CNSC Juniors Shine at the 1st Eastern Cup
The first Eastern Cup of the 2019-2020 is in the books! The races, originally slated for the Sugarloaf Outdoor Center, where moved to the Quarry Road Trails in Waterville, Maine; a move necessitated by low snow at Sugarloaf. A big shout out to the Quarry Road crew for making this weekend happen! This weekend is called the Roy Varney Eastern Cup Opener, named after the Maine skier who passed away earlier this year. The races were a skate sprint on Saturday and interval start classic races on Sunday.
As usual, the sprint day began with a qualifier, where every athlete raced the 1.3k course. Craftsbury girls qualifiers:
Quincy Massey-Bierman - 6th
Abigail Streinz - 19th
Camille Bolduc - 26th
Isabelle Serrano and Maggie McGee were 58th (23rd U18) and 59th (11thU16), respectively, one second apart. May Lamb was 67th (30th U18), Adrienne Remick was 71st (34th U18) reportedly with some gutsy skiing that led to a fall, and Ayla Bodach-Turner was 97th (21st U16).
The top 30 qualifiers move on to the Open Heats, where they race at least once and up to three more times, depending on their results. Camille finished the day - 28th (9th U18) after her semifinal heat. Abigail wrapped up her day 20th(7th U20), after her semifinal.
The six racer final, contained four current or former CNSC racers! Avery Ellis took the win over Middlebury College teammate Alex Lawson in 2nd, Quincy was 3rd (1st U18), and Dartmouth Junior Callie Young was 6th!
On the boy’s side, Finn Sweet was the first CNSC qualifier in 7th, followed by Jack Young tied for 24th with alum Anders Hanson. Griffin Wright slipped into the last open men's qualilfier heats slot at 30th.
Greyson Davis was 40th (11th U18), Jed Kurts was 47th (16th U18), Aiden Casey was 66th (23rd U18), Tzevi Schwartz was 79th (7th U16), Orion Cenkl was 95th (12th U16), Makail Tipton was 100th (38th U18), Samuel Clark was 105th (40th U18), Leo Circosta was 117th (16th U18), and Luke Streinz was 119th (19th U16).
Finn Sweet (number 7) in quarterfinal (Photo: Dave Priganc).
In the heats, Finn just missed out on the final, finishing 7th overall (2nd U18). Jack and Griffin retained their placing after the quarterfinals, ending their days in 24th (5th U18), and 30th (9th U20), respectively.
Sunday brought about classic races for all. Races were switched to interval starts because of the snow conditions. All women raced two 2.5k loops, for 5k total. Quincy was 17th overall (3rd U18), followed closely by Camille in 23rd (6th U18). Abigail was 28th (8th U20), Maggie was 32nd (4th U16), and Adrienne was 35th (11th U18). Isabelle was 60th (23rd U18), May was 67th (26th U18), and Ayla was 111th (23rd U16).
The men’s race was four laps of the 2.5k course, for 10k total. Finn was 10th (3rd U18), followed by Griffin in 14th (6th U20), then Jack in 26th (11th U18). Makail was 45th (17th U18), Aiden was 53rd (22nd U18), Samuel was 60th (26th U18), and Greyson was 74th (34th U18).
The U16 boys was two laps of the 2.5k. Tzevi was 4th and Leo was 16th. Orion was 20th and Luke was 29th.
Congratulations to everyone for great races and to the coaches for helping all these kids! Eastern Cup racing will continue after the New Year on January 25 and 26 at Craftsbury, in conjunction with the SuperTour and UVM Carnival. See full results from the weekend.