March 15, 2011 (Midway, UT) – On Saturday, I started my last Junior National race. And it was my favorite – a relay! Five years ago, in Soldier’s Hollow, I raced my first Junior National relay ever, on a team with Libby Ellis and Lynn Duijndam. Libby scrambled, Lynn went second and I anchored. We started a lot of traditions that year, including racing in facepaint and glitter for the relay.

Every year since then, we’ve continued “bedazzling” ourselves come race day. Now I had an opportunity to close out JO’s with Libby scrambling again, and Elizabeth Simak skiing 2nd leg. And you know what? I still got nervous, just like the first time!

The conditions were quite tricky on Saturday, as the tracks were slower yet still glazed, and the outside of the track was icy and fast. We went on klister, and we had just enough kick for 3km but still had to work hard to close the wax pocket down. Because it was so icy, we stayed out of the track as much as possible and did a TON of double-poling.

Libby and Elizabeth did a fantastic job keeping us in the top 3, and staying within contact of the leaders. Because we started right alongside the J1 teams, it was sometimes hard to figure out which place you were in while racing. So we just hammered.

When I got the tag off from Simak, we were within sight of the leader – just far enough to have a fun chase. I started a little frantically, pretty much abandoning technique as I scrambled around the icy corners. How embarrassing. But once I got going, I calmed down (slightly) and got into a rhythm. The hometown crowd cheering was fantastic, and it helped enormously on the long grinding climb.

I was super excited to have such a great team; one that really topped off a great JO experience. And I don’t just mean my relay team – all the athletes, coaches, wax techs, family and friends that made this possible. Thanks guys!

The awards banquet was really well done (thanks to all the volunteers and organizers) but the best part was sharing it with my family and grandparents who came to cheer.

March 13, 2011 (Minneapolis, MN) – Winter returned to Minneapolis in the form of temperatures in the low twenties, strong winds, and a trace of new snow.  The course was firm-to-icy and the tracks were filled with the fresh drifting snow.  Given the abrasive conditions, coaches tested a variety of klister or binder bases covered with waxes slightly warmer than the temperature.  The savvy athletes double-poled out of the tracks and strided in the tracks. Coaches tried to find the balance between wax that wouldn’t shear off on the ice and wax that offered good glide on the dry snow that filled the tracks.

Given the very short racing length – 3×3 kilometers – speeds were very high and aggressiveness played a big role in the scramble leg. The course had one long and one short very fast downhill, each with a corner at the bottom.  The athletes who were both fearless and skilled on their feet had the advantage.

In the first race of the day, the J2 boys relay, New England’s scramble leg, Hamish McEwen, set the tone by taking an aggressive lead from the gun. McEwen and the other top skiers in the field double-poled out of the stadium between the many tracks. The remainder of the boys quickly caught on and also exited the tracks. Most then remembered to get back into the tracks for the climbs, but some forgot and were dropped instantly as they slipped.

McEwen gained an 8-second lead over the course of his leg and tagged off to Ben Hegman. Hegman lost two seconds to the Midwest team, but still held the lead when tagging off to Tyler Foulkes. To the delight of the hometown crowd, the Midwest’s Harris Dirnberger skied an aggressive anchor leg, passing Foulkes and skiing the Midwest to a six-second win.

Matthew Berntston, second leg for the Midwest, said the team had thought that they had a chance to win.  “The goal of the first and second legs was just to keep up with the leaders.  We hoped that Harris would beat out anyone.”

Unlike many Junior Olympic winners, Dirnberger has not been thinking about this day for a long time.  “My first JO qualifying race was this winter.  I went because I thought it would be fun to race the JOQ with my teammates.  I did pretty well in the classic, so I kept going to the JOQs. I made the team, so here I am.”

Dirnberger’s success isn’t surprising to his coach Piotr Bednarski of Go! Training, who first saw his talent this summer. “He first came to practices this summer.  He surprised me by staying with an elite CXC skier in rollerski sprints.”

