GRP Biathletes Compete at Hochfilzen World Cup and Ridnaun IBU Cup

Clare, Emily, Susan, and Joanne (L-R) placed 8th in the Hochfilzen relay which was the best US women’s relay performance since 2014 (photo: US Biathlon Women)

This past weekend, GRP biathletes competed in two international events: World Cup #2 in Hochfilzen, Austria and IBU Cup #2 in Ridnaun, Italy. 

World Cup:

The first event of World Cup #2 was a sprint in which Clare Egan posted the top US result in 66th with two misses. She was followed by Emily Dreissigacker in 71st, with one miss in each stage, and Susan Dunklee in 95th. In the men’s race, Alex Howe placed 74th also with one miss in each stage. Next up was a relay. In the women’s event, Clare, Susan, and Emily were joined by USBA teammate Joanne Reid. The team had a strong day placing 8th with no penalties and only 8 spares. This is the US women’s best relay result since 2014 and marks their second top-10 in one week. Susan raced the second leg shooting clean with three standing spares. Clare shot clean using no spares, and Emily shot clean using only one prone spare. On the men’s side, Alex was joined by USBA teammates Sean Doherty, Leif Nordgren, and Travis Cooper. The team placed 18th with three penalties and 9 spares. 

IBU Cup:

IBU Cup #2 kicked off with a Super Sprint. For the women, Kelsey Dickinson had a strong qualifier placing 27th and shooting clean. She finished 30th in the final. Hallie Grossman placed 81st. For the men, Jake Brown also had a strong race placing 11th in the qualifier, with clean shooting. He finished 21st in the final with only one miss. The next event on the calendar was a sprint. Kelsey finished 45th with three misses and Hallie was close behind in 47th also with three misses. For the men, Jake had an outstanding performance placing 6th with only one standing miss. The final event of the weekend was a mass start. Hallie had the top GRP women’s result placing 35th with only three misses. Kelsey placed 50th. In the men’s race, Jake had another strong race placing 14th with three misses. He also skied the fastest time-on-day.

World Cup racing continues next week in Le Grand Bornand, France on December 19th with the men’s sprint and IBU Cup action continues in Obertilliach, Austria on December 18th with men’s and women’s short individual races. More info and full results for both the IBU and World Cup can be found at biathlonworld.com.