Last Updated: 07.Jan.2014

It has been a few weeks since the GRP biathletes returned from their December trials races in Mt. Itasca, MN, but in light of some great performances from the crew, we decided that they needed some belated news coverage. The trials were a four race series with three sprint (7.5k/10k) competitions and one mass start. One woman and two men were selected from the trials to compete at an IBU Cup in Ridnaun, Italy, in hopes of making the Olympic team. GRP biathlete Clare Egan had some great results at trials and just narrowly missed the IBU Cup selection. Here’s the rundown of the week’s races.

Saturday, December 14th- 10k/7.5k Sprint 

It was freezing cold in Mt. Itasca for the first sprint competition, but the organizers managed to pull off a sprint competition, 10k for the men and 7.5k for the women. On the women’s side, Clare Egan finished 3rd in spite of 6 misses, 2 in prone and 4 in standing. Ethan Dreissigacker and Mike Gibson took 5th and 7th place, with 2 and 5 misses respectively

Monday, December 16th – 10k/7.5k Sprint 

Another day, another sprint race for the GRP biathletes. On the men’s side, Mike and Ethan took 7th and 9th places, with Mike improving his shooting with only 2 misses. Clare took 3rd again with 5 misses, making it clear that she was skiing fast but just needed to improve her shooting to climb up the podium.

Tuesday, December 17th – 15k/10k Mass Start

Tuesday’s race brought a change of pace for the GRP biathletes with a slightly longer mass start competition that included 4 shooting stages instead of 2. Clare Egan improved on her result from the previous two races and finished 2nd to Anna Kubek. She had 9 misses total, but had the fastest ski leg of the day. She also cleaned a shooting stage for the first time in competition in her first prone stage. It is Clare’s first year as a full time biathlete, so improvements on the range are a big step up! Ethan and Mike finished right next to each other in 8th and 9th place.

Wednesday, December 18th- 10k/7.5k Sprint

In the last competition of the week, it was back to a sprint race with two shooting stages. Clare had her best shooting of the week with only 3 misses, 1 in prone and 2 in standing. She was able to combine this with fast skiing to take the victory. Mike had his best race of the trials week with a 5th place finish and shot well too, with only 1 miss in prone. Ethan finished 10th to wrap up his trials. In the overall, Clare placed second to Tracy Barnes and just narrowly missed an IBU Cup spot. Mike and Ethan finished 7th and 9th in the overall.

The GRP biathletes have been back in Craftsbury, training hard and organizing a Biathlon Super Sprint for this coming Saturday, January 11th. They will be competing next in Jericho, VT on January 23rd. You can see results from the trials race here (scroll down to find links).