J2 Boys
1.    Midwest (Nick Proell, Matthew Berntson, Harris Dirnberger)
2.    New England (Hamish McEwen, Ben Hegman, Tyler Foulkes)
3.    Intermountain (Noah Anderson, Karsten Hokanson, Marc Jackson)

The J2 girls relay was also won on the last leg, when Alaska’s Marion Woods erased a 23-second deficit to pass New England for the win.  Wood’s teammates were motivated by her successes this week. Sarrissa Lammers, the team’s scramble leg explained, “We really wanted to get Marion her four golds.”

Woods, for her part, still seems surprised by how well she finished this week. “I didn’t know what to expect coming down here.  I knew a lot of people had been training a lot. I just planned to come to JOs and do my best.”

J2 Girls:
1.    Alaska (Sarrissa Lammers, Mackenzie Flynn, Marion Woods)
2.    New England 1 (Brooke Mooney, Cate Brams, Heidi Halvorsen)
3.    New England 2 (Halie Lange, Zoe Snow, Hannah Benson)

The J1s and OJs raced together, even though they were scored separately.

The New England OJ’s scramble leg, Skyler Davis, posted the fastest time of the first leg, but Intermountain’s J1 team scramble, Cole Morgan, remained in touch, five seconds behind and in second place.

Strong second legs were put in by Intermountain’s Sawyer Kesselheim and Midwest’s Dylan McGarthwaite, who were the only two skiers in the second leg to dip under nine minutes. Kesselheim caught New England OJ Peter Hegman and passed him on the long climb, going through the lap in the overall lead by one second.  McGarthwaite’s strong leg pulled the team into second for J1s and fourth overall.

The anchor for Intermountain, Akeo Maifeld-Carucci, faced the daunting prospect of trying to keep up with David Sinclair, the winner in this week’s mens OJ classic.  “Sinclair caught me early on, so I tried to stay with him as long as I could.”  Maifeld-Carucci held on bravely, staying within five seconds Sinclair (New England OJ team) and bringing Intermountain in for the J1 victory with a 24-second margin over the Midwest J1 team.  Carucci summed up his experience:  “I had really good skis and super-strong teammates.  It all came together for us.”

J1 Boys:
1. Intermountain (Cole Morgan, Sawyer Kesselheim, Akeo Maifeld-Carucci)
2. Midwest: (Andy Dodds, Dylan McGarthwaite, Ben Saxton)
3. Alaska (Forrest Mahlen, Isaac Lammers, Logan Hanneman)

OJ Boys:
1. New England 1 (Skyler Davis, Peter Hegman, David Sinclair)
2. New England 2 (Austin Cobb, Chris Stock, Bridger Tyler)
3. Alaska (Jack Novak, Silas Talbot, Peter Mamrol)

The Minneapolis crowd looked forward to the finale of the weekend, the OJ/J1s girls race, knowing the Jessie Diggins would anchor the Midwest OJ team.

Diggins and her team did not disappoint.  First and second legs, Libby Ellis and Elizabeth Simak, accomplished their plan of staying within reach of the leaders.  Simak tagged off to Diggins in 2nd among OJs and 4th overall.  As expected, Diggins made up the slack. She roared by the three teams in front of her, bringing the team in first overall, 23 seconds in front of the New England J1s.

Teammates Ellis and Simak were confident that if they held their own on the first legs, Diggins would make up any deficit.  “Jessie is the most motivated person we have ever met.  If she wants something, she goes out and gets it.”

Victory was especially sweet for this close-knit team. Ellis and Diggins have been skiing together for five years, while Simak been with them for four.  The team raced the course with gold-glitter face decoration, a tradition the Midwest girls started at the 2006 Soldier Hollow JOs.  Ellis explains that this is the perfect end for her and Diggins, who are both in their last year as older juniors.  “It’s even better that this race is here in Minneapolis.  I love the fans and appreciate all the hard work the organizers did to put this together.”

