Craftsbury Racers Have Strong Performances at Final Eastern Cup and NorAm

Jordi Kulis in the 5k skate at Holderness (NENSA photo).

Last Updated: 14.Feb.2017

This weekend marked the end of the Eastern Cup series for the 2016-2017, with races at Craftsbury and the Holderness School. 

On Saturday, the Silver Fox Trot edition of the Eastern Cup was held in conjunction with the Dartmouth Carnival at Craftsbury and featured a 5k classic race for women and U16 boys and a 10k for the men.  The women raced in a competitive collegiate, senior, and junior field. Alex Lawson was the first CNSC junior in 25th, followed by Callie Young in 41st, Avery Ellis in 58th, and Phoebe Sweet in 67th. Adrienne Remick (U16) was 103rd, Marika Massey- Bierman was 114th and Jordi Kulis was 127th. Madeline Strasser was 134th and Anica Koontz- Miller was 137th.  

On the men’s side, once again in a stacked field, Noah Eckstein was 80th, Anders Hanson was 107th and Henry Hoffert was 109th. Jacob Morse was 144th, Nathaniel Wells was 162nd and Matthew Lawlor did not finish the race. For the U16 boys, Griffin Wright was 2nd, followed by Finn Sweet in 5th, and Jack Young in 21st. 

On Sunday, the scene moved to New Hampshire to Holderness for the Cheri Walsh Memorial Race. The women and U16’s raced a 5k classic while the men raced 10k. Alex Lawson placed 4th overall (1st U20) followed closely by Callie in 7th (3rd U18). Avery was 13th (3rd U20), Phoebe was 20th (5th U18), and Marika was .5 of a second behind in 21st (6th U18). Madeline was 42nd (15th U18), followed by Ani in 46th (17th U18), Adrienne in 57th (13th U16), and Jordi in 62nd (21st U18). 

Four GRP skiers also competed in the Eastern Cup In Saturday's race, Caitlin Patterson took the victory by 5 seconds over Liz Guiney, Heather Mooney placed 6th, and Mary O'Connell was 22nd. Mary also made the trip over to Holderness on Sunday and placed 2nd to Carly Wynn. 

Bjorn Westervelt raced in the biathlon NorAm at Jericho on Saturday and Sunday. In Saturday's sprint, Bjorn was 2nd, in the Boys 15-16 category, with clean prone shooting and two standing misses. In Sunday's pursuit, Bjorn finished 3rd in his category, with 8 misses. 

Results from the Eastern Cup can be found here and results from Jericho here. 

The end of the Eastern Cup series also means the naming of the New England Junior National team, which will take place March 6-11 in Lake Placid, New York. Alex Lawson, Callie Young, Phoebe Sweet, and Avery Ellis will be part of the U18/ U20 girl’s group, while Griffin Wright will be part of the U16 boys group. 

Junior racing will continue with Eastern High School/ U16 Qualifiers next Saturday in Craftsbury. The GRP will compete next in the SuperTour in Ishpeming, MI this weekend, while Ida Sargent and Ben Lustgarten will race World Cups in Otepaa, Estonia.