Junior Nationals Recap

By Emily Siegel '20

Emily (Me) with my sister and friend/fellow Middlebury skier Annika Landis at Soldier Hollow

Sorry for the late blog post from Junior nationals, but all of us have been catching up on sleep and school! Junior Nationals is where all the top juniors from U-16 to U-20 all race in one place for a week. This year it was in Soldier Hollow, which is always a fun course for me to ski (since I'm from Idaho). I have been skiing there since I first went with my middle school for SVSEF in 6th grade. It is also always fun to go back home to the west. The cool part was that my parents and sister came down to watch us on the mass start and relay day. I also got to see my old high school coaches, and my middle school coach made a surprise trip down to say hi to me. Along with myself, Dottie, Kate, Jackie, Aliya, Jordan, Eliza, and Ben all raced for Mid-Atlantic. Ryland also represented SLU but with the Far West team. Assistant Coach Kyle '16 also helped with the Mid-Atlantic team which was nice for us to have the support and a familiar face out west with us.

Ben '21 at the start of the Skate Sprint
(Screen Shot from the Live feed by Dana)

Kate '20 at the start of the Skate Sprint
(Screen Shot from the Live feed by Dana)

 The course has three hills because we did the 3.3km loop instead of the full 5km loop because of the lack of snow. We got to Utah on Saturday at about 5:30 in the afternoon, but didn’t get to our hotel until about 1:30 in the morning. We then got to our rooms and we crashed out immediately because it felt like we were still on east coast time! The next day we woke up and went over to the coaches’ house for breakfast that our two amazing chefs made and went over the plan for the day. We skied the skate sprint course, which had one huge climb that could make or break your race.

Jordan '21
(Screen Shot from the Skate Sprint Live feed by Dana)

Aliya '21
(Screen Shot from the Skate Sprint Live feed by Dana)

Ryland '21 (Far West)
(Screen Shot from the Skate Sprint Live feed by Dana)

Dottie '21
(Screen Shot from the Skate Sprint Live feed by Dana)

Emily '20
(Screen Shot from the Skate Sprint Live feed by Dana)

The day after was a training day for the classic 5km the following day. The classic 5km was the coolest day that week and it was 32 degrees! Jackie and I both raced in t-shirts and no gloves. Jackie got All-American that day and ended the day in 9th. WAHOO! The rest of us did okay, but Aliya had her best race of the year finishing 21st. Ben placed 41st and Ryland 44th.

The next day was the skate sprint with the majority of the girls making the top 30 to move into quarter finals. We had very strong races here with some of us even leading the sprint heats for a little bit. The temperature started to climb so much that we were laying in snow to cool off after the races. Jackie made All-American again getting 7th! Dottie, Emily (me), and Kate made it into the top 20. Ryland got 38th and Ben placed 42nd. The day after the sprint races, we had a day off so we went to look at the course for the 10km skate mass start.

Eliza '21
(Screen Shot from the Skate Sprint Live feed by Dana)

Jackie '21
(Screen Shot from the Skate Sprint Live feed by Dana)

Tangle Up!
(PC: SkinnySki.com)

AHHH
(PC: SkinnySki.com)
(Best Wishes to Jackie (in neon yellow t-shirt)
for a speedy recovery from a concussion)

The mass start race day was one of the more exciting days in terms of the amount of crashes involved in the race. It was a very warm day and most girls raced in t-shirts and folded up their team tights. The snow had turned from rock hard to really soft slush. The race started and one of the girls tried to move into the front right at the start of the race which is very common on this course at Soho because it goes from pretty wide to very narrow right after the start. Jackie and Dottie ended up in the crash, but both caught up by the end of the first lap to the top group. The race ended with Dottie getting 8th to get All-American (YAYY!) and Jackie and Emily got top 15! Ryland got 40th and Ben 43rd.

Emily in the middle (164) with Aliya on her right and Jordan in the top left corner
(PC: SkinnySki.com)

The last day of racing was the relay race which again was classic skiing on slush and temperatures that were higher than normal. The relay was definitely one of the slower races most of us have ever skied and we ended up having to double pole the downhills, ugh. The relay teams consisted of Dottie, Kate, and Emily and the next one was Jordan, Eliza, and Aliya.  Dottie, Kate and Emily ended up 12th and Jordan, Eliza, and Aliya ended up 15th. Ben was 16th in his relay and Ryland was 14th.

The view of the race!
(PC: SkinnySki.com)

Such an awesome venue!
(PC: SkinnySki.com)

It was a lot of fun to race on the courses I grew up on, and it was also nice to be able to get on some snow before heading back to Canton. Most of us haven’t seen that much sun in a awhile and it showed by the amount of sunburns on people’s faces. Jackie had the worst one and was burnt so much that you could see her glitter streak. All of us made it back home safe, and some of us are competing at Spring Series. We are excited for a little time to recover before starting spring training.

-Emily Siegel

Dottie followed by Emily charging up the hill
(PC: SkinnySki.com)