The New England OJ team of Heather Mooney, Cambria McDermott, and Corey Stock won the J1 relay, although they were pushed by the team from Rocky Mountain.  Heather Mooney and Michaela Frias were neck-and-neck at the front of the pack throughout the scramble leg; Mooney had a 1-second lead at the tag.  Mary O’Connell put the hammer down on her leg, and tagged off to Emily Hannah with an 11-second lead.  The speed of Corey Stock, who was likely motivated by being passed by Diggins, was just too much for Rocky Mountain.  Stock brought the team in for the J1 win and second-place overall.

Second-place in the J1s was a good result for team Rocky Mountain.  They followed their race plan perfectly.  For Frias, that plan was to “get the team in a good a position.”  O’Connell’s role was to “push the pace high.”  Hannah was determined “to try to stick with their position.”  All three skiers are from Steamboat Springs High School, the public high school in the community of Steamboat Springs.

J1 Girls
1.    New England (Heather Mooney, Cambria McDermott, Corey Stock)
2.    Rocky Mountain (Michaela Frias, Mary O’Connell, Emily Hannah)
3.    Alaska (Celia Haering, Tristan Ramey, Teagan Yutrzenka)

OJ Girls
1.    Midwest (Elizabeth Ellis, Elizabeth Simak, Jessie Diggins)
2.    Alaska (Mackenzie Kanady, Alyson McPhetres, Kinsey Loan)
3.    New England (Anne Hart, Mary Cirelli, Isabel Caldwell)

Look for final Alaska Cup results and high school and club team standings to be posted HERE.

March 09, 2011 (Oslo, Norway) – Sorry for the delay but we ended up with very slow internet connections over the final few days of the Oslo competitions, and also traveling home made for more sketchy internet connections. Here are some last impressions about our final days in Oslo.

Women’s Relay – Day 9
Back to the races – on site! The end of the World Championships is approaching which means it’s time for the relays and the final “King” and “Queen” of the distance races. Over the past few days there have been some holes in the crowd as many fans have had to return to work or school but tickets are more or less sold-out for rest of the Championships and we expect some intense racing!

As mentioned before, we have observed great sportsmanship here and while skiers are certainly competitive and driven, they are also very gracious and dare I say “normal” people despite their status. As journalists here we have seen what’s been written and how it was written, as well as the athletes in action, on the trails, and at the press conferences and there is somewhat of a difference.

The headlines do not always give the true picture, though it seems that some controversy can be good for the sport since we seem to survive the headlines. It’s only natural that some characteristics of a skier are either highlighted or ignored and skiers sometimes exchange words with each other that seem unnecessary – but taken out of context these things are sometimes made into a bigger deal than the skiers themselves think they are.

Aside from watching the races and enjoying the incomparable level of energy in the stadium, after a “recovery” dinner, we ventured over to the Finnish Team’s hotel to have a celebratory piece of cake with the medal winners, their teammates, and the coaching staff – see more photos HERE.

We also caught up with Andreas Bennert from One Way:

Men’s Relay – Day 10
We thought yesterday was crazy and loud (Women’s Relay). But Wow – today was even louder. Are these Norwegian fans just getting “warmed-up”? Today’s racing was unbelievable!! (but you’re all aware of the results already, so I will not go into detail. Suffice it to say that this race also required spectators to go find recovery food and drink after the competition. Whew.

Before the race started a group of old guys walked into the stadium. They looked like they were familiar with all of the hoopla… in fact, they looked very familiar. They were none other than Oddvar Brå, Harald Gronningen, Tormod Knutsen, Gjermund Eggen, Odd Martinsen and Vladimir Smirnoff!

Those guys hold more medals than any group you could possibly find “by accident” on the race-course. This is definitely the mecca of Nordic skiing. Thomas Alsgaard was a regular commentator on NRK (Norwegian TV), Bente Skari was Chief of Competition, Yelena Välbe was seen regularly (she is coaching now), Björn Daehlie was hanging out… and this is just to name a few of the medal winners and former World Cup and Olympic skiers that were at Holmenkollen.

