Ski-O Nationals 2014
The Family Sweep! From left: Jon Owens, Kestrel Owens, Allison Van Akkeren, Adrian Owens w/the hardware.
Allison, Adrian and Kestrel Owens have been tearing up the Ski-O circuit all winter, along with Melanie Sergiev, also of Craftsbury. Adrian and Allison passed this along after Ski-O Nationals earlier this month at Trapps. Congrats! That’s an impressive medal haul!
The biennial Ski-Orienteering National Championships were held March 14-16 at Trapp Family Lodge’s network of cross country ski trails. New trails packed by a single snowmobile added complexity to the map reading and route choices. Training with a map at Trapps was prohibited all winter for skiers racing at these championship races. Local skiers placed well all weekend, including one family’s 4 gold medal day in the long distance race.
Male and female racers came from around the country to race either in their actual age group or in the elite category for World Ranking points and a bid for next year’s national team. Some foreign skiers also competed with many from Canada taking advantage of a nearby race, but were not eligible for National Championship medals. A total of 92 skiers navigated the middle distance race Saturday. All the current US national team members, both junior and senior, competed to defend their spots. Ali Crocker, Alex Jospe, and Anna Vogele (all veterans of last year’s World Championship in Kazakhstan) placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in every race of the Women’s Elite category.
Two Craftsbury Academy students took some time off from school to race in the Elite Sprint on Friday. Melanie Sergiev placed 4th in 25:24, behind the three women of the Senior team, and only 6 minutes out of 3rd place. Melanie was 5th in Saturday’s middle distance race (48:09) and 6th in the long distance at ( 1:30:15). Kestrel Owens raced with the elite men on Friday for a 7th place finish in 20:45, just 4 minutes behind the winning time of 16:47. He then switched to his 16 and under age class for the rest of the weekend, which he dominated with 2 first place medals. Although there were only a few boys in Kestrel’s category for direct competition, he also had the fastest time of all the 34 racers on his course, which included several past national team members.
Two other Craftsbury residents also had successful races.
Adrian Owens raced in the men’s elite category and won all three races. There was tough competition from Greg Walker of Truckee, California and Donatas Ereminas from Lithuania. Greg beat Adrian in 6 out of 9 races last year. Up-and comer Will Frelinghaus, who raced for the US at the Junior World Orienteering Championships in 2011 and just finished in his 3rd winter of skiing for St. Lawrence University, was pushing the pace and despite a couple navigation mistakes skied to two 3rd place medals. Will broke a pole in the deep snow during the sprint race which dropped him back to 5th. Adrian said, “I had a good winter of training and was skiing fast, but if I had made just one serious navigation error there was a handful of guys ready to eat my lunch.” Full results can be seen at http://attackpoint.org/eventdetail.jsp/event_18577
Allison Van Akkeren, Adrian’s wife, raced in the Women’s elite group Saturday where she placed 6th in 51:58. She feels that her skiing is strong but struggles sometimes with the navigation. She switched to her age 40+ category due to the cold weather Sunday and won gold!
Adrian’s brother Jonathan Owens flew in for the long weekend of racing from Oakland, CA and went home with 3 gold medals in the men’s 40+ age group. That contributed a fun photo op after the final race with 4 gold medals for the Owens family.