March 2, 2005 (Carrabassett Valley, ME): The Sugarloaf Outdoor Center’s nordic trails will be abuzz with skiers this weekend, as the Banknorth Eastern J2 Championships comes to town. Teams from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and New York, each with 20 girls and 20 boys ages 14 and 15, will compete in four races in three days. The Overall Championship was wrest from Maine last year by Team Vermont. Can Maine use their home snow advantage to get it back? Will Massachusetts surprise New Hampshire? Will the fast-but-few New Yorkers displace key competitors and upset the overall points? Spectators and fans are welcome to watch the best young nordic skiers race head to head in these exciting wave start and relay events for the Trophy.

Friday afternoon the Championships kick off with the Individual 5km freestyle event, a seeded start (equally ranked racers starting together) at 3:30pm. Saturday morning at 10am is the Individual 5km classic event, again with an exciting, seeded wave start, followed by the 1.2km freestyle sprints at 2pm. The weekend concludes Sunday with the 4x2km mixed gender, mixed medley relay at 10am.

The New England Nordic Ski Association’s J2 competition program is a developmental bridge for young athletes from the Bill Koch League youth skiing program to the Junior/High School programs. Next weekend Black Mountain of Maine hosts the Banknorth Eastern State Championships, a weekend of championship racing for every age group, youth through Masters. The season ends with the Banknorth Eastern High School/Scholastic Championships at Bolton Valley, VT. For more information on NENSA’s year round educational, recreational and competitive programs, visit www.NENSA.net