Craftsbury at Biathlon NorAm Champs
Biathlon NorAm Championship women's pursuit podium. L-R: Katrina Howe, Clare Egan, Rose-Marie Cote.
Last Updated: 29.Jan.2014
Green Racing Project biathletes Ethan Dreissigacker, Michael Gibson, and Clare Egan brought home a slew of medals from last weekend's North American Biathlon Championships in Jericho, Vermont. While the best of the best are in Europe preparing for the 2014 Olympic Games, over seventy-five biathletes of all ages and from as far away as western Canada came to Ethan Allen Biathlon Range to compete. The Craftsbury contingent also consisted of several volunteers and a number of Craftsbury junior biathletes.
In Friday's sprint race, Clare finished first in the women's 7.5k, just three seconds ahead of Katrina Howe of Maine Winter Sports Center. The men's 10k was also a closely-contested race, with Mike finishing second, only seven seconds behind winner Raleigh Goessling, also of Maine Winter Sports Center. Ethan was only ten seconds behind Mike in 3rd place.
Clare started first in Saturday's pursuit and led for the first half of the race with only one prone miss. With winds and inexperience taking their toll in the second half of the race, Clare had seven standing misses and was caught by Katrina as the two headed out for their final lap on course. In the end, it was another close race but Clare managed to pull away and win by a nine-second margin. In the men's pursuit, both GRP men were gunning for Goessling, but it was Ethan who had by far the best performance of the day, shooting 17/20 and winning by a minute and forty seconds. Raleigh finished second and Mike was third.
Sunday's mass start was perhaps the most exciting race of the weekend-- and also the coldest, with temperatures hovering in the barely-legal -4 zone. The top three men were all within seconds as they headed out for their final lap, with Ethan's fast shooting giving him an edge over Raleigh and Mike. Clare was racing on course when the three men blew by her about 400 meters from the finish line. Ethan passed me first, and he had a pretty good lead at that point, probably five seconds or so. Then Raleigh passed me, and before I could get back in the middle of the trail I heard Mike sort of grunt something at me so I got out of the way! He was really going for it. I couldn't believe how close they all were after 15k and four shooting stages." With a substantial amount of ground to make up, and not very much time to do so, Mike switched into a higher gear and with a heroic finish ended up second, just 5 seconds behind Ethan and 5 seconds ahead of Raleigh. Clare's mass start race was unfortunately mired by a series of technical difficulties, which you can read more about on the Green Racing Project's blog. Suffice it to say that she only hit 5 out of 20 targets!
The GRP biathletes were thrilled to be joined this weekend by a group of Craftsbury junior biathletes who have been attending practice twice weekly with coaches Mike and Ethan. The group included Xav and Ani Koontz Miller, Patrick and Jacob Lawlor, Anders Hanson and Jacob Morse. For most of these athletes it was their first biathlon race, and despite hectic and overcrowded zeroing, freezing temperatures, and some rifle issues, they all survived their frist race, and moved up in their second! Anders even made it onto the podium in the mass start, taking the bronze medal. Congrats to all!
WCAX News coverage, including interviews with Clare and Ethan.