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.

2009 Alaska State Nordic Skiing Championships

(I have been trying to publish this blog for many days and have not had luck with the pictures and format so I am just going to post what I have without the results so I can move on to JO's.)

Fairbanks hosted the Alaska State High School Championships Feb 26, 27 and 28. The weather throughout the weekend was in the 20's which was great for the fans. The first race was a 5K interval start classical race. The racers started every 15 seconds with usually the faster racers going out towards the end.

Here Megan starts........

Megan out on the race course..........

Heather starting...........

Megan coming in for her finish....

Heather coming in for her finish........(her picture along the trail for some reason is stuck at the beginning of this blog and I couldn't move it.)

DAY 2 - Mass start Freestyle

Heather is wearing Bib #18 and Megan has Bib #63. This race was a mass start of 121 girls. It was amazing to see them all start. Poles and skiis flying. Heather with the leaders coming up the stadium hill at the beginning of the race.

Megan wearing bib #63 coming up the hill.

Pictures of Heather and Megan along the trail.

Heather coming in almost towards the end.

Megan coming in towards the end.

Region IV Cross Country Skiing Championships

Mass Start 7.5k Freestyle Race - February 13th

Heather leading the pack up the stadium hill. Heather is Bib #136 while Megan is Bib #139.



Here comes Megan........

Heather leading Marissa......

Megan coming around the corner....

Heather still leading the 1st group..........

Megan's pack coming through the stadium for the 2nd half of the race...

Heather and Marissa almost at the end..........

Megan coming through near the end of the race..........

Heather and Marissa coming in for the finish. A last-second surge by Heather was enough to catch and tie Marissa. Only later did we find out that Heather and Marissa had planned to tie.

Megan coming in for her finish.

Heather and Marissa ended up tying for 1st place while Megan came in 11th out of 39 starters.

4X3, Mixed Technique Relay - February 14th

Megan finishing her leg.........

Heather coming in from her leg as anchor of the Lathrop #1 team.

Heather and Marissa sharing the Region IV crown as champion.

The Lathrop #1 team took 2nd overall..........

....

Besh Cup in Fairbanks

Lots of anxiety in Fairbanks as the final weekend of Besh Cups (#5 & #6) was hosted here on February 7 & 8 and Heather hoped to qualify for the Junior Olympic (JO) team representing Alaska. The Alaska JO team would be named at the conclusion of the races on Sunday. At the end of Besh cup #4, Heather was sitting at 14th in points and they take the top 15 in the JI/OJ bracket. Team members are decided on a point system based on racer placement during each of the six races held. If you are interested in the qualifications, please go to http://www.crosscountryalaska.org/ for more information as I in no way can attempt to explain it.

Besh Cup #5 was an interval 5k classic race with racers individually leaving the starting area every 15 seconds.

Heather placed 10th for J1's with a time of 18:52 and kept her 14th placing in the points though the places from 13 to 16 were all so close. It would be very important that Heather have a great race on Sunday.

Sunday's Race: Besh Cup #6 10K Freestyle Mass start..........Heather is #117.

Some misc pictures of Heather along the trail.........

Coming through for the last 5k........

Heather ended up having a great race placing 10th in her age group with a time of 37:02.

Heather named to the team in the 14th spot!!!! Heather not only was a part of the Lathrop HS Cross Country Skiing team but also participated on a comp team, FXC, which is the organization she raced under for the Besh Cups. Pete, her FXC coach, is on the far left with Heather on the far right.

Stayed tuned as Heather heads to Truckee, California for Junior Olympics. The first race is on March 9th. Dave, Megan and I will be joining her for the week. (Steve won't be with us as he "unfortunately" will be in Maui for three weeks for work no less!!!)