XC Junior Olympics: Alaskans sprint to wins

Team Alaska came up big on the first day of the 2008 Junior Olympics, taking two of the three girls sprint titles and placing four skiers in the six-man J1 boys finals.
Team Alaska came up big on the first day of the 2008 Junior Olympics, taking two of the three girls sprint titles and placing four skiers in the six-man J1 boys finals.
    Amy Glen from Anchorage won the J1 title over the 1.3k sprint course, while Alaska Pacific University’s Becca Rorabaugh, also from Anchorage, won the OJ title. New England’s Kristin Halvorsen took the title in the girl’s J2 category.
    On the boy’s side, Alaskans dominated the J1 category, placing four skiers among the six in the finals. However, Minnesota’s state high school champ Joe Dubay took home the title for the Midwest Division. Steve Mangan from Mid-Atlantic won the J2 division, while Alex Howe, skiing for New England, was the top OJ sprinter.
    The Junior Olympics divides competitors into age categories that span two years. OJs are 18 and 19, J1s are 16 and 17, and J2s are 14 and 15.
    Warm temperatures and recent rain made the large stadium at Kincaid Park unusable and organizers moved both the start and finish lines for the first day of competition. While the rain stopped over the weekend, course planners and groomers continue to battle unseasonably warm weather.
    “Actually, there is quite a bit of snow on the trails,” said organizing committee chair Diane Moxness. “The problem is that there is also water.”
    Sunday’s high was 44 and thermometers in downtown Anchorage read 40 degrees today.
    Pooling water in the stadium has turned to ice and forced organizers to change the sprint course and move both the start and finish lines and abandon the stadium for today’s races.
    Skiers have a training day on Tuesday and return to competition on Wednesday with the classic event. OJ and J1 boys will ski 15km, OJ and J1 girls go 10km and all J2s will ski 5km.
    Complete results are available at www.anchoragenordicski.com/jo2008.