race results wrap up from Leah, Kamran, and Nicole

Our races this week have officially come to a close. The racing began on Friday with the classic sprint race. Three girls and three boys qualified for the heats, with some other athletes barely missing rounds. In the heats we saw the strength of our competitors, the Norwegian boys double poled the qualifier and the heats! All the Americans were eliminated in the quarterfinals, doomed by slick skis. Henry Harmeyer double poled his quarterfinal, but couldn't move on to the semis. Our skis were fast, but not fast enough. Hannah however, hung with the Scandinavian girls and ended up placing 5th in the A-final. A very impressive result that scored her a yummy cake and some swag (awesome Bliz glasses!).

Saturday was the individual skate distance with the girls skiing 5k and the guys 10k. Some of us had no points so we started very early in the race. Zak and Leah were leading most of the day until some of the last finishers knocked them out of the lead. Hannah had another great day and placed 3rd; Zak and Max both pushed hard and finished the day in 6th and 8th respectively. We had many other great performances from the girls Leah, Lauren, and Nicole all had top 30 finishes in 22nd, 27th, and 29th. For the boys Henry had a solid race and placed 27th. 

  

On our final day of competitions we raced relays. The format was classic, skate, skate; the girls skied 3.3k each and the boys each skied the 5k distance course form Saturday. The girls team of Hannah, Leah, and Loren were very strong and placed 5th, with Leah skiing the 2nd fastest 2nd leg of the day! Our other team of Nicole, Abby, and Kat skied into an impressive 12th place. The guys teams had awesome days, and the team of Kamran, Max, and Zak finished 4th. We were surprised that the Norwegian boys again elected to double pole the classic leg. The fast conditions and mostly gradual hills weren't enough to slow them down, they went on to take 1st and 2nd places. Henry, Paolo, and Mack also crushed their races and placed 9th. Wrapping up our weekend of racing on a high note.

All of us athletes had a great time, with some posting very impressive results, and others learning from their teammates and competitors. Either way we all walked away with some new friendships, and a bunch of motivation for next year. 


By
Leah Brams, Kamran Husain, and Nicole Schneider