The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Top results of season last weekend
The Crested Butte Nordic Team (CBNT) had its strongest showing of the season at the Junior Nordic Qualifier races in Durango last weekend. The team posted a number of top 10 results, led by Aiden Truettner and Woody Martineau who gained huge ground toward their goal of qualifying for the Junior Nationals.
The team was primed for some top results heading into Durango. With the holiday season crud well behind them and the Nordic track in prime condition these days, the team managed to get some productive sessions in preparation for the Durango races.
“We’ve been training well the past couple of weeks and based on that I was optimistic heading in. They deserved to see the fruits of their labor,” says coach Austin Ross.
Conditions were hot and thin in Durango making for some tricky waxing for the sprint classic races on Saturday, January 17. In addition, sprinting is not really one of the strengths of the CBNT squad this year, so expectations were somewhat muted.
“We weren’t expecting that to be one of our best days of the weekend,” says Ross.
The sprints played out as expected with Martineau making it to the semifinals of the U-16 class before getting knocked out and Tabor Dussault and Seve Petersen making it to the semis in the U-14 age class.
The CBNT athletes would have to wait until Sunday before they would get their chance to prove their skills as they lined up for the distance skate races on a course that played to the strengths of the team.
“It was a pretty rolly course with a lot of transitions and we’ve been working on that, so that played out well for us,” says Ross.
Truettner had his best race of the year in the 10-kilometer skate race, skiing to a fourth-place finish among the U-18 skiers with a time of 26 minutes, 11 seconds.
“That was a really good race for him and established him as a contender for Junior Nationals again,” says Ross.
Meanwhile, Martineau stepped up his game another level in the U-16 five-kilometer skate race. Martineau’s path to Junior Nationals was to be expected this season but he moved up even further in the overall Rocky Mountain Nordic standings after his fourth-place finish in Durango.
“This race helped his standings and solidified him as one of the frontrunners in the region,” says Ross.
Dussault and Petersen made the most of their first Junior National Qualifier races as Dussault placed fourth and Petersen fifth in the U-14 three-kilometer race.
“For them to crack the top five in their first qualifier race was a great performance,” says Ross.
The team will return to the local trails for additional training and will put on a team fundraiser dinner this Saturday, January 24 at the Magic Meadows Yurt.
They will head to Soldier Hollow, Utah on January 31 for a super Junior Nordic Qualifier, matching wits with teams throughout the west.
“It’s always fun to see how we stack up against the other regions,” says Ross.
