Last Updated: 22.Dec.2015

This weekend marked the beginning of the Eastern Cup series, the arrival of winter, and the opportunity for the Craftsbury juniors to put their summer and fall training to the test against one of the largest Eastern Cup fields on record. Saturday, amidst dumping snow, competitors raced around the upper and lower soccer fields two and a half times, to complete a 1.6 kilometer sprint. In an effort to work with Mother Nature and still hold sprint rounds, despite the minimal snow on the ground, qualifying numbers were reduced to sixteen for the open field and eight each for the U16 and U18/U20 fields.

Callie Young qualified as the first U16 and Phoebe Sweet as the eighth, landing them spots in the same semi final, where they finished third and fourth in that heat, helping them to finish up their days within the top eight for U16’s. Several Craftsbury girls finished within one second of each other, including Madeline Strasser and Avery Ellis, who were 83rd and 84th overall, and Rebecca Thompson and Ruby Lamb who were 131st and 132nd. Rena Schwartz was 59th, while Alex Lawson placed 99th, Marika Massey- Bierman 102nd, Ani Koontz Miller 112th, and Jordi Julis 159th in the nearly 200-competitor field.

Anders Hanson led the charge on the men’s side, with a 65th place finish, followed by Alex Warner in 70th. Jacob Morse and Noah Eckstein continued the trend set by the girls of very close times, with 103rd and 104th place finishes, separated by less than a tenth of a second. Next was Matthew Lawlor in 127th, Griffin Wright in 146th, and Henry Hoffert in 148th.

Sunday was another short day for all, with both men and women, U16 through masters, racing five kilometers of zigzagging loops through the fresh snow. Anders was Craftsbury’s first finisher, in 72nd place. A tight group of Craftsbury racers with Matthew in 105th, Alex in 107th and Noah 108th, finished less than one second apart. Griffin and Jacob were less than a second apart as well, in 129th and 131st respectively. Henry was 154th and Bjorn Westervelt was 176th.

On the women’s side, Phoebe led the Craftsbury junior girls in 68th overall, followed by Callie in 76th, and Avery in 80th. Rena, Marika, and Alex were close together in 91st, 98th, and 101st. Madeline was 125th, Rebecca 133rd, Ruby 138th, Ani 141st, and Jordi 160th.

Though the Eastern Cup racing winded down by two pm, there was still more racing to be had! The BKL races took center stage with five races of varying distances. James Kehler took the win in the lollipop division, while brother Thomas was second in the first and second grade boys race, following Craftsbury’s Charlie Isselhardt. Green suits dominated the third and fourth grade boys race, with Alan Moody in first, Sage Grossi in second, and Charlie Kehler in fourth. Ani Leahy was the lone Craftsbury competitor in the third and fourth grade girls race, finishing second. Cormac Leahy won the fifth and sixth grade boys race, followed by Tzevi Schwartz and Orion Cenkl in fifth and sixth. Jude Coe tried his hand at racing in this competitive group. In the fifth and sixth grade girls race, Aliza Wright led the way for Craftsbury in third place, followed by Anna Isselhardt in fifth, Kata Gilbertson in seventh, and Mae Searles in eighth. There was a strong group of Craftsbury racers in the seventh and eighth grade boys race, with Brian Bushey, Jack Young, Finn Sweet, and David Moody finishing second, third, fourth, and sixth. To finish off the day, Quincy Massey- Bierman won the seventh and eight grade girls race, with Adrienne Remick in fourth and Sydney Kulis in seventh.

Eastern Cup Racing resumes January 16th and 17th at Black Mountain in Rumford Maine.

Eastern cup results can be found here and BKL results here

Start of the green dominated seventh and eighth grade race (NENSA photo)

Juniors and BKL'ers take on the first Eastern Cup Weekend at Craftsbury