March 9, 2010
JO
Posted by: Janice SibiliaSummary: Not sure but yesterday might be a record for the most Alaska Cup points amassed in one day. 16 top 5 places, 13 of 18 available medals and 3 top 3 sweeps!
Link to full results here. Here are some of the highlights.
National Champions:Corey Stock- J2 girls, CSU
David Sinclair-J1 Men (GMVS)
Alex Shulz,-OJ Men (Dartmouth/Craftsbury)
Isabel Caldwell- J1 Women (SMS)
Kaitlynn Miller- OJ Women (Craftsbury)
What is exciting to me is that for the most part, each of these skiers is representing a different club - club systems are a critical element in athlete development and the depth of athletes in each age group here is indicative that the system is on the right track.
The day:
Skyler dominated the quarter and semi's for OJ men. During the A Final, he had the misfortune to shatter a pole. Ruth Hall (NENSA) handed off her pole ( For those that know these people, Ruth is 5'2 and skyler is 6'3"). Skyler ended up with another broken pole and was saved by Jackson Rich (also a bit smaller than Skyler!) who tossed a pole to skyler (Yes, tossed it!) who then went on to a 2nd place in the A final, just ahead of his teamate Chase Marston (Middlebury).
Kaitlynn Miller skied smoothly in each heat (winning all) and dominating the OJ women's A final with a solid lead in the finish.
Maddie Pfeifer (Proctor Academy) surprised herself with a bronze medal yesterday by skiing well all through all of her heats
Wax techs aced the wax- both the kick and glide. Testers were skiing the course the entire day making changes though each weather transition. Justin Beckwith (GMVS), Will Sweetser (MWSC), Jeremy Nellis (Gould), Tim Caldwell (Ford Sayre) and Matt Johnson (Burke) worked tremendously hard all day long, with help from Frost Mtn coach Sabra Davison, ensuring that the skiers had optimal skis. Tricky waxing with regards to having different conditions on several parts of the course. More important to have bomber kick on one part, or wicked fast skis on the rest of the course? They figured it out and the skiers were very appreciative!
Today the skiers will inspect the classic mass start course again and dial in their skis for tomorrow. Study hall in the afternoon and Will Sweetser will run the athletes through a talk about Wednesdays Mass start race in the evening...And yes, there are pictures from yesterday's sprint race- I will post them later today when we return from the race venue.
