The first week of January features some of the best ski racing in North America: Senior National Championships. The series consists of 4 races: 2 sprints, a distance skate, and a mass-start distance classic. While the series is considered an “open” event in that anybody can register and participate, it is really just the creme-de-la-creme that attend.
Senior National Championships (as opposed to Junior Nationals) crowns our true national champs. In addition, this series serves as a major qualification series to get to race in Europe. Athletes in different age categories are competing for World Cup start rights, as well as positions on the U23 World Championship Trip, the Junior World Championship Trip (U20) and the Scandinavian Cup Trip (U18).
Bill and Henry Harmeyer are currently in Houghton, Michigan for these competitions. The temps are bitter cold, and it is snowing a few inches every single day. At this point, they’ve contested the first 2 events: the 15km skate race and the classic sprint. Bill and Henry didn’t have the best races of their lives in the 15km, but both came back fierce in the sprint. They’ve been targeting that race for many months now doing double-pole intervals in the hills of Williston and all kinds of intervals.
The race was slow and long for a sprint. Usually a sprint takes in the neighborhood of 2:45 – 3:30. But yesterday, the fastest men in the nation came through in 4:23. In spite of the length and difficulty, Bill and Henry both had excellent results. Henry qualified for the Junior Boys Heats (top 30 boys U20) and made it all the way to the A-Final! He finished 2nd in his quarterfinal, then 3rd in his semifinal but he skied fast enough to advance by the “lucky loser” rule. By the A-final he ran out of gas but managed to be 8th junior of the day (including all U20) and he was 3rd in his age-group (U18)!
Bill Harmeyer skied a strong race that he was quite happy with. He said he “romped up some of the hills” and had a strong double-pole into the finish when many others were striding. Alas, he narrowly missed out on the Junior Boys Heats by 0.25 seconds. But his result still put him as the 9th-place U18 boy of the day!!
Henry’s 3rd place performance of the U18 category earned him some major points towards qualifying for the U18 Scandinavia Cup Trip. The top 6 boys qualify for the trip based off of their best 2-out-of-3 races. The 3rd race takes place tomorrow (Thursday) at 10:00am… the 10km classic mass-start!
Bill in the qualifier
Henry in the qualifier. 7″ of snow fell in 3 hours.
Live timing and results are available via SuperiorTiming.com.
The unofficial standings for the U18 Scando Cup Trip are as follows:
Henry currently ranked 7th, Bill in 19th
