NWSC Jamboree Recap
The meet exceeded our expectations - it went very well. Our time schedule worked out well and we (coaches) believe that this meet can have a FUTURE... on the section and state meet levels as well.Sprinters sprinted about a 1 km. loop. They first had to ski a qualifying lap with a interval start. Once the skiers were ranked 1 - 36 (each school could enter 4 skiers. The skiers were seeded into 4 heats of six skiers each and raced head to head with the top three advancing to the next round. Skiers needed to ski 4 times to be sprint champ. 12 skiers were eliminated in the qualifying round.
Continuous pursuit was a exciting and fun format with skiers skiing 5 km classic and then changing skis and or poles and then skating 5 km. This was new to our high school kids so some had more difficulty in the transition from one technique to the other. It really focuses on the endurance athlete who trains year round for skiing and can do both techniques well.
Relay was fun with 4 skiers skiing two classic and two skate legs at 2.5 km for a ten km total.
Meet was exciting - each race had lots of cheering and spectators able to see head to head competition and athletes able to race their competitors on a head to head basis.
I hope this is part of the future of high school ski racing - you cannot do this each and every meet but each part of this format can be done separately during the season so you can train skiers with a variety of races and formats to find your athletes and what races they are best suited for doing. Right now we force all the kids into racing two races at 5km. This fits only a small fraction of the athletes and leaves out chances for success in shorter races because there are none. I also believe it leaves out the most exciting races for skiers and fans. Relays and sprints are fun for everyone and should be included at the state meet for Minnesota.