This past week marked another incredible Junior National Championships. From the windy, wet stretches of New England our team flew out to the dry, dusty deserts of Utah to compete against the best in the nation. The courses at the 2002 Olympic venue of Soldier Hollow were a total blast to ski on. We were limited to a 3.3k loop which suited us Vermonters just fine! Especially nice was the amazing mountain vistas and snowcapped rocky peaks which made it hard not to feel inspired to race fast and enjoy the outdoors.
Racing kicked off with individual classic events, and MNC skier started their week strong. Magda skied two consistent laps and held tough in the altitude to finish 27th, while Isaac narrowly missed out on the top-10 with a 12th-place finish. Aidan scored an All-American performance in his first-every JNs race by taking 8th! We were starting off strong! The U16 boys, the group I had the pleasure of coaching, ended up the top team in the country with a 1st (Will Koch), 2nd (Finn Sweet), 8th (Aidan), 12th (Carl Kellogg) and 16th (Brian Bushey).
Having an icy course and plenty of klister helped New England ski strong, but in what is typically our strongest event (New England produces the country’s best classic skiers) we were a bit surprised to get handily beaten overall by the Rocky Mountain region who definitely made the most of their high-altitude awareness. There was nothing left to do but turn it around!
The next day, a super fun sprint course helped usher in that turnaround. While the U18 men stole the day for the points with 4 in the top 6 (including a 1-2 performance by James Kitch and Ben Ogden, and a 6th from Greg) the rest of the group skied great as well. Magda continued to put up stronger skate results in this later part of the season, as did Isaac although they were both just outside of the heats. Aidan qualified a solid 11th, making up about 8 seconds on the field in the last 500m flat and rolling portion of the course. This would prove key later in his quaterfinal as he made a great surge to get into the semis and eventually B-final! Aidan finished that day in 12th.
Magda heading out in the skate sprint qualifier (Paul Bierman photo)
Aidan cruising out of the start in his quarterfinal heat…the PNSA girls look impressed! (Paul Bierman photo)
After a busy two days of racing, we had a bit of a chance to regroup with an off day. With the U16 boys, our goal was to start the day focused, then relax, then bring the focus back for the final push. We talked about some goals and reflections early in the morning, writing some notes down on paper. Then, I collected the notes and we spent the rest of the day unwinding with some non-ski activities. The U16 boys, or “Da Boiz” or “The Boyz” are becoming quite a cultural phenomenon at Junior Nationals. Last year we took a pretty intimidating group photo and this year we of course needed to replicate that. All week we had been eyeing an old train station and railroad cars with the Uinta mountains as their backdrop. That was no doubt the site of our photo, we decided, and we just needed something to get on the same page with.
Will and Finn preparing their Jorts and discussing just how long (or rather, short) to go with the length
I can’t remember if it was Finn or Carl who made the suggestion, but we ended up at Walmart to get ourselves some sunglasses and jeans, along with a pair of scissors to make some sweet Jorts. After we cut with precision, we “distressed” the jeans by kicking them around in the dirt and gravel in order to get that nice worn look…that’s what the cowboys did, right? Either way, U20 men’s coach Rob Bradlee was kind enough to put up with our crew and agreed to take this years group photo…I’m not sure how I’d describe it but I suppose I’ll just post it here for the world to see:
Presenting the top-ranked U16 men’s team in the entire country. Possibly the most interesting team in the country as well!
Of course, this was only a minor distraction as we had plenty of racing to get after in the coming days. It wasn’t long before our goals were brought back out and we focused on the final two days of racing: a mass start skate race and the team relays.
In the mass start skate race, the older skiers went early and Isaac nabbed another top-20 finish. By the time the U16 races started it was pure slush and sun! This was a great day for Da Boiz as Will Koch took his 3rd gold medal in 3 races. Next, Carl crossed the line in 4th, Aidan in 6th, and Brian in 8th. 4 skiers in the top 8!
In the women’s race, Magda had a really tough crash that hyperextended her arm and left her out of the results for this day. With a visit to the medical station and a sweet tape and sling job, she was ready to give it one more go the next day.
Magda and U16 girls coach Hilary, ready to give it 100% no matter the obstacles!
Relay day was a big day for the club! We had 2 members on the podium, with Isaac’s team getting 3rd and Aidan’s team getting the WIN! It’s been a few years but that’s right, we are super proud to have a NATIONAL CHAMPION this year! Congrats to Aidan and his relay teammates Will and Finn. It was in fact another killer day for Da Boiz. Finn led off for team 1 and skied into the tag zone in 3rd, but it was Brian Bushey (scrambling for team 2) that WON the opening leg. Aidan skied his best race of the week on the 2nd leg, bringing the team up into first and tagging Will Koch in the lead spot. Will just extended and extended the lead, enough that we were all able to wait in the finish area to celebrate when Will crossed for the win and Carl brought it home for the 2nd team. It was as good as it gets for this crew.
Worth checking out the Live Feed Video at the 3 hour and 18 minute mark: that’s when a guy by the name of Aidan Burt starts to turn on the jets and catch up to that lead spot! Just watch that awesome push on the uphill and crazy fast skis on the downhill.
JN Relay Video
The Boiz, psyched with the win and watching for Carl to bring it in for the next team!
National Champions!
Winning Junior Nationals feels pretty good! Congrats guys!
That relay was an amazing way to cap off the week for those guys. What was even better was watching the ladies relay with all of team New England cheering their heads of for Quincy and Magda as the anchors of the two U16 women’s teams. Quincy had a killer week with top-10 in every race, and Magda battled it out with one-and-a-half arms to bring her team home in 8th!
Of course, there were lots of other photos from the week, but I’d like to share some group shots below. One thing we did was gather together a big group of MNC “past and present” which included the current team members as well as alums like Will, Ben, Eliza, and Brandon. In the photo below you have 4 divisions and 5 age groups represented by skiers with MNC connections. And that’s not to overshadow our training friends still in New England like Greg, Conor, and Adam Glueck!
Pugs past and present!
At official team photo time we also have some more current MNC squad members! Of course this is bittersweet without Ali who had to miss the trip due to illness…but you can also consider this MNC FUTURE team, not just present 😉
All of team New England, the top region in the country for the 5TH YEAR IN A ROW!!!
A stoic and intimidating photo of the U16 Boiz who are not to be messed with
It was an incredible week in Utah and it only builds the excitement more for races to come, training to be done, and more killer performances to be chased. Let’s go TEAM!
All results can be found via Summit Timing
Wow! We had over 180 racers ski in the MNC Skiathlon this past weekend! Many of the usual Masters New England racers were joined by college racers from Williams, Middlebury and St. Lawrence University, junior skiers from MNC, Stratton Mt. and GMVS, and even Reese Hanneman, 2016 US National Champion and Olympian just back from PyeongChang! In the BKL event we had over 100 racers from MNC, Craftsbury, Frost Mt., Ford Sayer, Stratton Mt., Onion River and a few others. Quite a turn-out!
