Two Nordic skiers with the Winter Park Competition Center have qualified to race in the 2020 Junior Nationals at Donner Summit, California, while a third has qualified as an alternate.<\/p>\n
Based on a points system, Alex Holinka and Sylvia Brower have both earned spots in what\u2019s billed as \u201cthe ultimate junior cross country skiing event of the year\u201d on March 8-14. <\/p>\n
Additionally, Sebastian Brower has qualified for Junior Nationals as an alternate, marking a major accomplishment for the three skiers and the young Nordic program. <\/p>\n
\u201cMaking this trip means they\u2019re solidly entrenched with the top skiers from Colorado, and now they get to see where they stack up against the top skiers in the country,\u201d said Isaiah St. Pierre, director of the Winter Park Competition Center.<\/p>\n
For Holinka, making the elite field slated to race just outside Truckee, California, was both a relief and signaled a great opportunity for the young Nordic skier, but he\u2019s not entirely sure it has fully sunk in yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that will happen when I\u2019m on the plane headed to Truckee, California,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Holinka had a pretty good idea that he qualified for Junior Nationals while racing in Utah and looking up at the leaderboard to the results. Then an email showed up in his in box a few days later confirming it. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was something that did not come easy to me, and I had to work very hard at it,\u201d Holinka said. \u201cBut through hard work and great coaching over the last five years, my hard work paid off and I made it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Winter Park Competition Center\u2019s Nordic program is still young, only coming into existence about four years ago, said St. Pierre, who added that having athletes qualify for \u201cthe big show\u201d is a major step forward for the program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two Nordic skiers with the Winter Park Competition Center have qualified to race in the 2020 Junior Nationals at Donner Summit, California, while a third has qualified as an alternate. Based on a points system, Alex Holinka and Sylvia Brower have both earned spots in what\u2019s billed as \u201cthe ultimate junior cross country skiing event […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-10 12:17:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}