The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
JNQ race coming to Crested Butte February 15
By Than Acuff
It’s been a big two weeks of travel for the Crested Butte Nordic Team (CBNT) with u18 athletes Finn Veit and Sophia Bender racing at the U.S. Cross-Country Skiing Nationals in Anchorage, Alaska January 2-7 and the entire team heading to Soldier Hollow, Utah for a Super Qualifier January 16-19, which also served as a Junior National Qualifier (JNQ) for the Rocky Mountain Nordic Division.
Veit and Bender were in the deepest part of the National Nordic scene in Alaska with the top collegiate racers in attendance. It was Veit’s second time to the event looking to improve on his effort last year while Bender was making her first trip to gain some insight.
Veit’s highlight of the week came on the first day in the interval start 10-kilometer skate race where he placed 11th overall in the u18 age class.
“In that field that’s a really awesome result,” says CBNT head coach Gordon Gianniny.
Bender’s highlight came during the sprint races where she finished top 30 in the qualifier but eventually got bumped out in the subsequent heats.
“Just qualifying for heats is really impressive,” says Gianniny. “It was a pretty solid week overall for both of them.”
Veit, Bender and Gianniny then returned to Crested Butte to turn around with the rest of the CBNT and DEVO skiers for two days of racing in Soldier Hollow, Utah January 16-19 with the older racers mixed in with collegiate racers from throughout the West.
The event opened with skate sprint races with Veit qualifying 16th for the heats only to be cut in the quarterfinals. Bender qualified 24th to reach the heats and was leading her heat in the next race to the top of the big hill but eventually got bumped out of advancing.
“Overall, she showed she has really good potential as a sprinter,” says Gianniny.
Ben Larson should be racing his second year of u14 but bumped up to the u16 age class for the season and, so far, it seems to be the right call as he had a strong effort in Utah to qualify top 30 before getting edged out in the quarterfinals.
“There were over 100 racers in u16 and getting top 30 is challenging,” says Gianniny.
The skiers then lined up for interval start classic races on the second day with the u18s racing 7.5-kilometers and the u16s skiing for five-kilometers and course conditions that went from cold, to warm, to snowy and then back to cold.
Veit skied to a 54th place finish overall, fifth among the Rocky Mountain Nordic (RMN) racers, while Bender placed 62nd in the bigger pool but second among her RMN opponents.
“It was a super solid day for her,” says Gianniny. “Having her in the mix was great to see.”
Tazzy Pozner had the top CBNT result in the u16 age class as she skied to a 36th place overall, 10th in RMN, while Larson placed 43rd overall and 13th in the RMN results. Micah Hansen continues to gain speed finishing 16th among the RMN skiers while Riley Thompson gets more and more comfortable in his first year of racing Nordic.
With two JNQs of four races total done, Veit and Bender are in solid positioning to qualify for Junior Nationals, Pozner is in a good spot as well while Larson is currently on the bubble.
“Right now, out of seven athletes we have four that could qualify,” says Gianniny.
The team heads to Aspen for their next JNQ February 1-2 and then close out the JNQ season right here at home in Crested Butte February 15-16.
