December 09, 2017 (Vernon, BC) – Over 550 skiers from around North America eager to rid themselves of the early-season race butterflies ascended upon the Rotary Stadium at the Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre today for the first stop of the Haywood NorAm & Sprints series of the season and second on the USSA SuperTour.

Today’s classic sprints around a challenging 1.3 km course included a tight 180-degree turn, a bridge and some fast downhills. Course conditions were ideal, with sunny skies and -7 degree Celsius, hard-packed snow.

The day started with the Open Women’s sprint qualifier, and shortly thereafter, Open Men. On the women’s side, Kaitlynn Miller (Craftsbury Nordic), set the best time with 02:59.39. Second and third best qualifying times are set by Kelsey Phinney (Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation) and Hannah Halvorsen (Alaska Pacific University) respectively. The fastest Canadian qualifier for the Open Women is from Sophie Carrier-Laforte (Skinouk) in 4th, 05.68 behind Miller.

The fastest qualifying time in Open Men is 02:31:00 set by Cole Morgan (Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation) with Nicholas Michaud (Bridger Ski Foundation) and Logan Hanneman (Alaska Pacific University) rounding out the top three. They were followed closely by the top Canadian today, Bob Thompson (Team Hardwood) in fourth, 02.34 from Morgan.

The fastest Junior Woman around the course is Sovereign Lake’s own Hannah Mehain with a comfortable lead of 06:56. The fastest Junior Man around the course was Antoine Cyr (Skinouk) with a lead of 02.28.

Course conditions remained unchanged for the afternoon’s excitement.

The Open Men’s A-final consisted of five U.S. skiers and one Canadian. NTDC Thunder Bay athlete, Bob Thompson proved his early-season fitness as he raced towards the finish line, just 0.03 seconds ahead of Ben Saxton of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) Elite Team. Cole Morgan of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) who won the qualifier and all his heats, except for the A-final, rounded out the top three.

“It was a very fast course,” says Bob Thompson of Team Hardwood/NTDC Thunder Bay. “I was happy with my qualifying position and focussed on at or near the front of the heats to control things.”

The Open Women’s heats saw American, Kaitlynn Miller (Craftsbury Nordic), dominate the day as she continued her momentum throughout the quarter and semi-finals winning every heat including the A-final. In the A-final, Miller bested Caitlin Patterson (Craftsbury Nordic) by almost one second who qualified 5th this morning. Rounding out the top three is Hannah Halvorsen (Alaska Pacific University). The top Canadian in the Open Women category is Quebec’s Sophie Carrier-Laforte (Skinouk) in 6th.

“I was very happy with my race today,” says Kaitlynn Miller of Craftsbury Nordic / Green Racing Project. “I ended up in the back of the pack heading into the final uphill, but was able to make up time on that climb and had a good line going into the turn off the bridge.”

The Junior Women’s category is won by Hannah Mehain (Sovereign Lake) followed closely by Lisle Compton (Kenora Nordic) and Hannah Shields (Lappe Nordic) in 3rd. The Junior Men category is won by Antoine Cyr (Skinouk) who won all of his heats, followed by Etienne Hebert (Monteriski) and rounding out the top three was American, Luke Jager (Alaska Pacific Nordic Centre).

Full results here.