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Carpenter Flies High in Park City
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| by Craig Ward |
February 20, 2009
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The second time to Park City this winter was even sweeter for Fritz Carpenter! His first trip in January, the question was, "Do I measure up to those Steamboat Nordic combined athletes?" For his second trip, having qualified for Junior Olympics in both the first Park City event and a second qualifying meet in Steamboat three weeks ago, the compelling question was "How close can I get to the top!"
Carpenter was one of seven AVSC Nordic combined athletes who traveled this past weekend to the Utah Olympic Park in Park City. In the jumping portion Carpenter was eighth overall on the K65 meter hill...then he skied a blistering cross country race, finishing third, to finish fourth overall in the combined event. The cross country portion was held on the very hilly and difficult course right at the Olympic jump venue.
On Friday, the small hill competitions were held, whereby the J6 and J5 skiers jump the 10 meter hill, the J4 boys and girls ski the 20 meter hill, and the J3 athletes ski the 40 meter hill. The youngest member of the AVSC squad, and also the only girl, Anna Kate Belinski, had a tremendous night, finishing on the podium in third place. She followed that up the next day with a great cross country race, to finish third overall in the combined event.
In the J3 competition first year athlete Zane Heald finished the jump in fifth place, just edging out his teammate, Ben Belinski, in sixth. The next day, however, Belinski, skied the fourth fastest cross country leg, and Heald skied the fifth fastest, so in the final combined results Belinski edged Heald by a mere six seconds, finishing fifth and sixth respectively.
In the very competitive J2 class, where Frtiz Carpenter was battling for a Junior Olympic berth, AVSC fielded three more competitors. Steve Anderson, a special jumper from Aspen, just missed qualifying for the Junior Olympics with jumps of 51 and 49 meters. Anderson had missed more than a month of training this winter due to an ankle injury, and so his hopes of traveling to Anchorage next month for the Junior Olympics were dashed in Park City. Second year athletes Riley Heald and Hayden Joy finished further down the list at 18th and 19th place respectively...but their efforts were greatly improved on Saturday when they finished the cross country races in 8th and 4th respectively. Joy's race was only ten seconds slower than his rival and teammate, Fritz Carpenter.
Carpenter will now compete at the National level, at Junior Olympics in Alaska, March 3-7.
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