Nordic ski team has strong showing in Wyoming, Seeley Lake
Glacier Nordic Ski Team’s Ruedi Steiner skis in Jackson, Wyoming, for the first of this season’s three Junior National qualifying weekends. (Photo courtesy Rebecca Konieczny)
Whitefish’s Ruedi Steiner and Jacob Henson, right, and Nate Ingelfinger, middle, in the mass start in Jackson, Wyoming, earlier this month. (Photo courtesy Rebecca Konieczny)
Glacier Nordic Ski Team’s Winslow Nichols skis in Jackson, Wyoming, earlier this month. (Photo courtesy Rebecca Konieczny)
Glacier Nordic Ski Team's Isabelle Cooke finished 15th in the U16 female 5km race in Jackson, Wyoming, earlier this month. (Photo courtesy Rebecca Konieczny)
Glacier Nordic Ski Team skiers at the Skiesta in Seeley Lake.
The Glacier Nordic Ski Team had a busy race weekend, Jan. 17-18, with both the competition team and prep team traveling to races.
Seven GNST competitive team racers traveled to Jackson, Wyoming, for the first of this season’s three Junior National qualifying weekends. The event saw a large turnout, with athletes competing for a spot on the Intermountain Division JN Team, and many other Wyoming racers aiming to qualify for the High Plains JN Team and the Wyoming High School State Team as well.
Friday’s race was a 1.2 km classic-technique sprint. The qualifying round in the morning advanced the top 30 skiers in each age group to compete in a bracket system of heats that afternoon. In a robust field of 79 athletes fighting unfavorably snowy and blowy conditions, all four GNST U16 male skiers advanced.
Racing to a new personal best, Ruedi Steiner went all the way to the “B” final and ended up in eighth place. Jacob Henson finished the day in 17th with teammates Nate Ingelfinger and Barrett Garcia in 21st and 27th.
In her first ever Nordic ski sprint competition, GNST’s sole U16 female, Isabelle Cooke, also qualified for the heats in 25 out of 63 racers. Other GNST skiers include Maeve Ingelfinger, who finished eighth in the U14 female category and Winlsow Nichols, who finished 53rd in the tough U18-U20 male category.
On day two of racing in Jackson, the athletes all competed in a mass start skate-technique event — U18-U20s skiers raced 10km, U16s skied a 5km, and U14s skied a 3km.
Winlsow Nichols skied to a solid race to finish in 28th place in the grueling 10k against a field of over 50 racers.
Jacob Henson concluded the race weekend with a fifth place finish in the U16 male 5km competition with Ruedi Steiner finishing close behind in 12th and Nate Ingelfinger and Barrett Garcia in 19th and 49th.
Isabelle Cooke also raced to an impressive 15th in the U16 female 5km race. Maeve Ingelfinger picked off another competitor to finish seventh in the U14 female in her 3km race.
A little closer to home, the prep skiers traveled to Seeley Lake on Saturday, Jan. 18 for the Skiesta Youth Freestyle Races.
GNST swept the top spots in the 3K race with Charlotte Lehman as the first female followed by Erica Burguiere in second, Signe Ebbett in third, and Iona Sarraille in sixth.
For the boys, Noah Longenecker took the win, followed by his brother Hudson in second, and fellow teammate Ethan Amick in third. Other notable finishes include Charlie Zolgar in sixth, followed by his brother AJ in seventh, and teammates Liam Browne and Euell Browne in eighth and 14th places. Junia Longenecker won the 1K girls’ race and Hazel Zlogar finished in third.
The Glacier Nordic competitive and prep team will compete at their next Junior National qualifying races in West Yellowstone on Feb. 1 and 2.