Last Updated: 19.Mar.2019

Last week, a crew of six Craftsbury juniors travelled to Anchorage, Alaska to compete at the week-long Cross Country Junior Nationals event, representing Team New England. This series brings together more than 400 of the best skiers aged 15-19 in the country for four fiercely competitive races. Coaches Anna Schulz and Ollie Burruss were part of the Team New England waxing staff. Two recent CNSC alums competed as well; Jordi Kulis, now attending St. Lawrence University and representing the Mid-Atlantic region Callie Young, now attending Dartmouth College and racing for New England.

The series kicked off with individual start freestyle races. In the U18/U20 boys’ race, Griffin Wright led the way for CNSC in 10th (5th U18), followed by Finn Sweet in 24th (14th U18), then Caleb Streinz in 52nd (24th U20). In the 5k U18/U20 girls’ race, Callie was 7th (3rd U20), Adrienne Remick was 53rd (38th U18), and Jordi was 91st (28th U20). In the U16 girls’ 5k, Quincy Massey-Bierman was 12th, followed by Camille Bolduc in 13th. 

With one day off, racers readied themselves for a full day of classic sprinting, which is often Team New England’s specialty. In the U20 boys’ division, Caleb qualified in 19th, where he then finished 5th in his quarterfinal, ending his day in 22nd place. In the U18 boys’, Griffin ended the day in 10th, after qualifying in 11th, placing 2nd in his quarterfinal, 4th in his semi-final, and then 4th in the B final. Finn ultimately placed 13th on the day, qualifying 20th then getting eliminated in the quarterfinals after placing 3rd. On the girls’ side, Jordi was 32nd in the qualifier, while Callie qualified 7th, then finished 2nd in her quarterfinal, 2nd in her semi-final, then 4th in the A final (and it was her birthday!). In the U18 girls’ race, Adrienne was 35th in the qualifier. In the U16 girls’ race, Quincy ended the day in the silver medal position, after qualifying 7th, placing 1st in her quarterfinal, 2nd in her semi-final, then 2nd in the A final. Camille also had a great day, placing 6th in the qualifier, 2nd in her quarterfinal, 4th in the semifinal, then 3rd in the B-final, landing her in 9th. 

After one more day off, there was a flurry of classic mass starts of varying distances for different ages groups. The U20 boys raced 15k, where Caleb was 42nd. The U18 boys raced 10k, where Griffin won the bronze medal and Finn was 6th. In the U20 girls’ 10k, Callie was 9th and Jordi was 24th, while Adrienne was 23rd in the U18 girls’ 10k. The U16’s raced 5k, where Camille and Quincy were separated by one second for 12th and 13th, respectively. 

The final day of racing brought about three-person freestyle relays. Teams are made up of athletes from the same geographic region. In the U20 boys’ race, Caleb teamed up with Alex Burt and Matthew Moreau for 16th. In the U20 girls’ race, Callie was on the bronze medal team, along with Sophia Laukli and Kirsten Miller. Jordi teamed up with Mid-Atlantic teammates Jordan Schuster and Sylvan Linck for 13th. In the U18 boys’ race, Josh Valentine, Griffin, and Will Koch were 4th place, while Brian Bushey, Keelan Durham, and Finn were 7th. In the U18 girls’ relay, Adrienne was on the 11th place team with Laura Appleby and Madeline Kitch. In the U16 girls’ race, Quincy’s team of herself, Sofia Scirica and Ava Thurston won silver, while Camille teamed up with Elsa Bolinger and Evelyn Walton for 7th. 

Although Junior Nationals is comprised primarily of individual competitions, it is also very much a team event, where regional teams are vying for the Alaska Cup. The Alaska Cup is awarded to the team with the most points over the week. New England won for the 6th time in a row this year! Also, the Craftsbury Nordic Ski Club was 10th out of 49 teams in the Club Teams ranking. Congratulations to all the mini-greenies who demonstrated all the great training that takes place in the Northeast Kingdom!

See results here.