Craftsbury Juniors race final Eastern Cup
Jordi Kulis is all smiles on skate day (Paul Biermann photo)
Bjorn Westervelt in the U16 skate race (Kait Miller photo)
Henry Hoffert hammers up teaching hill in the 10k skate race (Kait Miller photo).
Claire Ellis and Phoebe Sweet stride up teaching hill on Sunday (Kait Miller photo).
Last Updated: 09.Feb.2016
This weekend, with one day’s notice, the Eastern Cup/ SuperTour/ UVM Carnival scheduled for Trapp Family Lodge made its way to Craftsbury for two days of action packed racing. With more than 400 cars reported to be parked at the Center, about 410 racers contended the 2.4k manmade loop for the final Junior National qualifier of the 2015-2016 season. The sizable field included BKL’ers, juniors, collegiate skiers, masters, and SuperTour competitors.
Saturday was skate day, which kicked off with the U16 boys 5k race, which was two laps of Lemon’s Haunt with creative looping in the upper and lower fields. Griffin Wright led the way for Craftsbury, in 18th place and Bjorn Westervelt was 34th. Craftsbury had three BKL’ers race the U16 race: Finn Sweet was 28th in the race and 2nd for BKL, Brian Bushey was 35th and 3rd BKL’er and Jack Young was 45th and the 5th BKL’er.
The U16 girls competed in the open women’s race, but are scored separately for Junior National points. Callie Young and Phoebe Sweet continued their top-notch results with 3rd and 6th places, respectively. Ruby Lamb was 12th and Kyle Marie Hekeler was 28th.
Craftsbury’s U18 girls fared well in the open women’s race. Alex Lawson was 79th (6th U18), followed by Avery Ellis in 91st (10th U18). Rena Schwartz was 119th (17th U18), followed by Marika Massey- Biermann in 130th (20th). Next was Ani Koontz- Miller in 149th (25th U18), Madeline Strasser in 156th (27th U18), and Jordi Kulis in 174th (34th U18).
The men raced their first 10k of the weekend and were led by Henry Hoffert in 122nd (15th U18). Anders Hanson was next in 143rd (24th U18), followed vlosely by Matthew Lawlor in 145th (25th U18). Next was Philip Hekeler in 172nd (38th U18), Jacob Morse in 178th (42nd U18), Alex Warner in 189th (47th U18), and Noah Eckstein in 192nd (49th U18).
Sunday brought a classic race with speedy conditions and tough competition. Not surprisingly, Craftsbury juniors rose to the occasion. In the 5k U16 girls race, Callie was 2nd and Phoebe was 4th. Ruby was 14th while Kyle and Claire were three seconds apart for 21st and 22nd, respectively. The U16 boys also raced 5k, where Griffin was 10th . Finn and Jack had strong showing as BKL competitors, in the U16 field, where they were 4th (27th U16) and 6th (40th U16), respectively.
The U18 girls had particularly strong days, with three girls in the top ten for their age group. Rena led the way in 64th overall (4th U18), followed by Alex in 71st (6th U18), and Avery in 80th (8th U18). Marika was 107th (17th U18), Ani was 133rd (23rd), Jordi 135th (24th) and Madeline was 141st (27th U18).
Amongst and large and strong men’s field, the U18 boys also raced 10k. Anders led the way in 116th (13th U18) with Noah in 124th (14th U18) and Henry in 126th (16th U18). Jacob was 159th (36th U18) and Philip was 166th (42nd U18).
Huge congratulations go to several of our Craftsbury juniors for qualifying to compete at Junior Nationals! Callie Young and Phoebe Sweet qualified in the U16 division and Alex Lawson, Avery Ellis, and Rena Schwartz in the U18/ U20 division. These athletes will represent team New England at JN’s in Cable, Wisconsin March 6-13. Other upcoming races include Vermont High School State Championships and Midget/ Youth NorAm’s in Canada.
Results can be found here
UPDATE 15 Feb 16 - Anders Hanson will be joining his teammates in Cable as he was named to the JN's team this past weekend! Congrats Anders!