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| Flaharty, Pierson Top Besh Cup 5 Results |
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| Saturday, 06 February 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||
 The Alaska Nanooks' Julia Pierson and Team FAST's Tyson Flaharty were the winners in Saturday's Besh Cup racing on the Jim Whisenhant Ski Trails at Birch Hill Recreation Area.
Saturday's event was an interval start (15-second intervals) event in free technique. Sunday's race will be a mass start event in classic technique, beginning at 11:00AM. Sunday's race is also the final event in the 6-race qualifying series that determines who will qualify for the Alaska teams to the 2010 Junior Olympics in Presque Isle, ME, and the 2010 Arctic Winter Games in Grande Prairie, Alberta.
When the decision was made Wednesday night to hold the races as scheduled this weekend, the temperatures were very cold, but the forecast was positive. The weather changed as predicted, and even earlier than scheduled, so that temperatures at the start were in the mid-teens, and the mercury even touched +20F before the racing was concluded for the day.
The course used was the tradiitonal "Three Hills" course, using the Blue Loop, the East Ramp/Tower Direct climb, and the White Bear/White Bear Access ascent back to the stadium. This is the same course that will be used for the ASAA state high school championship girls 5Km interval start event at the end of this month. Pierson beat her red-shirt teammate, Raphaela Sieber by only 0.3 seconds over the 5Km distance to take top honors. Next behind Sieber was Celia Haering, a J2 from Alaska Pacific University NSC (APU) at 15:02.4. Fairbanks Cross Country (FXC)/West Valley HS teammates Marisa Rorabaugh (1st OJ) and Hannah Boyer (1st J1) were fourth and fifth in 15:10.1 and 15:12.9, respectively.
Behind Haering in the J2 class were Stephanie Kirk of Alaska Nordic Racing (ANR), Marion Woods of Alaska Winter Stars (AWS), Maranda Merkes of Soldotna HS, And Eliza Rorabaugh (FXC/WVHS). Jessie Yeaton (OJ), Kryston McPhetres (J1/ANR) and Mackenzie Kanady (J1/AWS) rounded out the top five for J1/OJ girls.
The USSA points penalty for the women's 5Km was 116.65. The J1-OJ-SR-MA men did two laps of the women's 5Km course. Tyson Flaharty of the Fairbanks Alaska Ski Team (FAST) was 21.9 seconds faster than APU coach Dylan Watts (25:55.8 to 26:17.7). FAST's David Norris was third and was first in the J1/OJ rankings, Alaska Nanook John Parry of Whitehorse was fourth, and Nick Treinen (AWS) was 2nd OJ and 2nd in the J1/OJ rankings. Three J1 skiers, Logan Hanneman (FAST), Forest Mahlen and Jack Novak (both APU), rounded out the top 5 in the J1/OJ group.
The USSA points penalty for the men's 5Km was 60.78. The minimum penalty for regional NRL events for men is 55 points, so this was a very good opportunity for skiers to earn some excellent points with a fast race. In the J2 boys 5Km, AWS took 1-2 with Austin Hess (14:08.0) and John Glen (14:20.2). Lathrop HS' Kyle Hanson had an excellent race, placing third in 14:23.7. Douglas Watts (West Anchorage HS) and Jake Prince (AWS) were fourth and 5th. Local skiers Kuba Grzeda (FAST/WVHS) and Riley Troyer (WVHS) helped their qualifying rankings by placing 6-7, and Eric Hoefler (FAST) was 9th. Eight J2 boys (and eight girls) will go to the Junior Olympics and four J2 boys (and 4 J2 girls) will go to the Arctic Winter Games. APU's Jacob Bassett and Tanner Ramey and FXC's Max Donaldson filled the J3 podium, and Tracen Knopp (ANR), FXC's Benjamin Koenig and Louis Bassett (APU) were on the steps for J4's. Lydia Blanchet (APU), Sarissa Lammers (ANR) and Taryn Hunt-Smith (APU) placed 1-2-3 in the J3 Girls class and Amber Lenze, Jenna DiFolco and Maya Yoshikawa (all Fairbanks Junior Nordic Competition Group/JNC) were on the J4 podium. Among the littlest skiers, the J5 winners were Gus Schumacher and Amber Hajdukovich, and the J6 winners were Rudy Schumacher and Halene Johnson.
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| Last Updated ( Saturday, 06 February 2010 ) | |||||||||||||||||||
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