To Go Directly to the Lake Placid 2004 Junior Olympics website, including up-to-the-minute results, CLICK HERE.

For an informational article on this year's JO Team, CLICK HERE. BOYS GIRLS OJ Martin Benes Nick Sterling Phillip Violet* Whitney Prosor J1 Robby Beno Joaquin Goodpaster Dominic Henriques Ben Kantz Patrick Lane Garrett Reid Sam Sterling Owen Wright Cindy Apodaca Katie Clark Natalie Joffe Kara LaPoint Jennifer Myers J2 Nick Bozzio Matt Gelso Carl Reid Alex Taylor Patrick Trainor Spencer Wood Tyler Wright Sarah Clark Maisha Goodpaster Gabrielle Joffe Bernie Nelson Alexandra O'Neil Dayna Stimson Sara Violett Coaches: Jeff Schloss, Glenn Jobe, Nancy Fiddler, Debbi Waldear, Gary York, Bill Sterling, Jenny Rassuchine and Larry Ford.

CLASSIC RESULTS, Wednesday, March 10:

FREESTYLE RESULTS, Friday, March 12:

RELAY RESULTS, Saturday, March 13:

Alaska Cup Points

Tuesday Update from Head Coach Jeff Schloss

The Sprint race was held on a pretty fast loop that was a little short of 1 K. It was gently uphill for the first half and then a gradual downhill for the second half. The snow was fairly wet new snow and it definately got rutted as the day went on. By the time of the heats the finishing lanes were so rutted and sloppy that it was super hard to skate, in fact some athletes just double poled rather than fighting the ruts.

Far West had an awesome day! We had 9 athletes progress up into the qualifying rounds which I think is a FAr West record. Our skis were super fast and our athletes were skiing great. As in any sprint race there were some crashes and tough situations but all in all we came out pretty well. Natalie got tripped as she sprinted to the line when a girl in the next lane got caught in a rut and fell into Natalie's lane and knocked her down. This cost her a trip to the finals but she bounced back and skied to second place in the B final. Kati Clark skied the best I have ever seen her ski and finished 4th in the J1 girls final. Maisha Goodpaster was absolutely awesome skiing with the 8th fastest time in the preliminary round and then fighting her way on to the podium with a third place in the final. Bernie Nelson is certainly the rookie of the year placing 6th in her first JO race ever.Whitney Prosor made it in to the heats for the first time in her JO career and finished 12th overall. On the boys side Dominic Henriques was blazing fast in the preliminary with the third fastest time of the day, and ended up 9th after the finals. Joaquin Goodpaster finished a strong eighth, moving up with an awesome quarterfinal victory. Matt Gelso proved he is back to full health with a solid fifth place and a win in the B final. IN the OJ catagory Nick Sterling won the B final to finish 5th in a super strong OJ field.

This was the best first day of racing that FAr West has ever had at the Junior Olympics. On the whole team almost everyone skiied really well. We had a few crashes in the prelims and some tough racing but in general we looked really fast out there. The team confidence is high and we are looking forward to the classic race tomorrow.

The town of Lake Placid is really cool and the Olympic feel is everywhere. We rode the elevator to the top of the Olympic 90 meter jump on Sunday and it was scary but awesome. Last night we went and saw the movie "Miracle" about the 1980 Olympic hockey match and it was great to see it right here where it happened.

So far this is a great trip!
Jeff

Tuesday Update from Nick Sterling (OJ Male)

Hello from Lake Placid. Were off to a very good start here after the sprint, which is promising since we generally due better in the longer races which are later in the week and give us more time to climatize to the lower elevation. So all is set to produce the best JN's we've ever had. The condtions are excellent here, it has been lightly snowing here for about the past two days so the trails are in prime shape.

The sprint course was a fairly quick and flat one with no steep uphills, and the fastest juniors sprinting it in about 2 minutes. We qualified 9 athletes for the heats, and had 8 of those athletes medal. The heats were intense and most of them were decided right at the start in the opening 100 meters as there wasn't much room or time to pass on the course. The start became increasingly tricky as the heats progressed as the snow was warm and soft and the previous starters had left deep ruts in it on the sides of the lanes. You really had to try and be light and quick otherwise you got bogged down in the ruts and soft snow.

The finish turned out to be even more difficult than the start as you were coming into it with lactic acid filled legs and had only about a 3-4 foot section of packed snow with some ruts up to 6 inches deep on the sides. When you have 4-6 junior skiers coming into the finish trying to ski at top speed with ruts as tall as some of the skiers boots, you're bound to have some spectacular crashes. Sure enough there proved to be some crashes, so many racers rather than risk falling at the finish just double poled on the small packed section of the lanes. In my heats I tried to skate the finishing straight, but after nearly falling twice I decided it best to just double pole and this proved to be a good tactic as many of my competitors either fell or lost their balance allowing me to pull ahead.

The sprint overall was a huge success and the classic race tomorrow which has historically proven to be our best race, should allow us to better our sprint results, and hopefully place a few on the podium!

Nick