, assistant Durango Nordic coach Paige Elliott said in an email to the Durango Herald on Thursday.
“On Wednesday it rained lightly but steadily all day, and by the last race (the U18 boys), athletes were slogging around in ankle deep slush,” Elliott said. “Most everybody was soaked through to the bone.”
Wednesday’s event was an individual start skate race. Both the U18 and U16 girls raced 5 kilometers – two laps of a 2.5K loop.
For the U18 girls, Anna Fake was 19th and Avra Saslow was 34th for Durango Nordic. For the U16 girls, Katja Freeburn was 23rd and Marit May was 36th.
Durango Nordic head coach Gary Colliander, also helping the Rocky Mountain Division at the national event, was busy much of the day outside testing wax on the tricky snow, Elliott said. Another coach who was helping Gary kept track of how many kilometers they skied during testing, and it ended up being nearly 40K.
“In one of the sloppiest race days we’ve ever seen, where it rained, snowed and did everything between, our skiers were absolutely amazing,” Colliander said on the Durango Nordic Facebook site.
The next event is a mass start classic race on Friday. The U18 girls will race 10K and the U16 girls will race 5K. Saturday’s race will be a classic team relay.
“Let’s hope the snow holds up,” Elliott said.
johnp@durangoherald.com
