USSA National Freestyle Team Sprint - March 25

Below is the Women's Semi-Final 2nd heat mass start. Heather was the starter for her two person team. Each team member did 3 laps; Heather did Lap 1, 3 and 5 while Marissa did 2,4 and 6. Heather is in Bib #14. (One of the US Ski Team members is in the red suit.)

Here's the lead pack. Heather is the 7th person just really coming into view.

Heather flying down a hill on one of her laps.

Here's a photo from the Sr Women's Final. Kikkan Randall (from ANC and the only US skier to ever win a World Cup medal) is in the blue suit, Bib #4 just coming into view. She had quite the gap to close on each of her laps. The first two times she was able to catch the leaders but on her 3rd turn it was just too large of a gap, her team came in 4th.

Here's photo's from the Junior Finals. It was very interesting as both the male and female teams raced at the same time. Heather is leading the 2nd group of skiers up the stadium hill.

The US men's ski team was out cooling down after the Senior Mens Finals and stopped to watch the Junior race for a short while. I thought it would be so cool if I could catch Heather racing and have them in the background. Luckily she did come by and they were cheering her on. (I am so proud of this picture......too bad I didn't really have time to focus.)

Heather and Marissa ended up taking 1st in the Junior Female race! Heather really pulled away her last lap and then Marissa continued with pulling away as well.

The top 3 USA Female Teams.

Below the top 3 USA Male Teams.

Top 3 Junior Female teams....Heather & Marissa (guess who the short one is?!)

Heather's FXC Coach, Pete, with his girls and boys winning teams. By this time it was 9PM! We all had been outside watches races since 5PM.

For results please try this link........

http://www.ussadistancenationals.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=38

Fairbanks Hosts the 2009 USSA Distance National Championships

This week Fairbanks is hosting the U.S. Distance National Championships with skiers from the U.S. Ski Team, other top skiers in the nation as well as a few international skiers. The Distance races have also incorporated the classic interval start and freestyle team sprint events that were canceled due to the cold weather in Anchorage this past January.

It's not every race that you get to race with Olympians or with the top skiers in the country trying to make the Olympian team.

Yesterday was the 5k Classic Interval start race. Here's some pics of Heather during her race...

Heather had a great race. I've included the results of the Women's race below. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to post some photos and results of the team sprint relay that was held today (hint: Heather did great!)

Sex: F - 5 km

1 46 STRANDBERG, Kristina 33 SRF Saab Salomon / XC Oregon 1 16:00.8
2 44 SMYTH, Morgan 22 U23F USST / NMU 1 16:31.8
3 29 RORABAUGH, Becca 19 JRF APUNSC 1 16:37.0
4 21 ESPY, Adele 18 JRF SVSEF / Maine Coast Nordic
5 47 COMPTON, Caitlin 28 SRF CXC Elite 2 16:46.0

6 32 STEPHEN, Elizabeth 21 U23F USST / Burke Mt. Academy 2 16:49.8

7 36 MANNIX, Tazlina 22 U23F USST / APUNSC 3 16:51.8
8 42 BJORNSEN, Sadie 19 JRF UA Anchorage 3 16:53.0
9 43 ARRITOLA, Morgan 22 U23F USST / SVSEF 4 16:54.7
10 31 TRYGSTAD-SAARI, Kris 24 SRF Saab Salomon / BSF 3 16:55
11 28 DEYONG, Nicole 26 SRF Fischer/Craft / SVSEF 4 16:58.1
12 30 BRENNAN, Rosie 20 U23F USST / NSF 5 16:58.8
13 34 OWEN, Kristina 24 SRF CXC Elite 5 16:59.7
13 40 FITZGERALD, Kate 21 U23F APUNSC 6 16:59.7
15 37 KORTHAUER, Aurelia 22 U23F 7 17:14.6
16 41 STUBER, Maria 25 SRF CXC Elite 6 17:14.9
17 26 RONSSE, Katie 23 SRF APUNSC 7 17:15.2
18 33 DEHLIN, Lindsey 24 SRF USST / NMU 8 17:16.3
19 35 PEARSON ARDUSER, 29 SRF Rossignol / APUNSC 9 17:17.4
20 45 DONG, Evelyn 23 SRF Saab Salomon / XC Oregon 10 17:18.7
21 39 WINTERS, Johanna 24 SRF CXC Elite 11 17:19.5
22 38 BRONGA, Jaime 18 JRF NSAA 4 17:26.3
23 27 GLEN, Amy 17 JRF Alaska Winter Stars 5 17:26.4
24 9 PREVOT, Corinne 17 JRF Burke Mt. Academy 6 17:29.6
25 17 SCHNURR, Theresia 20 U23F UA Fairbanks 8 17:49.4
26 13 EDIC, Heather 17 JRF FXC / NSC Fairbanks 7 17:49.9
27 14 RORABAUGH, Marisa 17 JRF FXC / NSC Fairbanks 8 18:19.0
28 12 PACKER, Karina 16 JRF Alaska Winter Stars 9 18:33.0
29 24 OLSON, Ingrid 26 SRF NSC Fairbanks 12 18:38.2
30 16 KONIECZNY, Rebecca 18 JRF UA Fairbanks 10 18:39.4
31 20 RAMEY, Tristan 15 JRF Alaska Winter Stars 11 18:59.6
32 25 BACKSTRUM, Kate 16 JRF Alaska Winter Stars 12 19:02.7
33 23 ANDERSON, Greta 17 JRF Alaska Winter Stars 13 19:16.2
34 11 PRICE, Anna 15 JRF Alaska Winter Stars 14 19:17.3
35 8 ZIMMERMAN, Heather 23 SRF CXC Elite 13 19:19.3
36 18 BOYER, Hannah 15 JRF FXC / NSC Fairbanks 15 19:21.0
37 10 RORABAUGH, Eliza 15 JRF FXC / NSC Fairbanks 16 19:40.3
38 15 ROGERS, Emily 16 JRF Alaska Winter Stars 17 20:00.2
39 19 ROSS, Alison 15 JRF Alaska Winter Stars 18 20:20.1
40 6 BLAKE, Erica 19 JRF FXC / NSC Fairbanks 19 20:32.2
41 22 MAYO, Ema 16 JRF FAST 20 21:22.9
42 5 LENZE, Alicia 13 JRF FJC / Salcha SC 21 22:45.3

