From the first event RMD showed its strength by winning the Jump portion of the event in both the J-I and J-II age classes. In the J-II event Nathan Gerhart and Adam Schwall went into the cross country race with a commanding lead over IMD's Trey Oxford and Brett Camerota and Team East's Morgan Goodwin and Chris Decker. The other East J-II Team of 13 year old Marshall Ambrose and 12 year old Willi Graves went out at the back of the pack but gained some valuable experience as well as posting faster times than several older teams. Goodwin and Decker found the IMD team to be faster than we had expected but still managed to hold on to 3rd place for our first medal of this Junior Olympics. In the J-I division Geoff Howe and Nordic Combined recruit Jamie Tuttle found themselves in 3rd place after the Jump event with Laura McLane and Matt Risch teaming up for 4th place. Like the J-II team Howe and Tuttle found the 2nd place IMD team including Trey Oxford in his 2nd sprint of the day (racing in both age groups) too fast to catch but managed to hang on to 3rd place for our 2nd medal while Laura and Matt remained in 4th place.

The next day dawned cold and snowy and saw the Team Jumping events take center stage. In the J-II event RMD once again dominated grabbing both the Gold and Silver medals. The Gold medal went to Clint Jones, Logan Gerber and Tommy Schwall while Nathan Gerhart, Adam Schwall and Eric Scholl garnered the Silver. The battle for Bronze was a tough one between Central and East Team I (Welch, Goodwin, Decker and transplanted IMD skier Lindsey Van). On paper it appeared we had the edge but when the dust settled Central had edged us for third while the young team of Graves, Ambrose and the Carter brothers ended up 10th.

That night the J-I teams squared off on the Karl Eid K-65 and once again RMD dominated the top podium step. This time the Intermountain Team of Oxford, Nicholson and Sammons ended up with the Silver medal and the real fight was for 3rd between Central and East. Chris Decker led the Team with a 51 meter jump with Chris Baker at 50 meters and Tuttle and J.O. veteran Ryan Cutter at 46.5 meters. Despite almost identical distances between the teams Central once again edged Team East out for the bronze by 3.5 points. One landing would have made the difference but it was a good fight. Due to rising temperatures and new falling wet snow the competition was called after one round when skiers began to stick on the inrun. East Team II (Howe, Welch, Goodwin and Van) placed 7th with East III (Molly Stone,Matt Risch, Jon Farnham and Jeremy Carter) was 9th and East IV (Graves, McLane,Ambrose, and Josh Carter) ended up12th out of 14 teams.

Thursday brought us the Individual Nordic Combined events. It was a beautiful sunny day and off in the distance three hundred miles away the mirage-like spectre of Mount McKinley floated on the horizon among the few clouds in the sky. The problems of the night before had been fixed on the inrun with the help of our own "Hill Doctor" Dan "the Mouse" Warner who was there as a judge and it was time to rock and roll for the combiners. In the J-II event the East was off to an auspicious start with Goodwin and Decker in fine form. A pair of 60 meter rides for Morgan put him in 2nd place just 8 seconds behind Nathan Gerhart with his soul brother Decker just 24 seconds behind him. Trey Oxford had a fall on his first comp ride of 63.5 meters, which put him 45 seconds behind Goodwin and no doubt throwing the fear of God into Morgan and Dexter. Right behind Oxford was IMD's Brett Camerota who had skied extremely fast in the Team Sprint and was 1:53 behind Morgan as well so the stage for a dramatic race was set. Willi Graves had a great day on the jump hill and saw himself 12th skier to leave the start line with Marshall Ambrose in 14th after the jumping. Goodwin left the start line with a funny look in his eye chasing Nathan Gerhart who never looked back on his way to the win. But the chase was on as Decker, Oxford and Camerota all went out behind the first two skiers. It was a two lap 5 kilometer race and as the skiers came around the first lap Goodwin had held on to 2nd with Oxford and Decker closing the gap. Coach Collin radioed back that halfway into the 2nd lap Goodwin was still in 2nd but Trey was closing the distance and as they came out of the woods into the finish area it was a sprint to the line with Oxford catching Morgan and Morgan answering back with a surge as well and Decker right on their heels. As they reached the line Oxford just squeaked by Morgan in a photo finish and Decker in 4th. Morgan had run the race of his life and given the East another bronze medal. This was an exciting race for sure in which Morgan and Chris had really put forth a great effort. Their efforts were not the only ones, however, as Marshall Ambrose skied a good race to move up to 11th place and Willi Graves put in a creditable performance in his first big race showing some good potential for the future of Eastern Nordic Combined.