Here are some of the folks we sought-out/ran into today.

Finnish Member of FIS

Chief of Competition – John Aalberg

Catching up with Atomic’s Roman Toferer

Taking a look inside the Norwegian wax truck with Knut Nystad

Chatting with Marit Bjoergen’s personal wax tech

Wrap Up
The races were followed up with some Italian food with our cousin/niece. Ritva balanced out the racing excitement with a trip to a concert with her cousin (Tord Gustavsen – Norwegian jazz musician – if you like jazz, especially piano jazz, I recommend looking up this guy and/or his trio – the music takes you to another place).

The concert was held in Oslo’s Cathedral (more info HERE), which recently re-opened after some renovations. The church is beautiful, but the pews sure are hard to sit on after a day of running around Holmenkollen!

On Saturday morning, Ahvo returned to the US for the Junior Olympic action while I stayed in Oslo, but opted to stay in town and take in the excitement from another vantage point. Part of me wishes I had gone up to the race course as the sun finally came out but I opted to try something new. My flight on Sunday left early enough in the evening that I had to read up about the 50km later.

The trails will seem a bit quieter after this experience, but I think it is safe to say that both Ahvo and I have some really fond memories of this trip. I know that he has wanted to watch the Word Championships in Norway for a long time (15 or more years), and I decided that I wanted to watch the WC in Norway after watching his videos from the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994 and experiencing a little Nordic World Ski Championships in 1995 when the whole family went to the WC in Thunder Bay.

I am still trying to figure out if this want/need to go to Holmenkollen for the WC is a result of nature or nurture. I doubt that any country can stage the Nordic Worlds as well as the Norwegians can, and I have a hard time imagining that there could be a more ski-crazy nation. I also wonder who makes the Norwegian flags… they must have a pretty fat checkbook by now.

At this point I would also like to mention the hotel that we stayed at – the Hotel Guldsmeden Carlton Oslo (more info HERE). The hotel was on the smaller side and has only been open since about October. They are currently polishing off a spa in the basement and have very comfortable rooms, a tasty breakfast buffet and nice location not too far from the harbor, public transportation and Oslo center.

The staff were fantastic during our stay. I have never met a more hospitable and friendly group of hotel staff in all of my travels. Should you be traveling to Oslo in the near future, check this place out and say hi to the hotel manager Kim (who speaks impeccable English and is actually from Denmark).

For a quick look around the lobby with Kim, check out this video:

That’s it for now! We hope you all have enjoyed reading about our adventures (and secrets) and also hope that at least some of the excitement from this event has been transferred to you through our coverage here at SkiTrax. An event like this is an excellent reminder of the many positive things that can be experience and absorbed from our sport.

Keep on skiing!

March 08, 2011 (Minneapolis, MN) – The 2011 Junior Olympics are underway in Minneapolis, running March 7-12. The event venue, Theodore Wirth Regional Park, highlights the vibrancy of skiing in a large metropolitan area for the first time in the history of the Nordic Junior Olympics. The week-long event provides opportunities for athletes, coaches and spectators to enjoy exciting race events, to socialize at spectacular venues, and to spend time together cheering along the courses.

The state of Nordic skiing in the Twin Cities and out-state regions of Minnesota and Wisconsin is alive and well with thousands of Nordic skiers in the communities. Minnesota’s Youth Ski League is one of the nation’s premier youth skiing programs with over 1,290 young skiers and the Minnesota State High School League state championship race is the largest state competition in the nation.

Day 1 Sprints
Monday’s Junior Olympic sprint competition at Wirth Park was a staggering success. After the noon qualifiers and early afternoon quarters, a select 72 skiers earned the right to compete under the lights in the evening’s semis and finals.

The night racing was uniquely special, as athletes competed on a lit course accented by luminaries and with a view of the Minneapolis skyline. In his post-race interview, boy’s J1 winner Logan Hanneman, called the venue, “Sick!” (a complement!). Hanneman, who has been around the world as a ski racer (Scando Cup team the last two years), especially wanted to praise the course and the volunteers, “It sounds cliché to complement the race, but in this case it’s legitimate. It’s sweet racing in a city environment.”

