Aidan Sands powered to a first-place finish in the 3.4K skate race.
Once again, Methow Valley skiers were at the top of several races on both Saturday and Sunday at the Intermountain Youth Ski Championships on Jugg Mountain near McCall, Idaho, last weekend.
Teams from several western states, including Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Utah and California, attended the event.
Aidan Sands and Ben Kaufman placed first and second, respectively, in the Saturday freestyle skate, flipping positions in Sunday’s classic style mass start. Lena Decuir was the easy victor in the Saturday skate, and placed third in Sunday’s classic race for girls in the U-10 division.
On Saturday, Sands posted a time of 9:55, completing the 3.4-kilometer course 13.7 seconds faster than teammate Kaufman. In the 3.4K classic on Sunday, Kaufman turned the tables and took the top spot, completing the race in 12:20.7, 18 seconds ahead of the second-place Sands.
Their head-to-head duels at the front of the field have been the custom this year at meets all over the Northwest, according to volunteer coach, dad and Methow Nordic’s Logistics Coordinator Colin Sands.
“The Dynamic Duo from the Methow continued their dominance over the Pacific Northwest and Intermountain Nordic divisions,” reported Sands. “They split the top two spots, yet again, as they have every race weekend this season.”
“(Lena) Decuir turned some heads,” Sands said of the Mazama 10-year-old who recorded a 3:45.6 time on the single-lap tour of the 1K course, some 4 seconds faster than second-place Ave Adriani of Lake Tahoe, California. Decuir went on to place a strong third in the classic race on Sunday.
Other notable placers for the Methow Valley team included Marit Nelson and Josie Bollinger in the U-14 age group, a field of 44 racers. Nelson had two top-10 finishes, scoring a ninth place on Saturday in the skate and sixth in the Sunday classic. Bollinger crossed the line in the top half of the field both days, placing 17th on Saturday and 22nd on Sunday. In his first Intermountain experience, Soren Decuir crossed the line in 24th place among the 47 U-14 contestants in the Saturday race.
Novie update
Novie McCabe made an appearance during a recent Zoom conference hosted by the University of Utah, where she is currently in her sophomore year on the Utes’ NCAA No. 1 ranked ski team.
McCabe was part of a 12-member Ute contingent on the U.S. Ski team at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. She spoke of her first Olympic experience as being “super fun and enjoyable …. It was easy to get caught up in the experience.”
She said that she didn’t feel a lot of pressure in her first Winter Olympics in that she was just trying to learn and grow.
McCabe skied the third leg of the 4x5K relay in freestyle/skate, then handing off to multiple Olympic medalist Jessie Diggins for the anchor leg. Teammates Hailey Swirbul and Rosie Brennan skied legs one and two in the classic style.
“It was super cool to a part of that,” McCabe said.
McCabe had opened the games skiing in the 10K classic, and closed out with an impressive 18th place in the 30K freestyle.
McCabe is back on the collegiate circuit with the Utes, who are looking to win yet another national team championship for the traditional power in outdoor winter sports. The NCAA championships (March 9-12) are being held this year close to home for McCabe and the Utes, the Alpine events at Park City, Utah, and the Nordics at Soldier Hollow, near Midway, Utah.
