Durango’s Ruth Holcomb and Logan Moore will race at the junior national championships for Nordic skiing. It is Moore’s third trip to nationals and first since moving to the under-18 age category, while Holcomb will make her first Nordic nationals trip and compete amongst under-16 girls.
Holcomb and Moore were named to the Rocky Mountain Nordic junior national team after junior national qualifier races were held Feb. 16-17 at the Durango Nordic Center.
Moore finished sixth in the under-20/18 boys classic mass start race and was third in the skate race. A year ago, he placed third at junior nationals for boys under-16, and he’s looking forward to bumping up an age division for nationals competition this year. Nationals will be held March 11-16 in Anchorage, Alaska.
“Especially coming off last year’s top-three result at junior nationals, I’m really looking forward to having the opportunity to get a couple of top-20 results,” Moore said after he raced at last weekend’s CHSAA state championships. “Hopefully, I can pull through with that. Junior nationals is my main priority.”
Holcomb didn’t race at the national qualifier while she was in California with the Bear Development Team for mountain bike camp. Still, she had strong results all regular season and had enough points to be selected for nationals.
“I was really stressed going into the weekend not knowing if I would make the junior nationals team or not,” Holcomb said in a news release from Durango Nordic.
“The whole season I knew I was right on the edge, and I was doing everything I could to have my best results. Going to junior nationals has been a goal of mine ever since my first year on the team when I watched the older kids go. I’m super excited to go race up in Alaska with all these fast girls. It will be really fun to be on their team instead of competing against them. I can’t wait to see what the team can do and I’m stoked to go explore Alaska.”
Durango Nordic had 26 athletes compete out of 206 during the two-day qualifier that brought skiers together from across Colorado and New Mexico.
Holcomb’s younger sister Maggie had a standout weekend for girls under-14, as she had first- and second-place results with a win in classic.
“Racing this weekend was special because such a large group of Durango kids participated in the JNQ,” Maggie Holcomb said in the news release. “I was proud of how I raced on my home course and excited to have my first win of the season.”
Durango’s Kiri May was 11th in the under-14 girls classic and 10th in the skate, while Lana Bodewes was 20th in classic and 23rd in skate.
Betty Holcomb also competed in the under-12 girls race and was eighth in skate and ninth in classic. Myla Lawler also was 12th in classic in the age division.
More standout results came from the under-10 boys. Raleigh Shaw was fifth in skate and fourth in classic. Martin Yeager placed sixth in classic, and Finn Golden was 10th.
Durango’s Noah Bodewes was 12th in the skate race for boys under-20/18.
In the girls under-16 classic, Ruby May finished 15th in classic and 18th in skate.
Zach Ottman placed 18th in the under-14 boys classic, while he was 18th in the skate with teammate Tanner Coddington 17th. For the under-12 boys, Andre Craig and Jed Lawler placed 13th and 14th, respectively, in classic. James Garvey was 13th in the under-12 boys skate, while Craig was 14th and Lawler was 16th. In the under-12 girls, Dewachen Ilg placed 16th for Durango Nordic in skate
It was also a special weekend for Wiley Corra, who was on his skis along with the under-16 boys. The feat came 10 months after he fell 40 feet from a bridge in Utah that led to severe brain damage. The weekend of racing was another big step in his miraculous recovery.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
