Jumping News

Weston, MA. — The Eastern Mass BKL club survived blizzard Nemo and hosted an inspired, if compressed, one day nordic ski festival for teams from New England and New York on February 10th. The race, hosted at the Weston Ski Track, featured freestyle sprints in the morning and classic races in the afternoon. The skiers, organized by their region, marched into the site to the music of fife and drum and a musket volley by the Minutemen. Upper Valley resident Peter Graves gave the proceedings a very Olympic tone as he announced commentary for the races and Norwich’s Mike Holland, an Olympic ski jumper in the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games, introduced many young nordic athletes to ski jumping over the course of the day. The morning freestyle sprint races started with the third- and fourth-grade sprints over a 400m course and Ford Sayre skiers Evan Nichols (3rd, 1:35.2), Erik Blix, Spencer May, Jack Lange and Matt Walsh all skied well. In the girls race Elsa Bolinger came in a strong sixth at 1:45.9 with Katie Davis and Eloise Silver-Vanmeter also racing. The fifth- and sixth-grade sprint was 750m and Hanover’s Andy Rightmire had a very speedy top ten finish (9th; 2:46.3). Daniel Bandler and Peter Burnham also had strong races. The girls race was a scorcher with Norwich’s Ingrid Miller placing second in 2:49.5, one tenth of a second behind the winner. Greta Bolinger, Cassandra Nichols, Lucy Glueck, Kennedy Lange, Grace Dietz, Margot Davis, Hannah Chipman, Liz Rightmire and Shannon Walsh also competed. Norwich’s Kirsten Miller won the girls seventh- and eighth-grade sprint covering the 750m in 2:13.2; Sarah Spencer of Ascutney finished 16th at 2:43.7. Hanover’s Adam Glueck finished fifth in 2:10.9 in the boys seventh- and eighth-grade sprint with Stefan Cole, Jack Burnham, Arturo Johnson, Adam Mendelsohn and Malcolm Silver-Vanmeter had strong finishes The afternoon classic races started with the first- and second-grade girls who skied 1 km with Ford Sayre skier Ann Rightmire finishing second. Sara Glueck (5th) and Imogen Dietz (17th) of Hanover also had top finishes. In the girls third- fourth-grade race over 2 km, Elsa Bolinger of Lyme finished 4th in a time of 9:52.2. Eloise Silver-Vanmeter (Thetford, 11th, 11:18.7) and Katie Davis (Lyme, 17th, 11:45.3) also had strong races. Evan Nichols of Lyme finished 7th in the boy’s third-fourth-grade race with a time of 9:41.6. Spencer May, Jack Lange , Erik Blix and Matt Walsh also raced well. In the girls fifth- and sixth-grade 3 km race, Ford Sayre skiers made a very strong showing with Greta Bolinger (2nd, 13:09.6), Ingrid Miller (4th, 13:16.9), Lucy Glueck (5th, 13:47.4), Cassandra Nichols (7th, 13:57.8), Kennedy Lange (12th, 14:21.3), Hannah Chipman (13th, 14:23.6), Grace Dietz (20th, 15:14.2), Shannon Walsh (23rd, 16:06.8), Margot Davis (29th, 16:30.9) and Liz Rightmire (30th, 16:32.1). In the boy’s fifth- and sixth-grade race, Andy Rightmire (6th, 12:39.3), Patrick Osborn (13th, 14:06.4), Daniel Bandler (15th, 14:15.3) and Peter Burnham (30th, 16:11.1) all had strong races over the 3km course. The girls seventh- and eight-grade race covered a 4 km distance with Kirsten Miller finishing 3rd with a time of 15:41.1. Alexandra Schaffner (11th, 17:00.2), Ann Osborn (13th, 17:08.4), Sara Spencer (26th, 18:59) all raced well in a field of 57 skiers. In the final race of the day, the boys seventh- and eighth-grade 4km race Adam Glueck had a very strong third place finish in 13:52.9. Jack Burnham (26th, 17:31.5), Stefan Cole (27th, 17:42.2), Arturo Johnson (28th, 18:01), Adam Mendelsohn (32nd, 18:47.5) and Malcolm Silver-Vanmeter (34th, 19:11.4) had good races for Ford Sayre in a field of 46 skiers. For more photos of the event, go to: http://losborn.smugmug.com/share/FordSayreContinue reading →

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The Ford Sayre Memorial Ski Council thanks the Byrne Foundation for their generous contribution toward the ski jump renovation. The Roger Burt Memorial Jumps are at Oak Hill in Hanover just above Storrs Pond.

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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.

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