News From H.U.R.T. Skiers: Where to begin?

WHELLLPP......we here at the HRT Newsroom are trying desperately to dig ourselves out from behind the piles and piles of headlines about HURT skiers doing awesome things and having great races. It certainly isn't been easy. With so much racing and so many things to share you may be here for a while....

We, at the Newsroom, took one week off from skiing to travel from District 12 to the great city of Panem to encourage the powers-that-be to stop turning the U.S.A into a dumpster fire....and we missed a whopper of a weekend in Lake Placid. So let's start there. The Lake Placid JNQ was the final stop on the qualification circuit for HURT juniors looking to grab a spot on the Mid-A Junior National Team, the NY Eastern High School Championship Team or the NY U16 Championship Team. When the snowflakes all settled on Sunday the list of the qualified athletes included many tributes skiing in green. The following HURT kids will have the chance to represent Mid-A in Lake Placid at JN's: Eliza Blood, Emily Atamanchuk, Nino Manzella, Dan Manzella, Brian Beyerbach, and Seamus Tombs. This group has also qualified to ski at Eastern High School Championship at Mountain Top Resort and are also joined by a long list of HURT athletes that include: James Conway, Brendan Tomb, Casey Tomb, Michael Halligan, Julianne Burns, Maggie Borgos, Anna Wiedmann, Bryce Beyerbach, and Alex Fragomeni. Both Bryce and Alex, thanks to some very crafty birthday/birthyear planning, have secured a spot on the U16 trip to Maine as well. Congrats to all the kids who survived and thrived in a very intense and competitive month of qualification.

A full breakdown of Mid-A points can be found here: http://www.midaxc.com/home/announcements/mid-afinalrankingslist

All junior skiers who are interested in securing their spot on the EHSC team need to visit this link: https://www.skireg.com/new-york-state-eastern-hs-championship-signup ASAP and submit your deposit for the trip. Don't wait to get a spot on the team.

A link to secure a spot on the U16 trip is here: https://www.skireg.com/new-york-u16-championship-team

Frago nabs a podium spot on Sunday in LP!

Racing kept right on going at the Craftsbury Marathon, Eastern Cup at Rikert, Shenendehowa Classic and SBC Mini Marathon. On Saturday it was the HURT Open/Masters team who got into the action with Chris Yarsevich leading the way for the team and Aaron Huneck, Greg Stevens, Roger Henry, Richard Dixon, Sherry Dixon, Eric Hamilton and Alec Davis rounding out a solid Masters turnout. It is clear that classic skiing is on the mind of racers who are looking to tune up for a Empire State Games distance race next weekend and a 15K Hurt-athon on February 12th.

Ed Luban and Carol Fisher took it up a notch at the Craftsbury Marathon and Carol was the 11th Female and 3rd M7 in the 25K and Ed was the 4th M7 and 44th overall in the 50. Kudos to them for enjoying the blueberry soup!

It was the Beyerbach brothers who tackled the Eastern Cup field and despite an unfortunate miscalculation on the Sprint day, had a great two days of racing. It was Brian who led the way and grabbed two top 35's in a deep EC field.

Following the Shen Classic Race, on Sunday the Saratoga Biathlon Club opened their trails once again to the NYSSRA community and held their annual mini-marathon 15/25K freestyle race. On this day there was no question who the class of the field was as Brian Halligan skied to an easy victory. DPK followed in a hard fought 5th with Eric Hamilton and Alex Fragomeni joining from the HURT squad. If ever there was a hunger-games moment from the weekend it was in the 15K skate race that saw 5 enter and only 3 survive. (2 DNF, one for a broken ski, the other for two broken poles, a dislocated thumb, and a sprained shoulder). The infamous "first hill" at SBC saw a pileup minutes after the start that would define many a-skiers day.

Full results from the weekend can be seen here

Matt T rolling to 3rd and DPK grabbing a ride.

BH....this picture is fast.

While all this racing makes for great updates, perhaps the biggest news of the week is that the Bill Koch Program of HURT Nation are truly THRIVING...nay....BURSTING with young talent. You don't believe me? Check the pics...