Carpenter Places 6th at Junior Olympics
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| by Craig Ward - AVSC Nordic |
March 12, 2010
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Fritz Carpenter Mid-Air at Steamboat Springs Junior Olympics
Teams from all over the United States and Canada came to Steamboat Springs last week to compete at the 2010 Junior Olympics in Nordic Combined and Special Jumping. Fritz Carpenter, 16, of Aspen qualified onto the strong Rocky Mountain Division (RMD) Team with good results from earlier competitions this winter. Other members of the RMD team were Steamboat J2 skiers Erik Lynch, Alec Gantick, Ben Berend, Nicholas Madden, Jasper Good, Jake Barker, Zeb Tipton, Mary O'Connell and Madison Keefe. Members of the RMD team in the J1 class were Steamboat native Cliff Field, Aspenite Michael Ward, and Madison, Wisconsin native, Adam Loomis.
Carpenter's efforts at the national event culminated with two very impressive results, a sixth place finish in the individual Nordic Combined J2 Class, and a fourth place finish in the Nordic Combined J2 team result, where he teamed up with Steamboat native Nicholas Madden.
The first day of competition saw all the competitors in the special jumping event. In the J2 class Nathaniel Mau of Canada won the jumping event with jumps of 72.5 and 73 meters. RMD skiers Gantick, Lynch, Madden, Berend, Good, Carpenter, Barker and Tipton finished 6th, 9th, 10th, 12th, 16th, 19th, 20th and 27th respectively. In the J1 class Cliff Field of Steamboat won the event, followed closely by Ward in second, and Loomis in 8th. In the women's J2 class O'Connell was 5th and Keeffe 10th.
Later that day the second portion of the Nordic Combined event was held, a skate race of 5 Kilometers. The RMD team dominated the event with Erik Lynch starting in 6th place to win the event. Gantick was second, Berend 4th, Madden 5th, Good 9th Barker 12th, and Tipton 16th. Carpenter, starting at 14th place skied the fourth fastest cross country time to finish at 8th place overall (sixth place for US skiers). In the women's J2, O'Connell was 2nd and Keefe 3rd. The domination of RMD was even more evident in the J1 class, with a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place sweep of Field, Ward, and Loomis.
The next day's events were the team jumping and team Nordic Combined events. In the J1 class the team of Field, Ward and Loomis easily outperformed the Intermountain team #1 and the Central #1 team. In the J2 event Lynch, Gantick, Berend and Madden won, with Intermountain #1 in second and Central Division #1 in third. Carpenter held down the third spot on the RMD #2 team that finished 7th. Later that night, in a blinding snowstorm that was dropping heavy wet snow at the rate of 3 inches/hour, the Nordic Combined team event was held., whereby the two man teams started in the order of their jump finish earlier that day. Each skier skied a 1-kilometer course, then tagged off to their partner, each skier racing a total of 3 kilometers. Carpenter skied aggressively, and in the last half kilometer passed the Canadian team of Korek and Mau, finishing fourth, just three seconds ahead of the Canadians. Lynch and Gantick won the men's J2 event, with O'Connell and Keefe winning the women's J2 event. In the J1 event it was Ward and Field easily winning by 1:41 minutes.
The last day of competition was a fun elimination round of jumping on the K68 meter hill. In the J2 class it was Mau of Canada in the last round jumping 76 meters for the win. RMD skiers Lynch and Gantick finished in 6th and 9th respectively. Madden was 11th, Good 16th, Berend 17th, Carpenter 22nd, Barker 23rd and Tipton 32nd. Top woman was Nina Lussi at 10th position. In the J1 class Central skier Brain Wallace won, with Field 2nd, Ward 5th and Loomis 9th.
The winter's last competition will be held in Park City, Utah this coming weekend, at the Western Regionals event.
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For details, contact
Alan Cole
AVSC
(970) 205-5104
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