NCAAs wasn't the only post-season racing for our team - around the same time, Mirra was over in Germany for the biathlon Junior World Championships and Beckett, Henri, and Ollie were in Wisconsin for Junior Nationals. Here's a recap:
Mirra headed out for Arber, Germany, shortly after Regionals. Like so much of the rest of the world, it was "basically summer" in Arber - conditions were pretty slushy. Her schedule was pretty packed, with three races in a four-day span, followed by a short break before the fourth and final race. Mirra had a decent showing; her ski times were very competitive, and as expected she lost a bit on the range - college isn't an easy environment to stay sharp with shooting, so there was a bit of rust. Nonetheless, she managed to shoot a perfect 10/10 in the mixed relay - her first time ever shooting clean! Her best individual result was 59th in the 12.5k, and she shot a respectable 77% for the overall championships. All reports indicated that this was a very nice trip, featuring potatoes twice a day and something called apfel-hafer naturjoghurt. Congrats to Mirra on a strong finish to her last year as a junior biathlete!
The JN guys raced in Cable on the same week at our NCAA trip. First race was a 10k skate about 36 hours after they got off the plane - this was pretty forgettable, but at least it got the rust off. A couple days later they raced a classic sprint. Ollie and Beckett qualified solidly for the heats and then went on a tear, advancing through the quarters, winning their seminfinal heat together, and finally finishing 4th and 5th, respectively, in the finals. In the 15k classic mass start, Ollie and Henri stayed with the lead pack for most of the race before things splintered in the final kilometers. They kept it close, finishing 8th (Ollie) and 9th (Henri) to lock up All-American honors, with Beckett not far back in 18th. The final day was a 4x3k mixed skate relay - Beckett and Ollie helped New England's first team to the U20 victory. Overall a great showing by our crew and a valuable reminder of how competitive they are against skiers their own age - a nice confidence boost for next year!
