Leavenworth Winter Sports Club junior skiers compete at Nationals

Two Nordic skiers representing the Leavenworth Winter Sports Club traveled to Utah on March 3rd for a week of racing in the Junior National Championships. The competition venue, Soldier Hollow, hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics, and now future Olympians will battle it out for the podium there.
Hadassah Lurbur, a Wenatchee junior, will compete for the fourth time at this high level. Previous Junior Nationals found Lurbur travelling to Lake Placid, New York, Cable, Wisconsin and Truckee, California.
Stella Johnson, a Leavenworth freshman, will be attending her first Junior Nationals. “I feel honored to go to Junior Nationals and represent Leavenworth and the Pacific Northwest Ski Association [PNSA],” said Johnson. “It has always been a goal of mine to go to Junior Nationals, and it means a lot to me to get this opportunity to participate. Since it is my first year, my hope is to have consistent races, push myself at each race, and then see where I want to go from there.”
Lurbur and Johnson join thirty-three other skiers from the PNSA region, including the Methow, Spokane, Ellensburg, Seattle, and Bend and Hood River, Oregon. These skiers earned their berth by racing well up to eight times throughout the season, at four two-day race weekends. They raced in long and sprint format, and had to excel at both the classic and skate techniques.
Johnson and Lurbur will get to compete four times throughout the week, with a long race in both classic and skate, a skate sprint and a classic sprint relay.
The honor of racing at Junior Nationals results from these girls’ year-round dedication to training, including ski specific camps, roller skiing, core work and having as many hours on snow as possible. Their coaches, led by Peter Spiegel and Nancy Bywater, helped guide them and give them effective workouts and technique drills while maintaining a spirit of fun with the team.