17 Ski and Snowboard Club Vail athletes compete at Junior Nationals

High expectations either give birth to greatness or great disappointment.

At the 2023 Cross-Country Junior Nationals, Ski and Snowboard Club Vail’s Nordic skiers experienced the former, taking two individual national titles. But this year, head coach Lenka Sterling said, “The general feeling was that the week was fun, challenging and a bit disappointing.”

The 17 SSCV athletes on the Rocky Mountain squad competed against the best U16, U18 and U20 skiers from 10 other divisions nationwide in Lake Placid earlier this month. They faced every condition imaginable — slow slush, fast slush, fresh snow, rain and ice — across four days of racing at Mt. Van Hoevenberg, the site of the 1980 Olympic Games.

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“But what can you do?” Sterling rhetorically asked. “The conditions were more or less same for everybody, and as we all know, racing has its ups and downs.”

Defending national champions Will Bentley and Rose Horning battled through illness — a common theme for several SSCV skiers — to claim multiple top-10s. Bentley was fifth overall and just six seconds off the podium in the individual start and only 16 seconds back in the mass start, where he placed fourth.

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Horning’s highlight was a fifth-place in the 7.5-kilometer freestyle.

“I had a week filled with laughter, slush, and friends, but also some tears,” said the recently-turned 18-year-old, who competed at World Juniors last year and represented the U.S. at the Youth Olympic Games this winter. After early-season podiums at senior nationals and a third-place result against NCAA skiers at Maloit Park in February, Horning arrived in Lake Placid as the No. 1-seeded athlete in multiple races. Understandably, she “had some very big goals.”

“Unfortunately, I ended up having some hard races and was not able to achieve these goals,” she said.

“I raced my heart out each day … with some lingering illness and crashes, I struggled to race to my full potential. Despite the disappointment, I am proud of the effort I showed.”

Keely Hendricks placed 11th in the U20 individual start and Ella Bullock was 23rd in the U18 race.

“The snow was very different than what most of us were used to,” Bullock said. “Even though I didn’t quite get the results I wanted, racing in Lake Placid was a great experience.”

Sterling said she believes her girls are “capable of better results, but just weren’t able to sell their fitness this week.”

She added, “We definitely had a lot of bright spots, which should be celebrated.”

One of those came from alumna Adele Horning, Rose’s older sister. The Dartmouth freshman claimed U20 bronze medals in both the individual and mass start events and posted the top sprint qualifying time.

“I have historically struggled with skating, so starting out the week with my best result at Junior Nationals in a skate race was huge,” Horning said. “In addition to this, I’ve also never really been a strong sprinter.”

Horning said competing for the Big Green has improved her racing acumen. Unfortunately, the 19-year-old missed advancing after breaking a pole in her sprint quarterfinal.

“(That) was super disappointing, especially since I had been feeling so confident about the day,” she said.

Landon Laverdiere led the way for SSCV’s U16 athletes, earning the squad’s only podium of the week.

“Landon had a great sprint and battled it out to get a well deserved bronze,” Sterling said. “(He) fought out another top 10 (eighth) in the mass start, which was so fun to see.”

Looking ahead

After a well-earned month off, Sterling’s athletes return to rollerskiing, weight-training and running in May. Once again, everything will point to racing well 10 months later.

Once again, the expectations will be high.

“I think the athletes had fairly high expectations of themselves after last year,” Sterling said. “And with many of them falling short of their goals, they now need to pick up the pieces and get back to work.”

U18 athlete Alex Current reminded Sterling after nationals: “We have a young team and next year will be different.”

“He is right,” the coach continued. “I hope this experience will fuel the fire within them.”

Reiner Schmidt felt illness prevented him from demonstrating his true capabilities, but he’s ready to put those performances in the rearview mirror.

“It’s a bummer this happened at a national championship,” he said. “But sometimes these things happen and you have to deal with it. Without adversity, you can never get better.”