March 19, 2012 (Mont Ste-Anne, QC) – With temperatures that agreed to stay under 10 C, snow at -1 and challenging climbs the women’s 5km Classic interval start course was superb under sun and clouds. It certainly suited New England skiers as Craftsbury’s Ida Sargent had the fastest time in 15:16:0 and four more northeastern U.S. skiers filled out the top ten.

“It was a fun race today. I love skiing at Mont Sainte-Anne,” said Sargent. “It was spring skiing out there; warm and sunny.  But that also made the conditions pretty soft and slow so it was a hard race.  I was the second starter so I skied almost the whole race by myself and was just trying to keep pushing,” she added.

Sargent plans on doing all the SuperTour Finals and distance nationals races in Craftsbury, Vermont next week. She wasn’t sure about whether or not she should do the Canadian nationals, but her club team Craftsbury GRP was coming so she hopped aboard. As a US citizen, Sargent isn’t eligible to win the title.

Canadian national team member Perianne Jones, skiing for her home club Nakkertok, was the fastest Canuck at 13:9 seconds back winning the title while Emily Nishikawa of Whitehorse was third at 26s behind for second on the podium. University of Vermont’s Amy Glen was fourth at 39.8 back, Sargent’s teammate Hannah Dreissigacker took fifth, 44.3 seconds back and Dartmouth College’s Sophie Caldwell followed up with sixth, 54.4s behind. Kate Brennan from Kanata in seventh grabbed the final podium spot for the Canadian Championships.

“It was good,” Jones told SkiTrax referreing to the course. “I think I was really lucky to go at 9:30 because it only got slower after that.” The Almonte, ON skier returned to Canmore from the World Cup circuit in Europe just over a week before these championships, took some down time and then flew to Quebec City to do the team sprints on Saturday, which she and Nakkertok teammate, Alana Thomas, won.

“I’ve been racing with Ida on the World Cup circuit all year and she’s been really strong, especially in the 5km. I would have liked to have been a bit closer to her today, but the Americans have had a great year. It’s good that they’ve come up here to show us how it’s done.” Jones will compete in the rest of the championship events.

“The race went pretty well for me,” said U23 national team member Nishikawa. “It went by really fast. It was a great course for me and it held up really well.  I’m looking forward to the 10km skate tomorrow!”

The top junior woman was Whitehorse’s Dahria Beatty at 1:21.0 minutes back in fourteenth overall taking home the Canadian title. The Americans were strong here too with Isabel Caldwell of Dartmouth Outing Club taking the silver in 20^th place overall at 1:36 back. Rocky Mountain’s Maya Macisaac-Jones was the bronze medalist at 1:40.6 back finishing 24^th overall. Fourth place went to US skier Alannah Maclean of Walden at 1:40 back; in fifth was Anne Marie Comeau of Mont-Ste-Anne at 1:51.3 while sixth went to Michelle Workun-Hill of Nakkertok 1:56.2 behind.

The Junior Girl’s title went to Marte Haakenstad braaten of Rocky Mountain in a time of 17:16:2. Nakkertok showed why they have won the team title at the junior nationals so frequently as Katherine Stewart-Jones skied to the silver at 12.1 seconds back followed by teammate and sister Emilie Stewart-Jones at 15.2 seconds. Fourth place went to Gabrielle Lemire of Skibec at 38.5 seconds; Emily De Freitas of Foothills took fifth at 41:6 seconds and sixth went to Sophie Carrier-Laforte 43:7 seconds back.

Full results HERE.