Last Day of JO's - Relays

It's March 14th, the last day of JO's 2009. Today was the relay events and Heather was on Alaska Team #2 for J1 girls. The relay races for the girls was a 3X5k. Here's Heather taking off after the tag..........

Heather coming in to tag the last person on her team.....

Another great picture of Heather and Robert.

Here's one of Heather and Megan. Dave happened to be walking by and snuck in the photo shoot........a very proud Dad!

and of course, a proud Mom with her girls. If one looks at the eyes and chins, Mom seems to be the shorter one and somehow Heather looks taller than us all. But really Heather is the shorter one of us all!

Megan's hat as well as some other great patterns can be found at www.SKIDAsport.com. The woman that makes these hats is from Vermont and sold out all of the hats she brought in about 2 hours!

Third Day of JO Races - Truckee

It's Friday, March 13th, the third and final individual race of JO's was about to start. It's a 5K classic interval start and as I was headed to the start area, I was able to sneak a picture of Heather before her start.


Waiting for the beep to start.......

and she is off..........

Here she is along the trail....... where Bert Boyer was once again taking some great photo's.

Heather coming in for her finish........

Heather looked very strong during this race and placed 39th out of 85 girls.

The weather was great; it was so bright and sunny but at times very windy. And yes Irene, sunscreen at this altitude was a must!! The snow was incredible when we first arrived. Driving through the subdivisions we felt like mice in a maze. Over the course of the week it was amazing how much had melted but yet there was still so much left! Here we Moms are enjoying lunch after the races on the deck of the house we rented.

Day 2 of Racing - Junior Olympics in Truckee

Heather's second race was a 10 k Freestyle mass start race of 80 to 85 girls. They are positioned at the start based on their USSA points for the year. Heather is wearing Bib #240 and is on the close side of the photo towards the middle.

The following pictures were taken of Heather along the trail by Bert Boyer. (Thanks much Bert!)

The next series of photos is Heather coming up a very steep hill.

Heather had a great race finishing 24th for J1 Girls in a time of 33:43.8. She was also the 4th Team Alaska girl out of nine in the J1 class.

Robert and Heather after the race.

Future Junior Olympians? Eliza, Megan, Makalya and Hannah.

Truckee California - Day 1 of Junior Olypmic's

The first day of racing for JO's was a sprint race. The first stage of the race is a qualifying round and you have to place in the top 30 in your age group. The qualifying round is an interval start at 15 second intervals. With this quality group of skiiers starting 15 seconds a part, qualifying is very competitive. For example, there were eleven finishers within .94 seconds in the boys race.



Here's Heather ready for her start. (All pictures in this specific JO blog get credited to Bert Boyer..he has got the art of photography down.)





and she's off........

Coming in for her finish......

Heather ended up placing 39th but she raced very strong and looked strong. Below, a proud mom with her daughters.

The previous day Megan and her friend Hannan had fun jumping off the deck that was covered in feet of snow. It had snowed over 3 feet earlier that week. The snow here is amazing, it's so much, so high!

For those following the races, go to the following link: http://www.xcjuniorolympics2009.org/. When you go to results, look in the upper right corner for unofficial results. It seems that's where the age group results are posted versus just a running order with all age groups combined.

Heather's Senior Ball

It's Lathrop Senior Ball, the night State Nordic Ski championships ended, February 28, 2009. After skiing was over the stress was now focused on getting Heather and friends ready for the Ball.

A Heather look (with Robert, her boyfriend in the background.)



Oh and another goofy but typical Heather look.........with Robert looking mighty fine.



Heather and friends.......



and here's the whole group.........

and finally a great picture of Robert and Heather.