This year’s Junior National Championships was held at the Auburn Ski Club Training Center in Donner Summit, California, near to famed Truckee. It was only a two race affair this year, due to the rapidly changing health climate, but this didn’t deter a record number of eleven Craftsbury skiers from having some fantastic races! At an elevation of around 7,000 feet, the Auburn Ski Club trails are very challenging, pushing racers both physically and technically. The series opened with 5k/10k classic individual races followed by a freestyle sprint.

In the opening classic race, the U18 and U20 men raced 10k while the women and U16 men raced 5k. The highlight race of the day was Griffin Wright’s 5th place in the U20 men’s race.

Griffin on his way to 5th in the 10k classic race (Dave Priganc photo).

U18 men: 13. Finn Sweet, 28. Jack Young.

U20 men: 5. Griffin Wright, 10. Bjorn Westervelt

U18 women: 18. Camille Bolduc, 38. Adrienne Remick, 54. Quincy Massey-Bierman

U20 women: 7. Abigail Streinz

U16 women: 33. Maggie McGee

U16 men: 31. Cormac Leahy, 42. Tzevi Schwartz

After one day off, and with warming temperatures and sunny skies bringing slushy tracks, racers and staff readied themselves for a full day of freestyle sprinting. Sprint days are always long, with athletes racing up to four times. The standout performance of the day belonged to Abigail, who finished 2nd in the U20 women’s race.

Abigail in the freestyle sprint qualifier, where she completed the day in 2nd (Dave Priganc photo).

U16 women: 39. Maggie

U16 men: 9. Cormac (10th in qualifier. 2nd in quarterfinal, 3rd in B final, with some logical confusion involving a guest racer), 72. Tzevi

U18 women: 7. Quincy (5th in qualifier, 1st in quarterfinal, 4th in semifinal, 1st in B final), 13. Adrienne (13th in qualifier, 3rd in quarterfinal), 21. Camille (12th in qualfiier, 5th in quarterfinal).

U18 men: 9. Finn (8th in qualifier, 2nd in quarterfinal, 3rd in semifinal, 3rd in B final), 18. Jack (21st in qualifier, 4th in quarterfinal)

U20 women: 2. Abigail (1st in qualifier, 2nd in quarterfinal, 2nd in semifinal, 2nd in A final)

U20 men: 20. Bjorn (4th in quarterfinal). 49th Griffin.

See full results here.

Record number of CNSC juniors race at Junior Nationals