Last Updated: 12.Mar.2019

This past weekend was a busy one, with big crews of Craftsbury juniors in Maine and at home. Ten U16’s from Craftsbury represented Team Vermont at the U16 Championships in Bethel, Maine, while a handful of mostly younger racers did the Spring Fling and New England Club Relay Championships on home turf.

The U16 Championships is a big and busy weekend of racing, with Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine each sending 24 of their best U16 athletes to compete for individual and team titles. The series kicked off on Friday with 5k skate races for both girls and boys. In the boys’ race, Cormac Leahy led the way for Craftsbuy in 11th, followed immediately by Tzevi Schwartz in 12th, then Orion Cenkl in 14th. Aiden Casey was 27thand Linden Stelma-Leonard was 54th. In the girls’ race, May Lamb was 11th, Maggie McGee was 19th, Linden Osborne was 39th, Aine Fannon was 42nd, and Weslie Carlson was 93rd. The next day, the technique changed to classic and everyone raced 5k again in the morning. On the boys’ side, Aiden was 3rd, Cormac 6th, Tzevi 13th, Orion 16th, and Linden S-L 29th. For the girls’, May was 10th, Maggie was 19th, Linden O was 28th, Aine was 49th, and Weslie was 69th. That afternoon, everybody raced again, with the distance shortened to 1.3k for a skate sprint race. For the boys’, Aiden was 4th, Orion 10th, Tzevi 17th, and Linden S-L 28th. For the girls’, Maggie once again led the way, this time in 21st, followed by May in 23rd, Aine in 27th, Linden O in 28th, and Weslie in 61st. The series concluded with mixed relays, where athletes were grouped with three other Vermonter’s. Aiden was on the winning team, while Cormac and May were both on the team that placed 6th. Aine was on the 13th place team, Linden on the 15th, and Orion on the 17th place team. Maggie teamed up for 21st, while Linden’s team was 23rd, and Tzevi on the 26t hplace team. Most importantly, Team Vermont won the weekend overall, with a score of 13,023, nearly 2,000 points ahead of Maine. Also of note, COC junior coach Audrey Mangan was the leader for this trip and definitely facilitated lots of speedy racing! 

At home, the Spring Fling took place under sunny skies with perfect skiing conditions. Owen Jones did his first 30k race ever, and finished 37th overall and 2nd U14. The Bill Koch race was designed by race course masterminds Jake Barton and Keith Woodward and featured an awesome Bump Course in Murphey’s Field. In the 4th grade race, Thomas Kehler was 1st, Maeda Urie was 2nd, Kate Mackenzie was 5th, and Lila Mackenzie was 6th. In the 5th grade race, Weslie Strong was the 1st boy, while Amelia Circosta and Marie Voisin were the 1st and 2nd girls, respectively. For 6th graders, Ruth Krebs was the 2nd girl and Charlie Kehler was the 2nd boy. In the 7th grade race, Leo Circosta was the 1st boy, while Anna Isselhardt was the 1st girl in the 8th grade race. This race was mass start style, so there was fast and furious racing all around, and provided great spectating.

The next day, Mansfield Nordic Club hosted their annual New England Club Relay Championships at Craftsbury. There was a huge sea of green in the BKL division! The teams and placings were as follows: Scrambled Eggs and Achin’: Leo Circosta, Sage Grossi, Charlie Krebs, and Alan Moody, 1st. Mars: Siri Dunn, Anna Isselhardt, Ruth Krebs, and Meg Voisin, 5th. Ski Amies: Amelia Circosta, Emily Linton, Isabel Linton, and Marie Voisin, 6th. The girls made an awesome fashion statement by adorning themselves with glitter, tutus, sparkly headbands, capes and more!

Several GRP’ers and coaches jumped in to the racing fun this weekend as well. In the Spring Fling, Raleigh Goessling won the 30k while Ethan Dreissigacker was 7th. On the women’s side, Hallie Grossman was the 1st woman. On Sunday, Raleigh, Hallie, Akeo Maifeld-Carucci, and Hallie’s brother Eli comprised the relay team that took first in the men’s under 199 years old division.

See U16 Championship results here and Spring Fling 30k results here. Relay results are posted here. Racing got underway on Monday at Junior Nationals in Alaska. See results here and stay tuned for a report as the racing progresses.