USBA On-Snow International Team Trial Results
Men’s mass start, Sunday the 21st.
Sunday, December 21 - Mass Start
Women’s podium from left: Dickinson, Geraghty-Moats and Bouley.
It was a wild weather day of gusty, cold weather here in Craftsbury, and some of the racing mirrored that volatility.
The women went out first and the race featured lead changes at most every shooting stage, coming down to the last standing stage where Tara Geraghty-Moats missed one and Kelsey Dickinson two sealing her fate. Ten seconds behind Kelsey, a hard fought 3rd place battle was playing out, with Cheresa Bouley (Minnesota Biathlon) edging Grace Castonguay by 0.4s. With such small time gaps, good points were around well down the top-10.
Brown left nothing out on the ski course.
The men’s race quickly became a contest between Luke Brown and Vaclav Cervenka. After three stages, Cervenka had a solid lead, with Luke maintaining an outside chance. However, Luke’s 4th stage and its 3 misses in the gusty stadium turned that chance into a silver, almost 2’ behind Vaclav. Altius’ Thor Sheppard came in another 43s behind in third.
Find full results at Craftsbury Race Results archive.
Saturday, December 20 - Sprint
The men’s field pushes to the finish.
Craftsbury emerged from the deluge with most of the race trails intact and we were back to racing under sunny skies.
Your day 2 winner, Kelsey Dickinson.
The women’s podium was a shuffle from Thursday, with the GRP’s Kelsey Dickinson (0+1) taking the win over Grace Castonguay (2+2) by almost a minute. GRP’s Jackie Garso (1+3) had a tougher day on the range than her usual. Garso needed every bit of her fastest course time of the day to edge Zoe May Noble (1+1) by only 0.1s for 3rd.
Vincent Bonacci (0+1) repeated his victory on the men’s side, over the GRP’s Luke Brown (3+0). Vincent and Luke’s course times were within 2s of one another, shooting made all the difference. Van Ledger of the Shift Biathlon Project (1+0) relegated Thursday’s silver medalist Vaclav Cervenka to 4th with some hot shooting.
Craftsbury’s Luke Brown, silver medalist on Saturday.
Michaela Keller-Miller improved on her finish position from Thursday.
Women’s podium from left: Grace Castonguay, Kelsey, Jackie.
Men’s podium from left - Luke, Vincent, Van Ledger.
GRP’s Jackie Garso en route to a bronze medal in the Women’s Sprint.
Thursday, December 18 - Sprint
While Craftsbury waits for the other meteorological shoe to drop on Friday, competitors enjoyed a sunny, fast course to kick off their on-snow trials weekend.
Perhaps no competitors enjoyed it more than Grace Castonguay and Vincent Bonacci, your winners today.
Your Day 1 Women’s Podium.
Team SoHo’s Castonguay (0+1) took 17 and 40s respectively from the GRP’s Kelsey Dickinson (0+0) and Jackie Garso (1+1) in taking the win and the early lead in the points calculations for the trials.
GRPer Dickinson in the start gate with bib 1. Kelsey would end the day 2nd to her former teammate Castonguay.
Vincent Bonacci (unaffiliated), Vaclav Cervenka (Army WCAP) and Logan Moore (MNC Pro) had near identical first laps coming into their prone stages. Bonacci (0+1) led early and held off the closing Cervenka (2+1) in the end by 12s. Moore’s day (1+3) was a wild ride between great ski speed (winning laps 1 and 2 and finishing 2nd on lap 3 by a second) and some variable shooting.
GRP biathlete Tim Cobb heads up chip hill to the range.