FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Minnesota Biathletes dominate at North American Championships
Canmore, Alberta, Canada -- Sunny blue skies and temperatures creeping up near
40 degrees made it a perfect day to hold the first race of the North American
Championships. Officials worried that the warm weather might melt most of
the snow decided to change the scheduled Individual Race into a Mass Start.
Four rows of ten would be how the Sr. Men would line with row position
determined by the Technical Delegate of Competition. The Sr. Men's team from
Minnesota were given the third row with only Ben Kremer of Duluth getting to
start in the second, "our top three Men are in the top 10 in the NorAm Cup
points list, these starting positions made absolutely no sense", said Coach
Gary Colliander. Having to work through the twenty athletes in front of them
the Sr. Men moved up quickly after the first shooting stage and never looked
back. Dan Campbell of Hastings weaved his way in and out of the pack to move
from dead last at the start to finish in 4th place just 4 seconds out of 3rd
place. Just behind Campbell was Ryan Cameron who came into his final
standing stage leading a pack of 4 and dropped them after hitting all 5
targets in 24 seconds. Andy Erickson rounded out the top 10 by out sprinting
Alberta's Colin Bell to finish. Brett Piper of Lakevill finished 12th and
Ben Kremer of Elk River finished in 13th.
In the Sr. Women's Race it was almost a Minnesota 1-2-3, but Quebec's Martine
Albert had one of the top shooting scores to take 2nd place. Leading the
pack right from the beginning and getting the win was Andrea Nahrgang of
Wayzata, who slowly increased her lead throughout the race. Finishing in 3rd
was Duluth's Kara Salmela, who was chasing Albert throughout the race, but
couldn't match her shooting to overtake her in the final loop. Jill Krause
finished in 4th just behind Salmela and finishing in 8 was Jaime Mueller of
Brainerd.
The Sprint Competition will be held this Saturday and the event will conclude
Sunday with the Relay. The U.S. Nationals will begin next Thursday and will
be the final competitions of the season.
Sr. Men Mass Start-15k (prone, prone, standing, standing)
Pos Name Hometown
1 Robin Clegg Ottawa
2 Jeremy Teela Anchorage, AK
3 Jean Paquet Quebec
4 Dan Campbell Hastings, MN
6 Ryan Cameron Minneapolis, MN
10 Andy Erickson Minnetonka, MN
12 Brett Piper Lakeville, MN
13 Ben Kremer Elk River, MN
Sr. Women Mass Start-12.5k (prone, prone, standing, standing)
Pos Name Hometown
1 Andrea Nahrgang Wayzata, MN
2 Martine Albert Quebec
3 Kara Salmela Duluth, MN
4 Jill Krause St. Cloud, MN
8 Jaime Mueller Brainerd, MN
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