By the event’s 8:00 pm conclusion, six athletes had earned themselves the right to call themselves national champions. Not only did they win their final race of the night, but they also endured the pressure and fatigue of a long day at the venue, demonstrating more than just speed.

J2 boy’s winner, New England’s Hamish McEwen felt right at home at Wirth Park. McEwen, who took the overall win after qualifying in first position in the morning, calls the Weston Ski Track in Cambridge, Massachusetts home. Weston, located just outside of Boston, is a golf course with 15 kilometers of ski trails. Wirth Park, McEwen says, is “a lot like Weston.”

McEwen reports that he has done the training to back up his win. As he puts it, “I ski a lot” and estimated his training volume as being 450-500 hours last year.

Like McEwen, the other medalists in the boy’s J2 race, showed consistency through out the heats. Second place Thomas O’Harra (Alaska’s East HS) and third place Haakon Sigurslid (Rocky Mountain’s Durango HS) qualified in third and second respectively in the morning.

On paper, Marion Woods (Alaska’s Dimond HS) was a clear favorite in the girls J2 field. Though only a J2, she participated in this year’s Scando Cup J1 Trip, and was recently runner-up in the notoriously difficult Alaska State Championships. Nevertheless, after she crossed the line for the win in the final, she appeared delighted by what she had accomplished, and called JOs, “the ultimate in scale.” Behind Woods, New England scored critical points by putting two on the podium: Brooke Mooney (Stratton Mountain School) finished second after winning the morning’s qualification, and Heidi Halvorsen (Green Mountain Valley School) took third.

In the J1 boy’s field, Logan Hanneman (Lathrop HS) added another win to a successful season. Logan’s win, two weeks after his dominating win at the Alaska State Championships, is especially sweet given his health at this time last year. In 2010, he was unable to fulfill his end of season goals after he was diagnosed with mono around State Championships time. This year, his season started slowly (he had additional health problems in the fall), but now he finds himself peaking at the end of the season, in his words, “getting better and better” each day. Behind Hanneman were three Midwest skiers successfully representing their home region (second: Andy Dodds of Apple Valley HS, third: Kevin Bolger of Lakeland HS in Wisconsin, and fourth: Ben Saxton of Lakeville North HS.)

The girls J1 final was a show of dominance by New England. Heather Mooney (Stratton Mountain School) won by a decisive ten or so meters, and teammates Corey Stock (Cambridge Sports Union), Cambria McDermott (Stratton Mountain School), Tara Geraghty-Moats, and Rachel Hall (Stratton Mountain School) filled positions two through five. The group would not quite acknowledge that a sweep was their plan for the day, they said, “We knew we had the potential to do it. We woke up this morning ready to make the A-Final.”

Junior World Championships teammates and good friends Skylar Davis (Stratton Mountain School) and George Cartwright (High Plains, Northern Michigan University) knew it was likely to come down to one of the two of them for the win. Skylar acknowledged coming into the final really psyched; right before the final, he ate a Powerbar gel blast (cola), which “really got him going.” He made his move on the hill, gaining a few critical seconds on Cartwright and then held him off, although he was “completely spent in the lanes” and could hear people yelling for George, who finished second. Third went to the Midwest’s Ben Hugus, a Northern Michigan University skier, who won the Korteloppet two weeks ago.

For the hometown audience, the best race came last as Afton, Minnesota’s Jessie Diggins, recently returned home from the World Championships, lived up to her billing with a decisive win. Diggins was completely humble despite the triumphs of her 2011 season. She said that she had to “go all out,” and that she was happy to be competing against “such great girls. It’s a great privilege to race against them.” When asked to compare her experience at the Minneapolis Junior Olympics to her recent adventures at the Holmenkollen World Championships, she said, “Holmenkollen is cool, but a hometown crowd is even cooler.”

Full results HERE.