Team Vermont at the J2 Champs. Photo from NENSA.net
Updates on the NENSA website make it look as though the J2 Championships had some beautiful weather in addition to the always fun atmosphere. Going into the final day, Maine held a lead over Vermont, but the VT’ers pulled out the title with strong relay performances. Forrest Hamilton had a strong weekend on the boys side, taking a 3rd in the 5km skate race. Several other locals were seen in the results (and photos catching big air) including cyclocross star Cooper Willsey (CVU), Charlie Maitland (CVU), Charlie Cobb (MMU), Peter Unger and Ben Longenbach (CVUers), and Nigel Sarrazin of Colchester. The local gals were also well represented, with Lydia Picotte (MMU), Rachel Slimovitch (CVU), Abby Grab (MMU), and Kate Burke (CVU).
Full results from the J2 Champs.
Junior Nationals in Alaska:
Link to official Junior Nationals 2013 website.
Link to Summit Timing – results / start lists and LIVE RESULTS for Junior Nationals.
Today were also the first day of competition at Junior Nationals in Fairbanks, Alaska. Fairbanks is a cold and dry place, where it snows in October and that snow doesn’t melt until April or May! Conditions are excellent here at Birch Hill — if a bit cold — but we’ve had so few cold powder days in the past 2 seasons of racing. Today were the 5/10km individual skate races on a grueling course. The trails start with challenging S-turn descents that put lactate and adrenaline into your body immediately. Then the main climb smacks you in the face around the 1km mark. The course trends up for nearly 2.5 km before rolling and downhill stretches.
Our local athletes and MNC athletes absolutely killed it today: brothers Jack and Ben Hegman began the day by both placing 4th in the OJ and J1 categories, respectively. Next on course were the J2 Boys and brothers Bill Harmeyer and Henry Harmeyer were the cookie-portion of an oreo sandwich (placing 5th and 8th) while Nathanael Kuzio was the delicious cream filling (placing 7th). CVU grad Sienna Searles placed 23rd in the OJ gals category and South Burlington’s Aleksandra Zakrzewska was 27th OJ.
Ben Hegman en route to 4th place J1 in the country!
Nathanael Kuzio skates to a 7th place finish in J2!
Bill Harmeyer climbing to 5th place J2
Henry Harmeyer en route to 8th place J2
Ben Hegman en route to 4th place J1 in the country!
Jack Hegman en route to 4th OJ
Yeseterday we took some of the J1/OJ boys out to see the ice sculptures from the recent World Ice Carving Championships. Here is the winning sculpture — a huge scene with a valiant knight attacking a dragon that has a woman held captive in chains. It is truly amazing to see in person:
The winning sculpture at World Ice Carving Championships!
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