McNamee posts comeback win

    COLERAINE, Minn. – With Mother Nature just not cooperating this season, Nordic skiers competing for spots on the U.S. youth and junior biathlon teams had to settle for man-made snow as they went for a chance to represent their country at the Junior Biathlon World Championships being held in Martel, Italy Jan 22-31. When all was said and done northern Maine is going to be very well represented again at this year’s event.
    Fort Fairfield’s Hilary McNamee is set to represent the U.S. on the youth women’s team. McNamee made one of the more remarkable come-backs of the weekend considering she missed the first day of racing due to food poisoning. The 16-year-old stormed back in the second day of racing.
Competitors started the second day of competition in order of finish from the day before which put McNamee in last place, but with only five seconds between each starter, the race became tight quickly.
After four penalties in the first prone, McNamee missed only three of the final 15 shots, winning by a margin of one minute, six seconds over Kalie Mix of Grand Rapids, Minn. Janna Widness of Anchorage, Alaska rounded out the top three with nine penalties.
McNamee also came from behind in the third day of competition to earn her way onto the world championship team.
In the youth and junior women’s race, McNamee separated herself from the pack just after the prone stage and chased down junior team member Brynden Manbeck to enter the range in the lead for the standing shoot.
Manbeck shot cleanly and left the range with a small lead but McNamee again chased her down for the lead and held on for the win.
McNamee is joined on the youth women’s team by Widness, Mix and Addie Bryne of Bovey, Minn.
Megan Toussaint of Madawaska, who is also a member of the University of Maine at Presque Isle ski team, will represent Maine on the junior women’s team.
Toussaint took four penalties in the first day of competition to finish third and also took third in the second day of competition hitting only 10 of 20 shots. Normally a sharp shooter, Toussaint admitted her shooting was out of touch for the weekend.
“My skiing felt pretty good today, but my shooting was not my usual,” she said. “I had some bolting problems in prone [the first day] and I think that threw me off a bit.”
Toussaint finished third in the mass start on the third day of competition to earn her way onto the U.S. junior women’s team along with Manbeck, Laura Spector of Hanover, N.H. and Ellen Anderson of Ely, Minn.
Also competing from Maine on the women’s side was Rose-Mary Williams of Fort Fairfield, Andrea Mayo of Oxbow and Grace Boutot of Fort Kent.
“It was a tough day for us here,” said Maine Winter Sports Center coach Gary Colliander. “Rose-Mary just got over food poisoning, Andrea missed her start and Grace actually hit three shots in standing but on the wrong target making it five misses. Plus she missed a penalty loop which requires a two-minute penalty be added. The girls have been skiing and shooting well, but I think the nerves got the best of them today.”
On the men’s side, northern Maine skiers took three spots of the four in the junior men’s category. The three skiers are Brandan Ostroot of Caribou, who also skis for UMPI, Russell Currier of Stockholm and Newt Rogers of Fort Kent.
Currier and Rogers finished 2-3 in the first day of competition with Currier recording five penalties and Rogers four.
Ostroot finished second on the second day of competition, hitting 15 of 20 shots while Currier struggled hitting just nine of 20.
By day three, Mark Johnson of Grand Rapids, Minn., was the only man officially qualified for the junior men’s team while the three Maine men had faltered in the range, leading to at least one penalty loop and the desperate need to push harder on the ski tracks, but each qualified, separated by no more than a half point.
The youth men’s team is comprised of Wynn Roberts from Battle Lake, Minn., Travis Man-Glow from Burlington, Vt., Justin Tyner of Baxter, Minn., and Leif Nordgren of St. Croix, Minn.
While McNamee, Currier and Rogers are all familiar faces on the U.S. biathlon teams Ostroot and Toussaint will make their first trip overseas.
“This is great to see two more athletes make the team,” said Colliander. “We struggled with a lot of sickness early on, some really tough weather and just the overall stress of a trials series. I think we’re all really happy this is over, and now we can focus on Italy.”
The athletes will continue to train in the area over the next couple of weeks before heading to Italy on Jan. 19. The only exception is Currier, who will head over early to compete in the European Cup in San Sicario, Italy.