January 27, 2013, Chittenden, Vt. — The Mountain Top Inn and Resort and Mountain Top Nordic Ski Club hosted the 8th Annual Mountain Top Paintball Biathlon on Jan. 27 with races in five divisions. The race attracted over 285 participants and many Upper Valley skiers braved the cold to compete. The racers did laps around the course and stopped to shoot paintball guns at targets with ten seconds removed from the skier’s final time for each hit.
Hanover’s Ann Rightmire won the girls first- and second-grade race with a perfect score of five shots in 3:58.4. Sarah Glueck of Hanover finished third after making three shots in 5:19.1. Imogen Dietz (11th, 2, 7:19.8) and Meg Frost (13th, 0, 7:39.2) were also in the top fifteen. Bailey Finegan of Peru, VT shot perfectly to win the boys race in 4:03.3. Christian Blix of Hanover (7th, 2, 5:39.5), Simon Phipps of Norwich (9th, 2, 5:46.6), and James Underwood of Woodstock (13th, 1, 6:18.2) were also top finishers.
The third- and fourth-grade race was a 2km race and Evan Nichols of Lyme took first place in the boys race with five hits and blistering time of 6:39.3. Ava Thurston of Waterbury, VT won the girls race with five hits in 7:56.4. Lyme’s Elsa Bolinger (4th, 5, 8:47.3), Thetford’s Eloise Silver-VanMeter (5th, 3, 9:20.5), Hartland’s Nicoya Mowbray-Parket (6th, 3, 9:29.5), and Lyme’s Katie Davis (15th, 1, 10:33.1) finished in the top fifteen.
The fifth- and sixth-grade race included three stops at the range and a 3 km ski. Casey Nichols of Lyme won the girls race with 11 hits in a time of 9:18.0. Norwich’s Ingrid Miller (3rd, 1, 10:23.8), Hanover’s Lucy Glueck (4th, 3, 10:25.9), Lyme’s Greta Bolinger (5th, 2, 10:56.8), Hanover’s Grace Dietz (6th, 12, 11:52.3), Norwich’s Hannah Chipman (10th, 6, 13:11.7) and Hanover’s Shannon Walsh (15th, 0, 14:21.4) were all near the top of the leaderboard. The boys race had a massive field with 37 entrants and last year’s runner-up, Will Koch of Peru, VT won the race with 10 hits in 8:12.1. Hanover’s Andy Rightmire (12th, 2, 10:42.1), Norwich’s Patrick Osborn (13th, 10, 10:48.0) and Nolan Gantrish of Hanover (14th, 6, 10:48.4) were in the top fifteen.
Norwich’s Kirsten Miller won the girls seventh- and eighth-grade race with four hits over the 3.75 km course in 10.01.0. Alexandra Schaffer of Norwich (5th, 4, 11:49.1) and Hanover’s Tess Snyder (12th, 4, 14:25.0) were also top finishers. Putney, VT’s Russell Boswell won the boys race with seven hits in 8:25.5 edging out Erik Lindahl of Thetford Center who finished second with nine hits in 8:30.5. Adam Glueck of Hanover finished 12th with five hits in 10:12.0.
This year marked the addition of a high school race and Isaac Wright of Rutland won the 5.25 km event with 11 hits in 10:09.7. Hanover’s Colin Pogue also had a good day at the range and finished a strong third with 11 hits in 11:42.1. Brooke Mooney of Peru, VT won the girls race in 12:20.3 with 12 hits.
Local youth skiers are now training hard for the upcoming TD Bank Bill Koch Festival which will be held February 9-10 at the Weston Ski Track in Weston, MA.
Click here for more photos of the event.