GRP Skiers at Craftsbury Eastern Cup
Kaitlynn Miller and Liz Guiney in their semifinal sprint heat (Photo John Lazenby)
Ben Lustgarten in the freestyle sprint (Photo John Lazenby)
Caitlin Patterson on top of the podium in the 5k freestyle (Photo NENSA)
Last Updated: 23.Dec.2018
Green Racing Project skiers were very well represented racing at home at the Craftsbury Eastern Cup this weekend. The Eastern Cup Opener was the first in the 2018-2019 Eastern Cup series put on by NENSA. The races all had large fields, with a plethora of Eastern juniors, college skiers, masters, and elite skiers.
Saturday December 22- Freestyle Sprint
Of the six GRP skiers racing in Saturday's freestyle sprint, all made the top 30 in qualifying. Ida Sargent led the way for women in 2nd, Kaitlynn Miller placed 6th, Liz Guiney took 10th, and Corey Stock was 11th. Sargent sat out the heats, so the other three were tasked with trying to advance. Miller won her quarterfinal and placed 2nd in her semifinal to make the A Final. Unfortunately, a shoulder injury kept her out of the final, so she took an automatic 6th. Guiney was 2nd in her quarterfinal and 4th in her semifinal, advancing to the A Final from a lucky loser spot. She went on to place 4th in the final. Stock placed 4th in her quarterfinal, good for 16th overall. On the men's side, Ben Lustgarten qualified in 4th and Akeo Maifeld-Carucci was 29th. Maifeld-Carucci took 6th in his quarterfinal and ended up 30th overall. Lustgarten advanced all the way to the A Final, where he placed 5th.
Sunday December 23- 5/10k Freestyle Individual
While originally planned as mass starts, the freestyle distance races on Sunday were changed to individual starts after rain brought icy conditions. In the women's 5k, Caitlin Patterson led the way, taking the win by just under 4 seconds. Next was Liz Guiney in 7th place. In the men's 10k, Ben Lustgarten also took the win for the GRP by over 20 seconds. Next was Adam Martin in 4th, followed by Akeo Maifeld-Carucci in 13th place. Another notable finish was Hannah Dreissigacker, former GRP biathlete, finishing 18th in the women's race!
Full results from the weekend are available on BullittTiming.com.
A number of Craftsbury juniors also had great races this weekend, and we'll be bringing you a full story on those results soon!