December 10, 2018 (Vernon, BC) – Day two of racing at the Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre near Vernon, B.C. got underway Sunday morning as hundreds of racers from Canada and the U.S. took to the start line of the gruelling 5 km World Cup course for what was the first distance race of the season for many. Temperatures were hovering around -6 with overcast skies and hard packed, fast conditions.

The first skier left the stadium at 9:00 a.m. in the Open Men category which saw Kyle Bratrud (Stratton Mountain School) set the fastest time around the 15 km course with 41:59. Bratrud claimed the Senior Men’s victory by a mere 3 seconds over Benjamin Lustgarten (Craftsbury Nordic). In third place was Fondeurs-Laurentides’s Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier who was also the first Canadian skier.

In the Junior Men category, Canmore’s Sam Hendry (Canmore Nordic) took first place 1:13 back from Bratrud. Hendry was the lone Junior Man in the top 10 and followed by Remi Drolet (Black Jack Ski Club) in second. Third place goes to Luke Jager (Alaska Pacific University).

Starting at 10:30 the Open Women categories got underway on the 10 km course (2 x 5 km) seeing Katherine Stewart-Jones (Nakkertok Nordique) set the fastest time around the course with 31:48. The second Senior Woman was Becca Rorabaugh (Alaska Pacific University) and in third was Saturday’s sprint winner, Julia Kern (Stratton Mountain School).

In Junior Women, Novie McCabe was victorious once again with a winning time of 33:49 followed closely by Jasmine Drolet (Black Jack Ski Club). In third place was Sofie Sanchez (Sugar Bowl Ski Team and Academy).

This afternoon, Midgets raced 2.5 km, Juveniles and Junior Girls 5 km and Junior Boys raced 10 km. Sovereign Lake had 12 skiers compete in these races.

Next week, teams will travel to the Canmore Nordic Centre in Canmore, AB for the second stop on the Haywood NorAm race series and for World Jr/U23 trials. The location changed from Whistler Olympic Park in Whistler, B.C. where the races were originally going to be held but moved due to insufficient snow.

The organizers of the event and the Sovereign Lake Nordic Club would like to thank all of the racers and their families for an exciting weekend of early season racing and look forward to hosting Ski Nationals in March 2020.

Full results from today’s races can be found here.