On Thursday, the athletes faced an icy winter mix that made the whole venue treacherous. Today, a strong cold front turned the rain into snow, which at times was so heavy that both the coaches and athletes had trouble seeing the targets. The gusting winds also pushed shots off their mark and literally stood athletes up in their tracks as they were trying to ski as fast as possible. It was a day when experience definitely helped. Reflecting on the wind’s strength, second place finisher Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY), commented, “Coming up the final climb just before the stadium, the wind was so strong that I just stopped. I wasn’t sure I was going to get to the finish line for a second.”

Lowell Bailey has been through several trials type competitions as well as the Olympic Trials in 2002, and used that experience to push him to victory in the adverse conditions today after a disappointing fourth place finish yesterday. “I thought back to 2002 when I did not do well the first day and then came back to get second the next day, so I knew I could do that again,” commented Men’s 10K Champion Lowell Bailey. Continuing, he added, “The staff here at the 10th Mountain Ski Club really did a super job with preparation under horrible conditions and that helped all of us.”

Bailey, who earlier this season had a 29th place in the World Cup Pursuit in Ostersund, Sweden said he “was more nervous than any race I can remember,” but looked calm and collected on the shooting range. He recalled that Coach James Upham reminded him to “just take the same shots that you always do in practice. So I just went for it.” He was one of several competitors who had one penalty in the prone stage. Only a few seconds separated Bailey and the next three finishers, Tim Burke, Jeremy Teela (Anchorage, AK), and Brian Olsen (Minneapolis, MN) after prone. Bailey and Burke both had a single standing penalty, but Burke’s extra prone penalty and Bailey’s faster skiing gave the victory to Bailey today.

Teela, a 2002 Olympian “worked harder than I ever have before for a third place today. At least now, I will sleep better than I did last night (after eight penalties and sixth place in the Individual competition). The Army WCAP athlete started with good prone stage of one penalty, and then missed four of the five standing targets, giving him a big deficit to make up in the final 3.3K. Teela reached down “and used some of the speed I did not want to bring out until the Olympics,” to grab third place. Teela finished 1:01.3 behind Bailey’s winning 28:57.4 and 24.8 seconds behind Burke. But Teela’s blazing last 3.3K loop pushed him 20 seconds ahead of Brian Olsen (Minneapolis, MN) who had two less penalties than Teela’s five. Just behind Olsen was Walt Shepard (Yarmouth, ME), completing a first through fifth place sweep for athletes who train here at the Maine Winter Sports Center. Shepard, finishing 1:40.7 back, tied Bailey as the top shooter today, as both had just two penalties.

2002 Olympian Rachel Steer also had only two penalties today as she took the win in the Women’s 7.5K Sprint. Steer, who recently won a Europa Cup Sprint with clean shooting, admitted that her 11 penalties in the 15K Individual “was a big blow to my confidence (in my shooting).” When asked if her confidence was back, she added, “Not really. I have not been shooting very well recently. My confidence isn’t back yet. I am still working on it. After a while, you cannot blame it on the rifle or conditions. You have to look inside yourself to see what is going on.”

Even lacking confidence in her shooting, Steer handled the wind and snow better than the rest of the field. She shot conservatively on prone, missing one, and matched that in the standing stage. Several other women including second place finisher, Carolyn Treacy (Duluth, MN) also had two penalties, but could not match Steer on the tracks. She finished in 28:04.6, 59.5 seconds ahead of Treacy.

Third place finisher Sarah Konrad (Laramie, WY) took the same route to third as did Jeremy Teela, with fast skiing. Konrad cross fired in the prone stage, resulting in five penalties and had an additional two penalties in standing. Despite these seven penalties, she finished only 1:28.8 behind Steer. She commented, “I hit three in prone and was pretty happy as that is pretty good for me. Then as I left the shooting range, I was told I had cross fired and had to do five loops. I thought my race was over then. So I am pretty happy to be third.”

Fourth went to Tracy Barnes (Durango, CO), with one penalty, 1:58.2 back. Barnes and Deborah Nordyke (Day, NY) tied for the top women’s shooting honors. Fifth went to National Guard athlete Sarah Kamilewicz (Proctor, MN) with three penalties, 2:24.1 back, just 2.2 seconds ahead of Jill Krause (St. Cloud, MN) in sixth.

The winners in yesterday’s Individual competitions, Army WCAP athletes Jacob Beste (Minneapolis, MN) and Denise Teela (Anchorage, AK) slipped back in the standings today. Beste had four prone penalties and another in standing to finish eighth, 3:05.5 back. Teela, coming off the best race of her career also had four prone penalties, added two more in standing, and finished 13th, 3:29.8 back.

After two days of competition under challenging conditions, the athletes will take a New Year’s break over the next two days to recover. Competition resumes on Monday, January 2 with Pursuit Format competitions and concludes with another Sprint competition on January 3.

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