Ten youth athletes representing the Durango Nordic Ski Club traveled to Soldier Hollow, Utah, this past weekend to compete in the SoHo Super Q & RMISA Ute Invitational Nordic ski races. This was the second of four junior national qualifying races this winter and is one of the biggest events of the season with approximately 800 athletes from the Western U.S. and Alaska in attendance.
Soldier Hollow is the premier cross country skiing and biathlon venue in the nation where the 2002 Winter Olympic cross-country events were held and plans are in place for the 2034 Winter Games to be hosted there as well.
“Utah has also been plagued with a very dry winter, but with a combination of snowmaking and expert course design, the athletes were provided with a challenging classic sprint course and a skate distance course that will be used again for the 2034 Winter Olympic Games,” assistant coach Sarah Olson said.
Back home in Durango, snow has been just as scarce. Rather than letting conditions slow them down, the team has leaned into creativity, grit, and a lot of fun to keep training intensity high.
“We’ve found ways to make it work,” Olson said. “From before-school ski intervals up Chapman Hill, lit by headlamps and floodlights, to racing up Hogsback not once, not twice, but three times in a single evening - the athletes have fully bought into the process.”
Alongside individualized race strategies tailored to each athlete’s strengths, Olson emphasized that race weekends are both a reward for the work put in and an invitation to push limits. She knows it’s a chance for her dedicated athletes to dig deep and enter the “pain cave.”
Olson described the team’s approach to competition as thoughtful and athlete-driven. It’s new and challenging for a lot of the athletes to prepare a strategy, so Olson skis the course with her athletes and talks about where to push, where to back off and how to use different techniques.
Athletes opened the weekend on Friday with a 1.3 km classic sprint, featuring qualifying rounds and finals (with exceptions for U10, U12 and U14 athletes). Saturday brought skate distance races, with distances varying by age group. The athletes had a lot of personal bests, smiles and qualification points toward earning a spot on the Rocky Mountain Nordic Junior National Team.
US Biathlon hosted a free laser rifle challenge on Friday involving a 300-meter ski loop, which some of our athletes took part in as well.
The team will be traveling to Frisco to race in the third JNQ of the season on February 7-8.
CLASSIC SPRINT RESULTS
Sprint Qualifier Day (Saturday)
1.3-kilometer classic sprint
Jack Purcell - 3:10.76
Janelle Dingler - 4:11.40
Ellie Bruckbauer - 4:26.66
Anika Young - 5:02.39
1.2K classic sprint
Archer Nicovich- 3:30.12
Noah Murray - 4:12.41
Sage Wilson - 4:22.02
Mariah Heiner - 4:24.80
Kyla Nicovich - 4:57.58
Nocolas Dingler - 5:35.15
Skate Individual Start
7.5K: Jack Purcell - 20:23.0
Ellie Bruckbauer - 28:18.2
5K : Janelle Dingler - 17:37.4
Anika Young - 26.15.2
4K: Sage Wilson - 13:54.5
Mariah Heiner - 14:48.7 Kyla Nicovich - 15:54.5 Archer Nicovich - 11:37.0 Noah Murray - 13:44.9
2K: George Schill - 8:20.7 Nicolas Dingler - 9:21.7
