Nordic team seals two spots at U.S. Junior Nationals

One qualifier to go

The countdown to Nordic Junior Nationals continues and following this weekend’s races, two Crested Butte Nordic Team (CBNT) athletes are on the list.
J1 skiers Prawit Durgan and Forrest Smith each secured their spot at the Junior Nationals in Fairbanks, Alaska in March with their efforts last weekend at a Rocky Mountain Division Junior National Qualifier in Frisco.
The weekend of races kicked off Friday, February 22 with the mass start classic events. Smith had one of his best races two weeks prior and maintained that pace in Frisco to place fifth in the J1 10-kilometer race with a time of 37 minutes, 35 seconds.
“That was a really good race for him,” says coach Austin Ross. “He continued his trend this weekend and scored good points toward Junior Nationals.”
Durgan was a little over two minutes back of Smith to finish in 10th place in the J1 class.
J2 skiers Aiden Truettner and Ben Swift placed 15th and 22nd, respectively, in the 5-kilometer race. It’s Truettner’s first season of serious racing and he continues on his path to better skiing with each race.
“He’s been making a lot of progress this year but it’s a big learning process for him,” says Ross. “He’s gaining confidence with each race and now he’s working on picking up more finesse.”
J4 Crested Butte skier Robbie Oberling stepped onto the podium for the first time for any CBNT skier this season with a third-place finish in his 2.5-kilometer race. Oberling was neck-and-neck with another skier until one final lunge at the finish put him on the podium by a toe.
Nordic skiers then lined up Saturday for the freestyle skate event. Durgan posted the top J1 result for CBNT in the 10-kilometer race, placing 10th with a time of 29 minutes, 39 seconds. Smith was still a bit worn out from his classic effort the day before but managed to push through to a 14th-place finish.
J1 skier Josh Gallen had a rough go at it the day before in the classic race but redeemed himself in the freestyle race to place eighth among the OJ age class.
“He’s more comfortable in the skate races and is able to push harder,” says Ross.
Truettner put together his best skate race of his inaugural season of competing to place 14th among J2 skiers, with Swift finishing in 21st place.
Oberling closed the weekend to place fifth in the freestyle race.
With the weekend’s efforts Smith sits in seventh place in the overall points standings in the Rocky Mountain Nordic Division and Dugan moved up from 11th place to ninth overall. With 12 spots open for Junior Nationals, both Durgan and Smith are well within the cutoff for a trip to Fairbanks.
Oberling is too young for Junior Nationals but is ranked fifth in the overall standings for J4 skiers.
The big question mark now is CBNT J2 skier Kai Sherman. Sherman missed out on two of the three qualifier races this season and has one more shot to punch his ticket this weekend when the team heads to the final qualifier event in Durango.
“All of his eggs are in one basket in Durango,” says Ross. “If he has two good races this weekend there’s no reason why he shouldn’t make it.”