Archive | Junior Blog

World Junior Championships have concluded, with Ava earning awesome finishes of 40th (Mass Start Classic), 36th (Classic Sprint), and an amazing 14th (Skate Distance). Ava led the American junior women in both the skate interval start and classic mass start.

Ava racing in the classic sprint. Photo courtesy of Loru Creative

You can find individual links to results below:

Classic Sprint Results

Skate Distance Results (and link to race video)

Classic Mass Start

If you are interested in hearing some discussion of the race, be sure to check out this episode of the Devon Kershaw Show from Fasterskier. Tune to the 30:00 mark for some awesome recognition of Ava’s performance in the skate race!

Ava was the youngest member of the American team, and one of the youngest competitors at the entire event. This is a U20 event and Ava is a first-year U18 athletes…many skiers spend much of their career striving to make this team by the time they are a second-year U20. Ava is very talented, but make no mistake: being named to this team came about as a result of incredibly hard work and dedication in a year that has seen nothing but curveballs thrown at all of us.

This fall our Junior team was not travelling together to training camps, and in fact by mid-November we were following State guidelines and not training in groups at all. Is it any mystery that the American skier with the best women’s result in the Junior skate race would be the one willing to ski a solo skate timetrial in the pouring cold rain while the coach drove alongside with a mask on in a car? Is it any surprise that many other MNC skiers did just the same thing during that Virtual Thanksgiving Camp week?

So with Ava having an awesome week of World Juniors now behind her, and the Vermont Cup races winding down for our Juniors here in-state, it’s easy to begin looking back at just how hard everyone has worked to make this season happen. Congrats to Ava on her performances in Finland, and thank you to all of our Juniors at all levels who put in so much effort and dedication to this great sport.

And a special thank-you to MNC sponsor Green Lantern Solar, who helped to support Ava’s trip to Junior Worlds!

This weekend the Vermont Cup came to the idyllic village of Woodstock for an event featuring a distance classic on Saturday and a distance skate on Sunday. Believe it or not, this was the first skate race of the “Vermont Cup” series, although MNC skiers have been able to get in skate competition at local HS races as well as events like the Craftsbury Kendall Cup.

As anyone reading this already knows, we’ve been blessed with what may be the best stretch of Jan/Feb weather in recent memory. I’m sure I’ll eat these words at another point in the season, but I actually came to the point of loading up the van and saying out loud “could we just have ONE day here and there where it doesn’t snow?” as I prepared for what felt like the 5th sketchy-road drive of the week. I actually enjoy shoveling, but my back and shoulder muscles do have limits.

If we’re being real about it though, who can complain about an abundance of the stuff we spend 2/3 of the year aching for? It meant perfect conditions at the Woodstock Nordic Center, which is good because that venue is natural snow only. The classic tracks were killer and the course was rolling and smooth, lending itself to skiers who could work the transitions and grind out laps without much rest and big fitness requirements.

In the U16 races, Virginia continued her streak of not missing the podium yet! She was third on this day, with Julia close behind in 5th. Also cruising into the top-10 were Esther and Rosie in 7th and 8th with Finley in 13th. Week-in and week-out this group has been getting more pro, and you can see the development as they’re out there testing their wax, checking the course, and warming up to perform their best.

If you follow the local HS scene you’re well aware that Taylor and Brady have been lighting up the circuit, with Taylor only being a freshman and Brady still a middle schooler. They have trained a lot together over the years and unsurprisingly they often find themselves nearby on the results sheet, in this case right next to one another in 13th and 14th. Popping in just below in 16th was Anders who has put a lot of work in to classic to even-out his technique preference and speed!

Starting lineup!

By the time the older women and men raced the temps were climbing and the tracks were getting glazed. It wasn’t the easiest, basic “blue” conditions we began the day with, but we must’ve done something right because I think this was the largest percentage of skiers that we have NOT seen making any ski adjustments. The amount of “they’re perfect, see ya” type responses was the most relief a coach could hear. In fact, at one point I ran down from the trailer to the start area because I was nervous that so many of of the U18 girls hadn’t checked-in…I got down there to find them all getting ready for their start and lining up ready to go.

