Great 3 days at Camp Ripley! Thanks to the hospitality of the MNNational Guard and the US Guard Biathlon program, Camp Ripley hosted a Summer Festival consisting of a mix of training, rollerski biathlon and cross [running] biathlon races.
For most, the training started on Friday with Formal Training using the 2km paved roller ski loops and the 30 point range. Work on the facility has progressed this summer including some storm debris removal, vegetation control, and sweeping/blowing. Additional bituminous work is planned for the future on the 16 yr old trails. But with the trails skiable, the number of skiers vs runners went about 2 or more to 1. All the civilian participants roller skied the events.
Overall about 32 participated on one day or the other in the races. With my focus on the roller ski events, the following relates to that, in particular:
Different loops were used for each class. On Saturday we had an Individual Race with 30 sec add-on penalties–on Sunday a mass start with a linear penalty loop that punished first those with any penalty because of the extra distance TO the penalty lane and secondly–another harsh jump for those with 4 or 5 penalties [3 U turns vs 1 U for 3 or less penalties]. The runners had a shorter 70 meter loop located inside the normal penalty ring of flagpoles.
Saturday’s events followed an overnight rain which left the trails a bit slippery for the first couple of laps. Wind was moderate but a bit fickle, switching sides occasionally.
In the Individual race, starting at 30 sec intervals, Jesse Downs and Bill Bowler battled it out with the same misses until the 2nd prone–Jesse’s experience paid off in that 3rd shooting with 1 penalty vs Bill’s 3 and a final time difference of 24 sec for the Sr Men’s, Jr Men’s, & Masters 13.25km race. Downs at 40:54 and Bowler at 41:18. A solid 3rd place went to 17 yr old first year Youth Erik Rupert racing up 2 yrs [or was it 4 yrs??]
with 2 5 0 0 shooting and a time of 47:21.
While still a Senior, Brian Wray, a MNBiathlon working-man amateur, took 4th with 8 misses in 55:55. Isaiah Burkhart of the Oregon Guard was 5th with 7 misses in 57:39
In the Youth Men’s 11.25km class a battle started last winter continued between St Cloud’s Nick Proell and Nisswa’s Zean Baker. Nick again prevailed with 9 penalties and a time of 44:22 to Zean’s 11 penalties and 48:27. In 3rd place was Tyler Gustofson of Grand Rapids with 13 misses and a time of 48:55.
In the Youth Womens 9.85km category Kelly Kjorlein easily prevailed with 6 misses in 39:47 over newcomer Anna Kubek with 10 misses and 49:07.
Then after a good night’s sleep, the competition continued on Sunday morning–with a warm day, light wind, and lots of sunshine. The format was switched to Mass Start with a linear penalty loop, and the distances all dropped for each class.
In the Senior Men’s, Jr Men’s, Masters 11.25km Division, Jesse Downs again prevailed as Bill Bowler broke a ski shaft with an extra little push. Jesse finished with 5 misses in 34:17. Erik Rupert took 2nd with 11 penalties in 41:09. Josh Duda was 3rd with 13 in 53:55 followed by newcomer from Nisswa NW Evan Ingebrigtson with 11penalties in 57:29.
In the Youth Women’s 7.75 km race, Kelly Kjorlein again prevailed with only 3 misses in 29:38; followed by Anna Kubek with 7 misses in 32:52 and in third was Jenna Ruzich with 8 penalties in 36:34. Anna also demonstrated her gymnastics skills with a summersault at the start line.
The most exciting race of the weekend was in the Youth Men’s 9.85 Mass Start division. Zean Baker chased Erik and Nick [cousins] into the range on the first lap–beating Nicks shooting 2 misses to Nick’s 4 and got a good lead. [Erik was skiing the longer race from that point on.] In the second shooting Zean again prevailed with 2 misses to Nicks 3, but then faded a bit on the course as Nick moved closer. Nick outshot Zean 1 miss to 2 on the first standing stage–and they came in together for the last shooting. Zean got in first and is left handed so they ended up facing each other for the last shootoff–Zean faltered a bit and missed 3..but got out of the range first–Nick had a bad feed–but corrected and hit his last shot for 1 miss. Strong skiing by both left Nick in front [again] by 44 sec.
With some water bottles and tee shirts up for grabs provided by the Guard, along with use as race prizes we had a shoot-off featuring standing offhand shooting on the prone metal. That is a 45mm target at 50 meters after a hard race!! Topping all the shooters, Kelly Kjorlein again proved superior knocking down 2 in each of 3 shooting bouts. Nice Work, Kelly! Currently she is also the reigning champion in the US Nationwide 60 shot test with a 287/300 [30 shot] prone and 228/300 [30 shot] standing for a total of 515/600. The 10 ring on those targets is about 3/8″ in diameter and you have to break that line with the bullet to get a 10 score for that shot.
Great weekend. Most are now looking forward to Summer Festival-Vermont starting next weekend.
-Bill Meyer
RESULTS (photos of printed results)
