In late February, the Eastern 2002 Junior Olympic Team traveled to Northern Minnesota for the last Junior Olympic event to be held in the current format including J1's and older Juniors. Next year the Junior Olympics will be a J2/J3 event and there will be a new  JI/OJ event called the North American Championships. There will be some overlap as the top five finishers in the JO's will be invited to the new North American Championships to be held first in Calgary. This will be finalized at the Park City Spring meetings in May. Stay tuned for the latest developments!

A team of 20 skiers (13 J2's, 6 J1's, and 1 girl) arrived in Coleraine to find winter had reappeared in the North Country with a vengeance. Team Leader Marianne Fairall along with Coaches Jon Farnham, Casey Colby and Larry Stone were prepared for the weeklong event. Things started off with the NC Team Sprint event. This will be the last time this event will probably be held. It is, however, a fun way to kick things off. In the J1 event Jonathon Kling teamed with Marshall Ambrose to win gold and the all-star team of Jeremy Carter and Brian Farnham placed fourth. In the J2 Event RMD's team of Paul Berry and Bryan Fletcher cruised to victory with Matt Delaney and Willy Graves landing the silver medal in front of IMD's Skyler Keate and Logan Oxford. “Mavid d'Cahill” and Robbie “the farmer” Goodwin finished 5th. Andrew Georgevits at his first JO's finished 4th in the guest class when he teamed up with Canadian Boyd-Clowes.

The next day Team Jumping got things serious with the Intermountain team led by Blake Hughes and Chris Francis winning the J1 event. The Eastern Team # 1 of Carter, Delaney, Bliss and Kling beat the rest of the country and Canada with a 2nd place finish. Hughes beat the hill record with a 76.5 meter jump after Kling had just broke the previous record with a 75meter jump. This record was destined to change hands a number of times during the course of the week. In the J2 Team event IMD continued it's winning streak while the East scored another silver medal with Graves, Delaney, Sammy Burke and Evan Bliss.

Jonathan Kling had a great week!

In the J1 Nordic Combined Individual Event Jonathan Kling gave himself such a lead with two jumps over 75 meters that he could have walked home and won. Marshall Ambrose moved up one place in the XC to finish 2nd. Brian Farnham finished sixth. In the J2 NC event Matt Delaney scored another silver with Willy Graves moving up from 7th after the jumping to grab the bronze. Robbie Goodwin placed sixth and McCahill skied up six places for 9th place finish with Georgevits 15th.

The Special Jumping top J2 Eastern finisher was Evan Bliss in 6th place. The other Easterners to crack the top ten were Delaney in 9th and Graves in 10th, Robbie Goodwin finished 11th. Skyler Keate (IMD) was the victor followed by Bran Fletcher (RMD) and Anders Johnson (IMD) in 3rd. This was a hard fought meet with Nicholas Fairall 12th and Andrew Baker 13th.

Things changed later in the day with the J1 Meet. In the Girls' Class Janne Rand was barely edged out of 3rd place by Central's Veronica Myhra. Jessica Jerome added to IMD's gold pile by winning by 80 points over her teammate Alissa Johnson. In the J1 Boys event once again Keate won but Jonathan Kling nailed down the hill record with a monstrous jump of 77.5 meters for 2nd place. Although the competiton was deeper in the J1 event Evan Bliss stepped up to the plate and after the 1st round was in 3rd place. At the end of the day Bliss notched a very respectable fourth place finish with Graves in 9th and Jeremy Carter in 10th. Kling broke the hill record three times over the course of the week and was able to finally take the record home despite big jumps by Hughes and Keate. Jonathan was also awarded the new JO Scholar Athlete award, an award designed to reward the top scholar athlete for achievement in academics, as well as on the hill.

Members of 2002 Eastern Junior Olympic Team were: J1's: Marshall Ambrose, Jeremy Carter, Brian Farnham, Jonathan Kling, Ryan Nicholson, Peter Roland. Girl's Team: Janne Rand  J2's: Andrew Baker, Andrew Bliss, Evan Bliss, Sam Burke, Matt Delaney, Nicholas Fairall, Andrew Georgevits, Robbie Goodwin, Willy Graves, Sean Kaulbach, Mike Kaulbach, Chris Lamb, David McCahill.

The Eastern gang in Coleraine (Team Motto: Jump far and have fun)

HIGH FLYING COMPETITION
U.S. NATIONALS
Steamboat Springs, Colorado: National Championships

The National Championships for Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined wrapped up on a gorgeous Rocky Mountain spring morning on March 28 with Alan Alborn emerging the Special Jumping winner on both hills and Bill Demong capturing his second straight Nordic Combined title. Despite rapidly climbing temperatures below a sunny cloudless sky, the K114 hill held up with the help of modern chemistry and a early 6:30 AM start to see Clint Jones tie the hill record at 127 meters in the jump off. Alborn flew 125.5 during the regular competition to win despite touching both hands to the snow in his landing. Fresh off Planica's ski flying hill where he set a new American record of 221.5 meters, Alborn combined his first jump with a 114.5 effort and 235.6 points to win handily over Eastern Nordic Combined skier Bill Demong who flew 113.5 and 114 meters for 229.6 points. In third was national team member Clint Jones who went 100.5 and 124 meters before uncorking his record setting 127 meter jump in the jump-off event.

Alborn won the K90 event with jumps of 91.5 and 94 meters over Jones' 90.5 and 91.5 meters. Demong was third with his NC teammate Todd Lodwick 4th. In a close Nordic Combined event Demong headed into the cross country with a 12 second lead over Lodwick and managed to hold his 2nd straight Nordic Combined title. Other Eastern skiers in this event: Carl Van Loan 9th, Jed Hinkley 11th, Matt Cook 12th, Geoff Howe 17th, Matt Delaney 21st, Willy Graves 24th, David McCahill 29th, Robbie Goodwin 32nd.

In the Women's division Jessica Jerome broke Lindsey Van's stranglehold of National Titles on both hills with Lindsey Van second and Easterner Liz Szotyori third on both hills.

In the K90 Special Jumping Eastern finishers included Jonathan Kling 10th, Casey Colby 15th, Evan Bliss 32nd, Sam Burke 38th, Nicholas Fairall 46th, Matt Delaney 48th, Willy Graves 53rd, Steve McNeil 55th, Andrew Baker 59th, McCahill 63rd, Robbie Goodwin 69th, Ryan Nicholson 75th. On the Large Hill meet Colby finished 26th, Kling 27th, and Bliss 35th. For further results please go to the Eastern web site.