In the J-I Nordic Combined Geoff Howe, who was putting in double duty during the week as a special cross skier for the East, jumped to 5th place with Laura McLane in 7th as the lone Woman Nordic Combined Skier. Molly Stone who had won the Women's Combined for several years was out of the running with a broken bone in her foot which prevented her from Cross-Country skiing this year. Out of the starting gate Geoff Howe was 5th but ran the fastest time of the day to grab the bronze and add to East's medal count with Laura McLane in 6th and the Woman's Nordic Combined title.

Friday was the day for the J-II Special Jumping Championship and there was not a lot of doubt about the Gold medal. Clint Jones proved the odds makers right and won by 3.5 points over Teammate Logan Gerber. Tommy Schwall made it a RMD sweep with the first Eastern finisher in 9th place in the person of Morgan Goodwin. Chris Decker followed closely in a tie for 10th and Lindsey Van in 18th. Brian Welch was starting to show some fire and put in a creditable 24th place in the strong field. Marshall Ambrose found himself in 34th with Willi Graves putting in telemarks like it was his job in 37th. Josh and Jeremy Carter each fell on one of their jumps and ended up 41st and 42nd in this strongly competitive field.

The Women also had their own J-II meet which Lindsey Van won handily with jumps of 56 and 58 meters over Veronica Myhra and Alana Maki.

The next day, Saturday, was the week's final event with the J-I Men and Women's events. The Women started things off and once again Lindsey Van, the Utah native attending the National Sports Academy in Lake Placid, jumped to the win with Central's Veronica Myhra in second and Molly Stone 2.5 points behind in 3rd. Laura McLane showing good improvement through the week posted a 42 meter jump on her last effort to end up 5th.

In the Men's J-I class Clint Jones set a new hill record of 68.5 meters to lead an RMD sweep of the first 5 places with Gerber in 2nd and Eric Scholl in 3rd. The top Eastern finisher was Jamie Tuttle in 13th place after a 64 meter first ride that had him right in the thick of things. With a second ride of 58.5 meters, Jamie fell back from the top group but still placed respectibly but showed a flash of the potential he has showed late in the Fall. Right behind him in 14th was Morgan Goodwin with Chris Decker in 15th. Brian Welch who made tremendous progress during the week uncorked a 59 meter ride on his last jump to place 23rd with Jon Farnham also making significant improvement setting one down at 58.5 meters for 24th. Lindsey Van logged in at 31st in the Boys' Comp with Matt Risch at 35th. Josh Carter ended up the next Eastern finisher at 39th and Molly Stone and Jeremy Carter were 41st and 42nd. Marshall Ambrose was 44th, Laura McLane 50th, and Willi Graves now known as Willi Gravez, the first Austrian-Hispanic Jumper, finished in 54th place.

This year saw the advent of a new class- the O.J. (Older Junior) Class for Ski Jumping. Two Eastern jumpers made the trip to compete in this division, Ryan Cutter and Chris Baker. In this age group Ryan Cutter emerged the victor with L.O.C.'s Baker in second after having some great training rides during the course of the week. This class has been adopted to give older juniors a competition during J.O.'s since USSA now has adopted the FIS age requirement of 17 by 12/31 of the competion season.

The week had some exciting highlights with some serious progress showing up after a week of skiing this size hill. It really proves our need for a hill of this size to accelerate the development of young jumpers. Special mention should be made of the progress made by skiers Willy Graves, Jon Farnham, Brian Welch, Laura McLane, Jeremy and Josh Carter, as well as Morgan Goodwin's performance. Many thanks also go to "Fresh" Mike Collin for his coaching and waxing as well as the great job Jim Carter did as Team Leader and to Doreen Cutter for doing the tedious legwork in getting this team outfitted and shipped off to the last frontier where Team East had a great week. Our medal count went from only a few last year in Ishpeming to 13 this time around and there were glimpses of some good skiing to come as this team matures in the next few years. Thanks to all the parents, coaches and volunteers who make the Eastern circuit such a great place for aspiring Nordic Skiers.