Cross Country Finds Success in January

Since the new year there has been a lot going on at Park City Ski and Snowboard despite minimal snow. It has definitely been more challenging for our staff to plan but we have continued to get creative and be flexible. We have had lots of great practices and great morale on our teams.

Coach Liz took five Comp athletes, Tegan Hoffman, Kyle Clarke, Rhys Weidenhamer, Brooke Greenberg and Ian Carmack, to Senior Nationals in Lake Placid to compete with some of the best athletes in the country. The team was excited to finally see winter in New York state. For some it was their first time going to a national competition, for others they had big goals of qualifying for World Juniors or the U18 Trip to Scandinavia. The creative training leading up to these races paid off as both Brooke and Ian qualified for the Scandinavian trip, also qualifying them for Junior Nationals. Some highlights included Brooke placing second in the Skate race for juniors and Ian made it to the semifinals. It was good racing experience for all who made the trip.

On January 23 and 24 we had 37 athletes racing in the Super Junior National Division Qualifier ‘Super Q’ at Soldier Hollow in U10 to U20 age categories. We were super impressed with the hilly 2.5k loop of manmade snow the venue was able to produce. This was not only a JNQ qualifier for Intermountain, but also for Far West, Pacific Northwest, High Plains and Rocky Mountain divisions. The Saturday race also overlapped with a NCAA college race so the competition was steep. PCSS had a lot of great performances, especially considering it was the first race of the season for many. Top performances included U14 athlete Mira Smeyak winning both skate and classic races, Ian Carmack, Rhys Weidenhamer and Tegan Hoffman qualifying for the heats in the classic sprint, and Rhys having an impressive 5th place finish, and 2nd out of IMD, in the U18 skate race.

Back in Park City we have all our programs running including Kinder Gliders, Mini Gliders, and our Masters program that started in January. We were lucky to have a number of days at Ecker and Quinn’s Junction along with consistently skiing at White Pine Nordic, Bonanza Flat and Soldier Hollow. We are lucky to have some access to snowmaking at Utah Olympic Park.

Coach McKinley has done a great job running our Junior Comp and Devo programs and making sure kids are challenged, learning and having fun. The Devo coaches often take vans of kids out to Soldier Hollow to access more terrain. We have a great crew of coaches running our Kickers and Gliders programs and started skate skiing in January.

We had a good crew of athletes come out to the first Wasatch Citizen Series race at Soldier Hollow, January 3 which for most was their first race of the season, and for some Kickers and Gliders there first of hopefully many races.

For the fifth year in a row, we have hosted a Youth United Family ski day at White Pine Nordic. This is where parents of our athletes who sign up through Youth United, many of whom speak Spanish, can learn to cross country ski, for many it’s their first time skiing. Afterward we had pizza and drinks on the deck at White Pine and enjoyed the afternoon sun.

We look forward to the rest of the season, traveling to races and will continue to do our snow dance!