Banknorth Eastern Nordic Ski Championships — McLoon and Osgood win Classic Events — Maine Winter Sports Center teams take the Sprint Relays
March 12 (Rumford, ME): Anna McLoon’s time of 19:08.5 (Maine Winter Sports Center, Caribou, ME) edged out Dorcas Wonsavage (Ford Sayre/Etna,NH) by 3/10ths of a second, for the Women’s 5km classic win at this weekend’s Banknorth Eastern Championships at Black Mountain in Rumford, ME. McLoon’s MWSC teammate, Kate Whitcomb (Caribou, ME), came in third with a time of 19:29.5. What the field lacked in depth this weekend was made up by the quality of the competitors. Many of the lowest point holders in New England showed up with their eyes on the forecast — Snow, and lots more of it — instead of the calendar.
In the men’s 10km classic it was Maine Winter Sport Center’s Brayton Osgood (Putney, VT) winning by over a minute ahead of Alpina’s Nick Trautz (Cabot, VT). Colby College’s Fred Bailey (Waterville, ME) was third.
The afternoon’s relay freestyle sprint was an exciting race. The format consisted of two-people teams, each person alternating a 1km sprint lap, twio laps per person for the women, three laps per person for the men (2 x 1km x 3). The course was made extra tough by the continued snowfall, but the Maine Winter Sport Center teams of Anna McLoon and Kate Whitcomb, and the men’s team of Brayton Osgood and Tom Keefe (Cummington, MA) both won. The Gunstock Nordic Club team of Sam Mashall (Etna, NH) and Sam Evans-Brown (Gilmanton Ironworks, NH) snuck into second ahead of third place MWSC team of Steve Scott (St. Paul, MN) and Jefffrey Beal (Limestone, ME) .