Three Juneau teens made the podium of the Government Peak Cross-Country Ski Invitational on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Juneau Nordic Ski Team sent just under 20 high school and middle schoolers to the two-day race series held on the Government Peak Recreation Area winter trails near Hatcher Pass outside of Palmer.<\/p>\n
Arne Ellefson-Carnes, Clem Taylor-Roth and Finn Morley posted the top-10 fastest cumulative times in a pair of 5-kilometer races: an interval-start freestyle on Friday and mass-start classic on Saturday.<\/p>\n
In the freestyle race, Ellefson-Carnes placed second with a time of 14 minutes, 46 seconds. Taylor-Roth finished in eighth in 15:21 and Morley was 10th in 16:13.<\/p>\n
In the classic race, Taylor-Roth finished in fifth place with a time of 16:08, edging sixth-place Ellefson-Carnes (16:16) and 10th-place Morley (17:25).<\/p>\n
“It’s just been pretty fun to race just in general, to race with more people of similar ability,” Ellefson-Carnes said.<\/p>\n
Taylor-Roth said he struggled with his pacing more in Friday’s race.<\/p>\n
“We weren’t ranked in a certain order, so I was just in the middle of a group of slower skiers,” he said. “It’s a lot tougher to push yourself to the max when you aren’t skiing with other fast skiers. In the mass start today, I just stuck with the lead pack from the start and even as they started to pull away from me, I could keep my eyes on them, and have that be my goal to stick as close as possible.”<\/p>\n
Morley said he thought Saturday’s race was more of an adjustment.<\/p>\n
“I think the classic race was hard to pace today because it was a mass start so everyone was going at it and we were all hyped up,” Morley said.<\/p>\n
For the girls freestyle, Anna Iverson placed 24th in 24:15. Katie McKenna was the first on her team in the classic race, coming in 21st in 24:19.<\/p>\n
Palmer, Kenai, Grace Christian, Soldotna and Seward also competed in the meet.<\/p>\n
The Juneau Nordic Ski Team is in its ninth season together and includes almost 30 youth. Mo Michels heads up the team as the head coach and coordinator.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com. Follow Empire Sports on Twitter at @akempiresports.<\/b><\/p>\n
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