Jericho, VT, August 22. Denise Teela (Anchorage, AK) won both the Women’s Sprint and Pursuit competitions at the US Biathlon Summer Rollerski Festival held this past weekend.
National Team member Teela, who also competes for the National Guard, won both competitions by virtue of solid performances on both the shooting range and the tracks. In Saturday’s 7.5K Sprint, she shot clean in prone, followed by three standing penalties to cross the finish line in 24:07. Teela’s three penalties topped Development Team athlete Caitlin Compton (Warren, VT) who had six total miscues, finishing 34 seconds back. Compton’s faster skiing kept her just two seconds ahead of another Development Team athlete, Beth Ann Chamberlain (Duluth, MN) who finished third with two penalties, the best shooting performance of the day.
Taking the Junior division title was Meagan Toussaint (Madawaska, ME), competing for the Maine Winter Sports Center. Toussaint had three penalties in both prone and standing to finish fourth overall, 1:41 behind Teela. Another MWSC athlete, Rose-Mary Williams (Presque Isle, ME) claimed Youth Division honors, finishing 2:18 back, with six penalties.
After the strong performance in the Sprint, Teela came back with a better shooting performance to capture Sunday’s 10K Pursuit. Although she had three prone penalties, Teela missed only one of ten standing shots, to claim a 36:28 victory over Toussaint. The young MWSC athlete matched Teela with four shooting penalties, but finished 13 seconds back. Development athlete Haley Johnson (Lake Placid, NY) took third, 2:02 back with eight penalties. Hilary McNamee (Fort Fairfield, ME) also competing for the MWSC, took the youth title finishing 5:12 back with eight penalties.
Leif Nordgren (Marine on St Croix, MN) with victory in the 12.5K Pursuit and fourth in the 10K Sprint was the top male competitor of the weekend. Nordgren, in the Youth category, totaled three penalties over the two days of competition. Even with only one penalty, Nordgren finished 1:52 behind Jesse Downs (three penalties) of the National Guard in the Sprint. Yet the next day, the younger Nordgren pushed Downs to second position with a mere two penalties to Downs’ ten errors. Russell Currier (Stockholm, ME), a member of the National Junior team from the Maine Winter Sports Center placed second in the Sprint, with two penalties, 1:05 behind Downs, but fell to fourth in the Pursuit, despite a solid shooting performance of six penalties. Third in both competitions was Junior Team member Wynn Roberts (Battle Lake, MN) who had two penalties in the Sprint and two in the Pursuit. Nordgren and Roberts compete for Mount Itasca Biathlon.
The Summer Festival concluded a three-week training camp in Lake Placid, NY and Jericho, VT for the Development, Junior, and Youth teams. The group included large contingents from Maine and Minnesota, as well as several athletes Alaska, Vermont, and Colorado.
The United States Biathlon Association is the National Governing Body for the sport of biathlon in the United States as recognized by the United States Olympic Committee and the International Biathlon Union. The US Biathlon Association supports the US Biathlon Team and development of the sport on all levels within the United States.
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