The big snows may be just starting to pile up in SW Colorado, but the Durango Nordic Ski Club’s youth skiers are in midseason form.
In the team’s most recent performance, 15 competitors represented the club at the first Junior National Qualifier, Dec. 16-18, at the Gold Run Nordic Center in Breckenridge.
Though conditions were difficult at times, the Durango team wasn’t fazed.
“Several inches of fresh snow fell overnight and the wind chill made the single digit temperatures feel even colder,” Durango Nordic Ski Club head coach Paige Elliott wrote in an email to The Durango Herald. “But all our athletes proved tougher than the conditions and finished with some impressive results.”
Saturday’s races featured an interval start on a tough, rolling course.
Wiley Corra earned the club’s only podium spot on the day with a third-place finish in the males’ U14 race. Maggie Holcomb wasn’t far off in the U14 females’ race as she finished fourth.
Betty Holcomb (U10), Logan Moore (U16) and Maggie Wigton (U20) each took fifth place in their age groups. Cobe Freeburn also skied into the top ten with a seventh place finish.
In the U14 female race, each Durango athlete finished in the top ten, as Georgia Mynatt was seventh, Halle Moore was ninth and Ruth Holcomb took tenth.
Fred Reiter took 13th for the U12 males. In the U18 female division, Marit May finished 12th, Carter Reiter was 16th and Alma Wolf came in 20th.
For the U16 females, Cecilia Compton took 16th and Rebecca Bowers finished in 18th.
Sunday brought more sunshine to the mountain and more podium finishers from Durango.
Corra proved to be the best of the U14 males as he walked away with the team’s only gold medal of the week. Maggie Holcomb chased down the silver medal for the U12 females. Wigton brought home a bronze in the U20 5k race, while May finished 12th, Wolf was 21st and Carter Reiter was 23rd.
Ruth Holcomb also ended up on the podium with a third-place effort in the U14 females’ race, while Mynatt was 13th and Halle Moore crossed 14th.
Logan Moore took seventh for the U16 males and Freeburn finished eighth. Fred Reiter sprinted to a fifth-place finish in the U12 race, and Betty Holcomb was fifth as well in the U10 group.
In the U16 females’ race, Compton was 14th and Bowers was 20th. “These first couple of races provided a great opportunity for our kids to test their fitness after months of hard work and dryland training,” said Elliott. “I think we’ve got a lot to look forward to this season.”
Durango Nordic’s next Junior National Qualifier will be held Jan. 20-22 in Aspen.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
