BSF ventured down to a very sunny Soldier Hollow for the second Junior National Qualifier of the season last weekend. This event is an extremely cool opportunity for our athletes to compete against teams from all over the West. Teams from IMD as well as Colorado, California, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming attended the races.
Friday was a classic sprint around a 1.4k loop. With warm and icy snow conditions, everyone skied extremely well. BSF had 15 athletes qualify into the sprint rounds later in the afternoon. For the U18/20 boys, BSF skiers Callahan Waters, Cole Shockey, Jasper Jacobsen, Woody West, Nate Veltman, Wyatt Stoddart, and Isaac Wilkey battled it out in the quarter finals. Waters, Veltman and Jacobsen found themselves in the semi finals, then Waters and Jacobsen advanced into the final, finishing second and fifth respectively. With conditions that BSF does not encounter often, it was really amazing watching athletes ski to the best of their abilities.
For the U18/20 girls, Tobi Jacobsen, Necia Nicholas, Ashley Grossklaus, and Emelia Jordan all went into the quarter finals. Jacobsen and Nicholas finished in the top two of their heat to advance to the semi finals, and Jacobsen clenched the 'lucky loser' spot to finish the final in fifth.
The U16 class had just as much excitement with Sam Madsen qualifying into the heats and finishing in the top 20. Isabella Waters, Tula Higman, and Jude Haggerty competed in the quater finals for the girls. Waters and Higman made it to the semi finals, and Waters finished the day on top of the podium! It's really cool having these kids get multiple opportunities to race the same course. You can see them gain confidence as they keep going through the heats.
Saturday was an individual start skate race. The U14 class raced a two-lap 4k race, the U16's had a two-lap 5k, and the U18/20's skied a two-lap 7.5k. The snow was icy and hard for a fast morning and the sun stayed all day for some wonderful spring-like conditions. The kids raced very hard and skied really well all day. The Soldier Hollow courses are very hard with long, steep climbs, and swooping downhills that don't offer a ton of recovery.
Claire Rucker, Hazel Gault and Finn Wirth were BSF's top U14's, skiing strong and fast, with top-10 finishes. The excitement continued with the U16 girls with Higman and Waters taking 2 of the 3 spots on the podium in second and third respectively. We finished off the day strong in the U18/20 categories. For the girls, everyone skied strong with a crowded course. Nicholas was the top finisher in sixth. For the boys, BSF fought well against their competitors and proved to push just a little bit harder over the tops of the hills. It was really impressive seeing everyone have a lot of grit at the end of a very hard race. Waters and Veltman were the top boys, tying for 10th.
BSF has one more JNQ in McCall, ID, the second week of February, and BSF is hosting an end of season event at Crosscut the last weekend in February (volunteers needed!).
