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) .
The women’s second place team of Margaret Maher (Chittenden, VT) and Dorcas Wonsavage was 29 seconds out of first and 34 seconds ahead of third place Carole Clermont (Burke, VT) and Cheryl Carlson (Ford Sayre/Lebanon, NH).
The Banknorth Eastern Championship weekend features the New England Masters Championships and the final races in the NENSA Club Series, the masters’ Zak Cup, and the overall Banknorth Eastern Cup. Prizes include gift certificates, duffels and vests from LLBean, and VOMax hats for the overall winner of each Masters age group in the Zak Cup.
Tomorrow’s event is a Pursuit race, also called a Duathlon. The women will ski 7.5km classic, change to their skate skis and poles while the clock runs, and ski a 7.5km skate race. The men will ski 10km + 10km.
Source: NENSA
