Shuswap’s Larch Hills junior racers compete in Teck BC Championships

By Roger Parenteau

Contributor

The Larch Hills Nordic Junior Race Team was in Prince George last weekend (March 4-6) for the Teck BC Championships. More than 50 racers from the Larch Hills Nordic Society took part in the event, including junior racers, their coaches and some parents.

The courses included a mass start Classic race on Friday, an interval start Free technique event on Saturday, and a Classic relay on Sunday. The courses included many steep downhills with lots of twisting turns.

The team had many strong finishes on some extremely challenging courses in varying conditions. All racers pushed themselves to the limit and achieved many personal goals for the season.

Top thee age-group finishes in the individual events included Henry Bollans, Kai Cadden, Ian Orchard, Megan Brooke, Sheila Corbett, Alexander Corbett, Keeya Corbett, Alan Corbett, Tom Hansen, Abbi May and head coach Glenn Bond. Reese Major, Gideon Breugem and Frankie Ayotte had very strong finishes in their age-groups as well.

Sunday featured an exciting three-person relay event with some fantastic competition and creative costumes. The Larch Hills U14 Girls team-1 had a very strong finish in 3rd place, with the U14 boys finishing in 5th in a very competitive category.

The open event had many of the coaches and parents participating – some for their first ever race experience. The women’s team of Abbi May, Sheila Corbett and Megan Brooke finished just off the podium against some very fast young skiers in the Open Women’s event. The U20 Team of Frankie Ayotte, Jacob Hepburn and Jabin Zuidoff came in 5th, and the Open Men’s Team including Alexander Corbett, Tom Hansen and Glenn Bond had a strong showing in 4th.

It was a fantastic weekend of racing and well organized by the Caledonia Ski Club.

Aggregate awards for skiers’ top four finishes from the six race series (two classic, two skate ski events):

Kai Cadden finished 2nd in the U 10 Boys, Gideon Breugem, 2nd in the U 12 Boys (Group II), Ian Orchard, 3rd U14 Boys (Group I), Alexander Corbett 1st Senior Men, Maggie Beckner 1st U20 Women & College/University Women, Sheila Corbett 1st Masters Women 50-59.

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