It was a busy past week of racing and testing for MNC Juniors. Lots of competitions and training camps took place, from the National U16 camp to NENSA’s App Gap Challenge rollerski race.
NU16 Camp
Every year, the National U16 Camp brings together the top-ranked U16 athletes in the country for a week of training and competing. This year, MNC was one of only a few clubs to send 3 athletes to this event. Magda, Ali, and Aidan got to work with US Ski Team coaches and athletes from all over across the lake at Paul Smith’s College.
NU16 Camp, featuring Aidan, Magda, Ali
The first test was the Canadian Strength Test, an event you may have read about previously on the blog as the Juniors took on the test earlier in the summer. Among the top 31 U16s in the country Magda put up an impressive 189 to score 14th place. Ali ended up 20th and Aidan 27th, with all 3 Pugs improving on their scores from earlier in the summer.
In the uphill run test, Aidan was the top MNC finisher with a 19th place, while Ali was not far back in 23rd for the women.
The real fireworks came in the Skate Sprint, a full event at the Lake Placid rollerski track complete with qualifier and heats. One-upping their speedy performance as the top-ranked U16 men’s group in the country, the New England boys stole the show with a 1st-through-4th place sweep! Finn Sweet, Brian Bushey, and Will Koch took the podium with Aidan in 4th place overall.
After saying she “wasn’t good at skate skiing” only a few days before leaving camp, Magda finished 7th and narrowly missed out on the final, another dominant New England performance with Quincy taking the win and Nina Seeman in 2nd.
App Gap Challenge
Ava! Rockin’ it
The first event in this year’s Bag Balm Rollerski Race Series from NENSA, the App Gap Challenge didn’t disappoint. It was a sunny warm day, with about 120 competitors taking on a combination skate/classic race to the top of Appalachian Gap. The club had a lot of Juniors competing and putting up some fast times.
In the women’s race, Ava Thurston threw down an 11th place among all the Juniors, 2nd for U16s behind an impressive 6th from Quincy. Not far behind was a great showing from Sammie Nolan in 19th and Rose in 20th.
For the men, Charles Martell and Aidan packed a strong punch in 15th and 16th place, respectively. It was interesting to note times for the skate (lower portion) and classic (upper portion) as Aidan put up a slightly faster skate time but was surpassed by Charles in the classic leg. Looks like these guys will have a good time pushing each other this fall.
It was a sad day at the awards, however, as the gang had to say goodbye to Jenny…after spending 7 weeks with us this summer, you might not have remembered that Jenny is actually a native of coastal Maine. Her Pug spirit was strong, and it was a real pleasure to have her spending so much time with the group training this summer. We’ll see her again soon though!
A nice timeline of athletic development here…
left (63): U16 Aidan Burt
center (74): Middlebury College skier Lewis Nottonson
right (73): Professional skier Ben Saxton
Results can be found on Bart Timing
Photos (including those above) from Dave Priganc!
Summer Biathlon Rollerski Champs
Congrats to Timmy and Marika who competed in the rollerski biathlon races this past weekend! Tim raced to a 5th place in Saturday’s race, while Marika was 2nd in both her events. Results and more can be found at the Ethan Allen Biathlon Club website:
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