January 17, 2010 (Rumford, ME) – Sunny skis for the J2 boys, women, and early starters for men were followed by clouds and wind. This created waxing and other challenges for the men’s TD Bank Eastern Cup sprint today and the qualifier results showed the effect on some of the highest ranked competitors. While the early men fought through warm snow, the later starters enjoyed a glazed track.

Once athletes moved onto the heats, things went more to form, with Ben Koons, a member of the 2010 Olympic Team for New Zealand grabbing the win for men, followed by Skyler Davis (Stratton / Jericho, VT) and David Sinclair (GMVS / Waitsfield, VT.)

While the talk was mostly about the crazy men’s qualifier round, the performances of the day came from two J2 women who stepped up to earn the top two spots in the overall women’s race. Stratton Mountain School’s Heather Mooney (Peru, VT) won both the qualifying round and the heats, while Corey Stock fought from a lower qualifying position to grab 2nd in the final. Green Mountain Valley School’s Elena Luethi earned third.

For J2 Boys, Jack Hegman (Mansfield Nordic / Huntington, VT) made if three for three on the season with his victory today. Eli Hoenig (Cambridge Sports Union / Sudbury, MA) and Mackenzie Fisher (Stratton / Brattleboro, VT) rounded out the podium. The J2 Girls were obviously led by Mooney and Stock. Proctor Academy’s Maddy Pfeiffer (Andover, NH) also qualified up into the women’s heat to earn 3rd in the J2 category. NYSEF’s Maile Sapp won the J2-only heats for those who did not ski in the women’s heats.

On Sunday the TD Bank Eastern Cup welcomes top American distance skier Kris Freeman. He will compete in the 15K Freestyle then lead a special “Apres-ski” event along with his brother and 2006 Olympian Justin Freeman. Skiers are welcome to join the Freemans on a 5 kilometer cool-down. The action gets started at 10AM with the J2 Boys, followed by J2 Girls, then Women, then Men. All of tomorrow’s races are mass start freestyle.

Full results here.