Three big races were in play here for Finnegan, Hattie, Hanna, and Emma Crum who had some of their strongest races among a field that included almost the entire UVM women’s team, plus a handful of Dartmouth racers. It’s really important to remember that each new race is a new opportunity, even if other races haven’t gone perfectly. In fact, a cool note from this weekend is how some different breakthroughs happened for different skiers on each day. The big individual successes were spread out across races, meaning it was a constant stream of good news and everyone was feeling the excitement from the positivity.

Jessie in her first Eastern Cup-level race!

In the skate races on Sunday it was Emma Page and Rebecca who really hit it out of the park with top-10 finishes (9th and 10th) the rest of the U18/U20 women’s squad really showing up, led at the front by Rose with an incredible finish as the top Junior in the race behind 2 Dartmouth upperclassmen. Special shoutout to Jessie Kennedy who skied in her first Eastern Cup-level race, while Mackenzie finally got to put on skate skis and show her strength in her best event!

This spring was the first time Jessie got out on rollerskis, and nobody knows the streets of Southridge like this athlete now. The hard work has been really inspiring to see!

It turns out the U16 women’s race was the closest one of the year, with live timing initially having Julia and Virginia going 1-2 in the race! However the chip and computer timing eventually changed that and Virginia was pushed to third, just 1.5 seconds out of second place. The first four places were all within 7 seconds, so it really goes to show you can’t take any pole plant or downhill tuck for granted! With Julia, Virginia, and Ava having all claimed the top step of a podium on separate days, this means MNC has now had THREE different skiers win a Vermont Cup race this year! And there is still racing left to go!

The U16 boys stepped it up by climbing a few positions higher than previously, this time with Niko leading the way in 12th and Taylor right there in 13th. That group in particular is up against a team of SMS boys who just seem to tower over everyone else (I referred to it as the “Greg Burt effect” if that hits home with MNC fans and families) but it’s cool to see them all warming up, cooling down, and talking before and after their races. These MNC skiers are going to continue climbing up the results and it’ll be many years of duels between some of these skiers! The U18 boys need a special shoutout in recognition of Geo who only started skiing this fall BUT with a background in swimming and rowing (you can see where this is going) has the upper body strength, coordination, and stamina to totally kick butt and keep aiming higher!

Oh…and after the main races was a small Masters race that drew some great MNC participation! Thanks to all the masters who made the trip down to compete, score points for the club, and challenge themselves. It was particularly awesome for me to get to ski a lap with Mike, Nate, Steve, and Dave after the race and recount tales from our races…brings me back, and that’s not something I get to do too often. It was a great crew out there who had a lot of fun. Here’s a pic below from NENSA of Coach Sara taking the win in the women’s event! You can also see a photo album from Saturday’s classic races from Dave Priganc by clicking here.

A cold and snowy weekend in the shadow of a former alpine ski resort…there’s not much more you could ask for in terms of setting for a race event.

The team remained separated as we did not gather for any organized travel or lodging, but several athletes came

Emma strides underneath the former ski lift. 

down with their families on Friday to ski the trails before the weekend. After a snowless drive through the agricultural belt of Vermont, where condition outside of Rutland had me wondering if there was going to be any snow at all, things got white. Prospect is located at 2,200′ which only just surpasses Bolton (2000′) for the highest elevation Nordic center in the Vermont. You could tell on this day, as the drive uphill on Route 9 was a full-on whiteout of big flakes, cars off the road, and plow trucks furiously sanding up and down.

The parking lot was clearly going to be a struggle, and after skiing we’d spend our fair share of time pushing stranded cars with bald tires back out to the road…but first some of us got to ski in the fresh fresh powder! It was a beautiful situation. The Nordic trails are interwoven with alpine trails which makes it all-too-easy to sneak in some turns to get back to the stadium…but mostly we resisted and instead focused on checking out the classic sprint course for the following day which consisted of two brutally-steep herringbone sections and a long gradual slog before a furious downhill descent back to the finish that was so steep and speedy that you didn’t even need to double pole to the line.

