March 09, 2012 (Midway, UT) – More champions were crowed as the classic stars strutted their stuff on Day 3 at the 2012 US Junior XC Ski Nationals where top junior skiers in the country battled the 5/10km CL individual start races.

In the FOJ 5km CL race Stratton Mountain School’s Rachel Hall took the win over Mary Kate Cirelli from Green Mountain Valley School by a margin of 6.2s followed by Elizabeth Simak (F.A.S.T. Performance Training) in third at 9.5s behind Hall.

Silas Talbot from the Dartmouth Outing Club raced to a convincing victory in the MOJ’s 10km CL race with Minnesota’s Ben Saxton (Minnesota Valley Ski Club) taking second again as Sam Read from UNH finished third on the podium.

Corey Stock from CSU won her third title of the Junior XC Ski Championships taking the 5km Classic FJ1 race in 14:07.4 over Stratton Mountain School’s Heather Mooney in second with a time of 14:32.2. Marion Woods (Alaska Winter Stars) finished third another 5s back.

In their 10km classic race MJ1 skier Cole Morgan from Sun Valley SEF was the clear winner with a time of 26:02.6 as Stratton Mountain School’s Patrick Caldwell bested Cal Deline from SSC Vail by a mere 1.3s for the silver.

In the 5km classic FJ2 race Julia Kern (CSU) battled again with APU’s Lydia Blanchet in photo finish that went to Kern both with the same time of 15:01.4. A close third was Stratton Mountain School’s Katharine Ogden only 1.5s behind.

Thomas O’Harra (APUNSC) was the top J2 Boy in their 5km CL race in a battle with Cully Brown (Durango Nordic Ski Club) who settled for second at 2.4s behind the winner with Tahoe XC’s Peter Holmes taking the final podium spot again.

Full results HERE.