SW Nordic Ski Club mascot with coaches Clay Moseley and Sanna Sevanto at Snow Mountain Ranch in the Fraser Valley of Colorado. Photo by Dina Pesenson/SWNSC
Liv Niklasson finishing with athletes from the Aspen Valley Ski Club and the Winter Park Competition Center in the female U16 classic-technique race. Photo by Dina Pedeson/SWNSC
Quanah Moseley rounding a turn and heading to the finish line for a 2nd place finish in the boys U12 category. Photo by Dina Pesenson/SWNSC
SWNC NEWS RELEASE
On December 16-17, the Southwest Nordic Ski Team (SWNSC) competed in the first Rocky Mountain Division (RMD) Junior Nationals Qualifier (JNQ) races for the 2023-24 season, hosted by the Winter Park Competition Center at Snow Mountain Ranch, just outside Granby, Colorado in the Fraser Valley. Athletes from the SWNSC team proved themselves to be on par with the much bigger Colorado programs, taking several podium spots and top-20 placings with only four skiers making the trip north. The SWNSC team, based here in Los Alamos, is the only non-Colorado team in the RMD, but is well known for being a very competitive team in the division.
The first day of competition was the classic-technique individual start race, and the second day was the freestyle (skate skiing) mass-start race. Depending on each athlete’s age, races ranged from 2km to 5km over increasingly difficult courses. The oldest categories (U16 up to U23) raced on a very difficult 5km course, while the U12 and U14 age groups raced a 3km, and the youngest categories U10 and below raced on a 2km course. Athletes in the U16 to U20 categories are vying for points to be accumulated over four different weekends of racing from December through February in hopes to earn a berth to the Junior National Championships races, scheduled for March 11-16 in Lake Placid, New York. Only twelve athletes in each two-year age group will be selected, so a lot is on the line in each of the qualifying races.
In the first day’s classic-technique competition, dialing in the grip wax on the “grip” portion of the ski was crucial due to the size of the main climb on the 5km course. For the younger kids not having to climb the big hill, it was more about having fast glide while not giving up too much grip on the less-steep hills. But for the older kids who had to climb the 1km sustained monster hill, getting the grip wax wrong would be a disaster. SWNSC had a very good showing with the boys U14 winner, Diego Leonard leading the way. Also taking a podium spot was boys U12 Quanah Moseley, with a 2nd place.
In the girls’ U16 (age 14-15) category, Liv Niklasson upped her game as a first year U16 and earned a 24th place in a very competitive field. Coming off two weeks of illness and rounding out a very good first day was Mila Moseley, placing 11th in what is usually her strongest event, the individual-start classic race. Both girls felt that they raced solidly but were ready to find another gear in the next day’s freestyle mass start.
The weather for the race weekend could not have been more perfect. Clear skies, lows in the single digits with highs in the upper 20s made for perfect Nordic conditions. Sunday’s race day dawned clear and cold with the older kids going earlier than the previous day. Glide wax was critical but straightforward on squeaky, cold snow. Liv Niklasson and Mila Moseley were first to go in their U16 girls’ race. It was an exciting day for both ladies with breakthrough performances and achieving their target goals of how they wanted to execute their respective races. Liv pushed passed several Aspen Valley Ski Club competitors during the middle portion of her race to earn her first top-20, placing 20th. Mila also felt like she achieved a milestone by not only earning a 2nd place on the podium, but in leading the race over the big climb and onto the technical descent. She was passed at the bottom of the descent by the #1 ranked U16 girl from the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports team and the two raced with a narrow gap between them all the way to the finish, with another athlete from Steamboat Springs right on her ski tails.
In the boys U14 race, Diego Leonard once again proved too strong for the rest of the field but was chased very hard all the way to the line by yet another determined Steamboat Springs athlete for a relatively close finish (by Diego’s usual standards). In the boys U12 race, it once again came down to a very close sprint among three competitors who all seem to be at almost the same level, with Quanah Moseley taking 3rd on the day in the sprint with a racer from Crested Butte and Steamboat Springs.
The next stop on the Rocky Mountain Division JNQ tour is the “Super Q” races at the 2002 Winter Olympics venue at Soldier Hollow in Heber, Utah on January 26-27. This race is special since it includes not only the RMD, but other regions such as the Inter-Mountain Division, High Plains Division, Pacific Northwest Division, and the Far West Division, which essentially covers the entire western half of the country, excluding Alaska. It will be the first indication of how it might go against a national championship field.
Diego Leonard, flanked by rivals from Steamboat Springs and Summit County, won both the classic-technique and freestyle competitions on both days in the boys U14 category. Photo by Dina Pesenson/SWNST
Mila Moseley sprinting in for 2nd place in the female U16 freestyle race followed closely by an athlete from Steamboat Springs. Photo by Dina Pesenson/SWNST
It was a great first race weekend of the season for the Southwest Nordic Ski Team! Photo by Dina Pesenson/SWNST