The trailer arrived (thanks Barker!) later that evening and after a Zoom team meeting it was time for Room Pasta (for coach) and mental preparation for the weekend.

More snow continued to fall overnight and everyone woke up to a few fresh inches, some groomed-but-fluffy track surfaces, and TWO sprint qualifiers only 20 minutes apart.

Anders aka Shaun White and The Flying Tomato is out and hammering!

Ginny finished in 2nd place for U16s but the announcer was much more concerned with letting everyone know about her first place snot icicle

Speaking of unique awards, Hanna was also given a brownie from the kitchen after winning the most spectacular crash award when she fell and stabbed a hole right through her ski

It was a good day for sprinting and a great learning experience. Often in sprints if you don’t make the cutoff for the rounds, your day is done. But since everyone got to race twice in a pretty condensed time-frame, it meant racers still got to experience at least one more go at the course. This was great too because it meant skiers could analyze how the first run went while it was fresh in their minds, and try to tackle things even better the second time around.

While the analysis and learning experiences were a key factor, a great results highlight was Virginia, Esther, and Julia going 2-3-4 in the women’s 2nd round!

Things got quite cold Saturday night, and the snow was replaced with sun. The van thermometer read a brisk ZERO degrees when I arrived at the venue at 7am: thank god for the wax trailer combination of electric space heater AND mini propane heater…they were both gunning full bore that morning.

The temps only rose a little bit but the sun was warming the parts of everyone’s faces not covered by a mask (so the upper cheek area) and my gosh this might’ve been the best classic ski conditions we have seen in…years? You could get kick, you could glide, the tracks were harder than iron yet the snow was as smooth as silk.

The 5km for the U16 boys was the first and coldest race of the day, and Taylor (fresh off a win the previous day at a Craftsbury biathlon race) led the way for the MNC crew. In the U16 women’s race, Julia and Virginia went 2-3 and continued what looks to be a continued battle in the overall rankings with SMS’s Miley Bletzer.

Julia has embraced Bliz sunglasses life! Remember, use code “MNC2021” at enjoywinter.com for 30% off!

In the men’s race there were two laps to contend with, but the trails made for ideal striding and it was not the kind of day to feel like a slog. Silas came back raving about the skis, the course, and the conditions, unable to contain his excitement for how good things were out there!

Emma Crum with a huge result in 10th!

Special shoutout to Geo who competed in only his second weekend of ski racing EVER and has gotta be one of the most natural skiers to ever clip into a pair of bindings. The Pugs were also represented by “MNC South” member Dave Johnston who came over from Brattleboro to don the race suit and put some younger racers in their place!

In the women’s race, Ava showed she was ready to fly off to Finland one week from that day with an absolutely staggering win by almost a minute and a half. That is an astonishing margin to pull off in a field with this many strong Juniors.

Rose skied the most consistent two laps of the day, both within a second of one another, to land in 4th place for one of her best classic races ever. Isabelle Serrano, who trains with MNC and Craftsbury, capped a great weekend in 9th, followed closely by new MNC skier Emma Crum with a breakout race in 10th!

A photo of Ava from Justin Beckwith. This was the LAST race of the day and just look at those tracks!

Of course, there were tons of racers out there for the club, as we have quickly become the largest group at these Vermont Cup races. Yes, it’s true…we are the “CSU” of this race league at this point. There once was a time when Sara and I would race in the Eastern Cups ourselves because there just weren’t a ton of kids to wax and work with, so why not just compete too? Now that is unthinkable…there’s just way to much action! The Pug squad is rolling 25-30 skiers deep each weekend and it’s so darn exciting to see. Here are some more photos!

Danny applying binder wax…don’t worry, there are no fluoros to be found although masks are more prevalent than ever!

Finley Barker is ready to rock and now has 2 EC weekends under her!

Coaches in a rare moment of pause

Mackenzie knows that sometimes you get a bloody nose but you just can’t let that interfere with your race