Nordic team hosts night race

With lanterns to light the way on the outer reaches of the course that circled the bowl around Hoodoo Mountain Resort's chairlifts, Nordic skiers from Corvallis, Summit, Redmond and Sisters sped through continual hard snowfall at the annual Night Race on Thursday, February 7.

Bella Smith of Summit blasted to the finish line first among 44 girls on the approximately five kilometer course with a time of 15:32. Molly Blust used her fine freestyle form to take the runner-up position as Sister's top finisher in 16:43.

Jena Rickards (19:04) finished eighth, and Janelle Hjelmstad (22:42) was 24th to complete the scoring for the Outlaws.

Erin Kanzig (22:59) and Sydney Randall (25:56) placed 26th and 33rd respectively among Sisters finishers.

The boys didn't stack up quite as well, with Wes Ford (15:54) and Lucas Glick (16:02) cracking the top 20 behind a slew of Summit and Redmond racers in the 64-person race. Mike Calavan (17:18) completed the scoring for Sisters in 27th place.

The remaining Outlaws finishers included Jack Yinger (17:43), Alex Yinger (19:11), Nick Rice (19:26), Jake Lasken (19:42), Nick Anthony (20:02), Andy Thomas (20:40) and Seth Schneider (21:01).

Tom Smith, a national level racer from Summit, finished first in 11:45, leading the Storm to a sweep of the top three spots.

"The team had a good race and really stepped up their performance against tough competition," said Coach Tom Blust. "Our newer skiers have made a lot of progress this year, and I was particularly impressed with the strong showing by first-year skier Alex Yinger and by sophomore Janelle Hjelmstad."

As the final highlight of the evening, the relay team of Blust, Rickards and Hjelmstad, finished second to Summit.

"It was my best racing of the year," said Hjelmstad. "I just wish my brother, who's away in college, could have been here to see me - at least up until I threw up."

A few team members took to the streets of Bend on Saturday for the Downtown Sprint Race. Skiers went one-on-one on a 160-yard out-and-back course trying to be the last skier standing in the elimination event. Snow leftover from winter plowing was dumped on the street for the event.

"It was a lot of fun, other than getting caught in the netting at the far end of the course on my first run," said Sydney Randall. "It was like being a bug caught in a spider's web."

Erin Kanzig survived through seven rounds before being eliminated in the light-hearted competition, while Molly Blust made it to the championship round where she finished in second place.

The Outlaws skiers will spend the next week preparing for the state meet, scheduled for February 22-23, at Mt. Bachelor .