Last Updated: 09.Jan.2018

Last week, three Craftsbury juniors and one Craftsbury alum turned Middlebury skier made the trip to Anchorage, Alaska for U.S. Nationals. This is a large and competitive race series, where qualifications for many events are on the line. For the older racers, the Olympics or National Champion titles could be the prize, but for the younger competitors the goal is to gain experience and qualify for a chance to race in Europe on the U18 Scandinavian Cup trip later this winter. Phoebe Sweet, Callie Young, and Griffin Wright were the current juniors that travelled, as well as current Middlebury skier Alex Lawson, under the tutelage of Anna Schulz, Jake Barton, and Ollie Burruss (who were also helping with ski service for the GRP).

The first race was on January 3rd and was a freestyle 10k for women and 15k for men. The juniors got the opportunity to go head-to-head with the senior racers. In the women’s race, Callie was 49th overall (5th U18), Alex was 53rd (10th U20), and Phoebe was 82nd (15th U18). In the men’s race, Griffin was 112th (24th U18). 

On January 5th the freestyle sprint races took place. In the men’s qualifying round Griffin was 137th (31st U18). For the women, Callie was 33rd, only one second out of qualifying for the open heats, and was the 2nd U18. Alex was 46th (5th U20) and Phoebe was 82nd (21st U18). Callie and Alex both moved on to the junior heats. Callie was 1st in her quarterfinal, 2nd in her semi-final, and then 2nd in the junior A-final. This landed her as the 2nd U18 on the day. Alex was 2nd in her quarterfinal then 5th in her semi final. 

After one day off, the juniors got ready for their last race of the series: the classic mass start. Griffin raced a 10k classic mass start, where he finished 41st and was the 17th U18. The women raced a fast and furious 5k mass start. Alex was the first Craftsbury racer across the line in 11th (8th U20), followed by Callie in 19th (6th U18), and Phoebe in 33rd (16th U18). 

Based on this week of racing, Callie was named to the U18 Scandinavian Cup trip team. She and 11 other U18 men and women will travel to Vuokatti, Finland from January 21 to January 31 for three races. Stay tuned for more on that later in the month.   

Congratulations to this crew for a week of great racing in a tough field! Junior racing continues this weekend at the Rikert Nordic Center for the second Eastern Cup of the season. 

See full results here.