Tag Archives | juniors

VT wins J2 Champs; MNC Top-10’s at Junior Nationals!

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!

MNC Juniors Amongst the Best in VT

By Adam Terko on 27 February, 2013 in Junior Blog

High School skiers wrapped up their season over the past week with the State Championships events held over the course of 2 days. Last Thursday featured skate races at Craftsbury, while they raced classic events at Prospect yesterday. CVU showed their strength and depth to take the overall titles in both boys and gals D1.

BFP Day 1 Coverage and Results

BFP Day 2 Coverage and Results

MNC athletes were present on many teams from around the County, including CVU, MMU, Essex, BHS, Colchester, BFA-St. Albans and Harwood. Skiing for the State Champion CVU squad were: Forrest Hamilton, Emmett Peterson, Parker Francis, Sean Delaney, Charlie Maitland, Thomas Clayton and Sam Longenbach — all members of MNC!! Forrest won the individual title for D1 skate, and was 2nd in the classic. Nathanael Kuzio (Harwood/MNC) was 2nd in the state in the D2 skate, and 3rd in the classic. Rounding out the podium yesterday was Emmett Peterson in 3rd. Ethan John joined the aforementioned athletes in 13th overall D1 skate and climbed to 9th in the classic.

On the gals’ side, CVU won it all, featuring several MNC athletes as well. Autumn Eastman was 3rd in skate, followed by Cally Braun, Kayla Servin and Emma Hamilton (all CVU/MNC) and all in the top-15. Autumn claimed 3rd again in classic, while Cally and Emma moved up to 7th and 9th, respecitively.

While I am not certain, I believe nearly >90% of participants in the MNC summer program represented their high schools at the State Champs. I haven’t seen full results, but I know there were many other MNC skiers racing (Nigel Sarrazin, Jordan Lamay, Ethan Thibault of Colchester, Lucy Leith and Lukas Adamowicz of BHS, Leslie Robers of BFA-St.A, Tatum Braun of CVU). My apologies if I missed anyone, please let me know or add a comment.

MNC will host open training tomorrow (Thursday 2/28) as well as next Tuesday and THursday 3/5 and 3/7. All training will take place at the Range at 4pm.

Nigh Time Rollerskiing

Emmett Peterson, CVU

Amy Bruce, MMU

Ethan John, Essex

Ethan Thibault, Colchester

Juniors: Recap of the final Eastern Cup weekend

By Adam Terko on 18 February, 2013 in Junior Blog

[scroll to bottom for pictures]

The Eastern Cup race series finished this past weekend with 2 distance races in Waterville, ME. A small but strong group of MNC athletes attended these races, which are the final qualifiers for Junior National Championships.

It was a hectic day on Saturday for mass-start classic races. Temps between 32-36˚ F coupled with falling snow and wind made challenging conditions. The Harmeyer brothers persevered in the J2 category in a race that was sadly defined by equipment and wax. Ben Hegman skied another awesome race in the Open Men’s field to finish as the top junior and 6th overall!

Sunday was cold, very windy, and still had flurries in the air. Nathanael Kuzio, who sat out of the race on Saturday due to illness, had an amazing race in spite of being in a pressure-cooker battle for the JN team (3 boys fighting for last 2 spots). “Newt” skied a well-paced race and stayed upright on some very challenging descents to finish 3rd in the J2 boys category — and secure his trip to Alaska for Junior Nationals!

Although the Harmeyer brothers are only age 15 (J2 category), they raced up in the Open Men’s field to gain a point of reference for the future. Bill followed his pre-race plan of skiing smooth for 7km and then turning up the pace to finish 33rd overall. Henry skied strong wire-to-wire and finished 12th overall and he was the 7th place junior.

On the horizon are the Vermont State High School Championships, so be on the lookout for MNC athletes peppering the results! The freestyle races take place this Thursday @ Craftsbury, and the classic events are next Tuesday at Prospect. Good luck to all!!!

Ben in the 15km

Bill in the 10km

Nathanael racing at Craftsbury last weekend

Henry Harmeyer (right)

Juniors: Mountain Top Eastern Cup pics/recap

By Adam Terko on 16 January, 2013 in BKL Race Blog, Junior Blog, Masters Blog

This past weekend was the 2nd Eastern Cup event of the season. Athletes raced in sprint races on Saturday, and classic distance on Sunday. The Eastern Cup series are the most competitive races in the region, and some of the more competitive races in the country. Junior racers (under age 20) use this series to qualify for Junior National Championships at the end of the season.

MNC had approx 8-10 athletes racing each day. While our numbers are small compared to some teams/clubs, we are growing and we are strong. One really neat thing is that many of the MNC athletes are juggling their high-school race schedule in addition to the Eastern Cups — which is a challenge to say the least! Thanks to the athletes for being a pleasure to work with, and thanks to all the parents that contributed to the weekend: waxing, running errands and carrying gear, giving splits, taking pictures, and keeping me energized with coffee and brownies!

Congrats to all the athletes and good luck to our BKL crew with the MNC Duathlon Race this coming weekend in Jericho!!

Following are some great photos that were contributed by Gary Solow (father of J3 Will Solow), and a few comments:

Ben Hegman (to the left) skiing in the J1 boys sprint heats. Ben was 2nd J1 in the classic race the following day!

Bill Harmeyer finished a strong 3rd both days in the J2s

Cally Bruan (j1) working the flats

Emmett Peterson in the 10km classic. Watch for Emmett’s name in the college ranks in another couple years!

J2 Forrest Hamilton eeked out a win in the J2 Boys sprint heats…at the lower-right side of this pic you can see the ski tips of the 2nd place racer

Henry Harmeyer en route to his win in the 5km classic.

Nathanael Kuzio is one of the best J2’s in the region! He finished 6th in this classic race.

Parker Francis showing his strong double-pole

Sam Longenbach fighting through a tough-day

J2-1st year Tatum Braun racing in her first-ever Eastern Cup

J3 Will Solow had an opportunity to see just how fast these athletes are!!

Juniors: Training 12/31 – 1/6

By Adam Terko on 30 December, 2012 in Junior Blog

This is a speed week with an opportunity to race on Saturday.

Tuesday = no organized training. Easy/fun skiing on your own or with your team!
Wednesday = 4:00 – 5:30pm at Sleepy Hollow. Classic ski with short intervals and speeds.
Thursday = 4:00 – 5:45pm at the Range. Skate ski with speeds and games.
Sunday = approx. 9:00 – 11:00am at Sleepy Hollow or Catamount. Low intensity ski with speeds and specific strength.