The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“She executed an awesome race and definitely finished the week, and her high school ski career, on a high note”
[ by Than Acuff ]Sophia Bender, Tazzy Pozner and Micah Hansen wrapped up their Nordic ski race seasons at the Junior Nationals in Cable, Wisconsin March 9-14 providing a prolific venue for the event given its Nordic history and a stout field of competitors.
“The venue this year was at the start area for the American Birkebeiner, and the organizers did a great job of putting on a high-quality, fun event,” says CBNT head coach Gordon Gianniny. “Some of the athletes in the U18/20 field came straight to JN’s after competing at (and performing very well at) Junior World Championships in Norway, so it was a truly world-class field.”
It was the fourth trip to the big show for Bender who was racing as a u20, Pozner’s second trip as a u16 and Hansen’s first trip to Junior Nationals. The plan was for Bender and Pozner to improve on their results last year while Hansen was meant to get the lay of the Junior Nationals land as he is on track to return in the years to come and for all intents and purposes, they did just that.
“As always with these multi-race events, there were good days and bad days, but overall, it was a really great week for RMN (Rocky Mountain Nordic) and for the CB Nordic Team,” says Gianniny.
The week of racing opened with temperatures reaching near 50-degrees Fahrenheit on Monday, March 9 as the athletes lined up for the freestyle individual start race and Pozner posted the top result among the CBNT skiers taking 44th place.
The skiers then had a down day Tuesday and returned to racing Wednesday with cooler temperatures and some fresh snow for winter conditions during the Classic Sprint event. The skiers have an individual time trial for seedings to start the day and from there the top 30 advance to the heats battling shoulder to shoulder to continue advancing through the rounds.
Bender opened her day by taking 25th place in the time trial to advance but came up short in her quarterfinal heat to close the day 16th overall in a field littered with collegiate racers.
“She was a little disappointed to not move past the quarter finals in the sprint but a top 20 result in that race is still super impressive,” says Gianniny.
Pozner made it through the time trial as well finishing in 22nd place, but was edged out in her quarterfinal heat finishing the day in 23rd place overall while Hansen placed 61st.
“After having some pretty major breathing issues in the 7.5km on Monday, Tazzy had a great sprint and qualified for heats, which is really hard to do in the U16 field, as it’s usually the biggest field at JN’s,” says Gianniny.
All three CBNT skiers then closed out their individual races on Friday, March 13 in the mass start Classic race with their best results of the week.
Bender stepped on the gas on the 15-kilometer course in her final race as a high school athlete to finish in 11th place overall.
“She had the best distance race of her career in the classic mass start on Friday,” says Gianniny. “She was skiing in 10th-11th position for the entire 15km and only missed out on a top 10 by a few seconds. She executed an awesome race and definitely finished the week, and her high school ski career, on a high note.”
Pozner skied her way to a 20th place finish while Hansen finished in 60th place in his race.
“Tazzy accomplished her goal of getting a top 20 result for the week with her 20th place finish in the classic mass start, which was especially impressive considering she had to start near the back of the field due to not having a great seed position going into the race,” says Gianniny. “I think Micah was hoping for a bit more results-wise, but he definitely had a lot of fun, made some new friends and got to experience just how competitive and fast the JN’s fields are.”
The week of Junior Nordic racing closed with a team mixed relay event and Hansen and Pozner joined two skiers from Steamboat to take 24th place.
“After a little bit of a slow start on Monday, Sophia and Tazzy really excelled in the classic sprint and classic mass start, and Micah had a great experience throughout the week,” says Gianniny. “I was also really impressed by how all of our athletes pitched in whenever help was needed, supported their teammates and generally represented CB Nordic super well.”
