Courtesy Summit Nordic Ski Club
FRISCO — It’s officially Nordic racing season in Summit County as the Summit Nordic Ski Club hosted the fifth annual Snolof Invitational Sunday in the wake of strong finishes at the Yellowstone Ski Festival in West Yellowstone, Montana, over Thanksgiving.
On Nov. 30 in Montana, Summit High School junior Quinn Weinberger had a great first race of the season on the 10,000-meter freestyle race course. Weinberger’s time of 34 minutes and 0.7 seconds ranked him seventh of 38 skiers in his U-18 boys division and 31st of 79 total skiers.
A pair of two more Summit Nordic skiers also finished in the top 40 overall for the 10K race: Alex Morano (35th, 34:46.6) and Sam Haynes (40th, 35:20.0).
The Summit Nordic’s U-16 boys and girls contingent raced a 5,000-meter freestyle race while in West Yellowstone. In the girls U-16 race, 14-year-old skier Nina Schamberger raced up and won the 28-competitor race with a time of 17:38.8. Summit Nordic skier Annabelle Pattenden joined Schamberger in the top 10 with a seventh-place finish and time of 19:17.9. Other top Summit finishes in the race included Anna Forest (22nd) and Annabelle Laverdiere (26th).
In the U-16 boys race, Kai Oppito and Zander Bertonneau were the club’s top finishers with 20th- and 21st-place finishes.
Weinberger and Pattenden followed up their performances in West Yellowstone with wins in the Snolof Invitational’s U-16+ competitions.
“I’m very proud of Annabelle Pattenden,” Summit Nordic head coach Olof Hedberg said. “I think that’s her first win that I can remember. She has done a great job training, and it’s cool to see that paying off. And the same thing with Quinn (Weinberger), who had a little bit of a rougher season last year. He skied well in both West Yellowstone and then here. It will be interesting to see what he can do this season.”
Weinberger was joined in the top three of the Snolof U-16+ race by Lasse Konecny (24:24) and Henri Nicolas (25:07). Pattenden was joined on the U-16+ podium by Ellie Smith (18:41) and Adele Horning (19:09).
Nico Konecny (8:00) won the Snolof boys U-14 race, followed by Roan Varble (8:45) and Will Bentley (9:04). In the girls U-14 race, the podium included Rose Horning (9:21), Claire Chimileski (9:43) and Kiera Stabile (10:06).
In the boys U-12 race, Landon Laverdiere won with a time of 9:26, followed by Carter Niemkiewicz (10:37) and Cain Steinweg (11:53). Heidi Frey won the girls U-12 race with a time of 12:23.
In the boys U-10 race, Max Lerch won with a time of 9:38, ahead of Crosby Hume (9:40) and Elliot Drumwright (10:52). In girls U-10, Elsie Robinson won with a time of 8:35.
Hedberg said the West Yellowstone and Snolof races went well to start the season after a pair of new developments of the program. Summit Nordic has several new coaches this year, including NCAA champion Eva Sever Rus, a Slovenian skier who skied for the University of New Mexico. The club also was able to use a new roller-ski treadmill this autumn housed at the Breckenridge Recreation Center thanks to a partnership with the town of Breckenridge.
“Treadmill workouts are invaluable,” Hedberg said, “because they allow the coaches to fine tune skiers’ technique, giving them a leg up on other skiers when they hit the snow.”
The Snolof Invitational was a prep race for Summit Nordic’s next competition, the season-opening Rocky Mountain Nordic event, the Junior National Qualifier from Dec. 20-21 in Crested Butte.