Ski and Snowboard Club Vail’s Will Bentley skates up a hill during the 10-kilometer freestyle pursuit race at the DU Invite on Sunday in Minturn while former SSCV program director Dan Weiland looks on. Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily “And then we drilled it,” Bentley continued. “I was just trying to be smart and ski the course […]
Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
“And then we drilled it,” Bentley continued. “I was just trying to be smart and ski the course well. I think it’s a very transitioning course and you need to go over the tops hard so that I could stay as relaxed as possible (on the flats).”
Denver wound up winning the team race on Sunday but the Buffs claimed the overall Nordic win and the combined Alpine and Nordic victory as well. The defending national champions were missing some key athletes on the Nordic course as Hugo Hinkfuss has been on the World Cup for Australia and Will Koch and Trey Jones are in Italy representing the U.S. at the FIS U23 and Junior World Championships.
Future CU Nordic skier Will Bentley placed sixth in the 7.5-kilometer individual start classic and seventh in the 10-kilometer pursuit freestyle at the two-day DU Invite, held Feb. 8 and 9 at Maloit Park in Minturn. The Ski and Snowboard Club Vail junior national champion, who plans to ski for the Buffs next fall, finished behind just one current CU athlete in the opening race.
“I think Will had a great weekend,” said Jana Weinberger, CU head Nordic ski coach. “This is pretty competitive group of guys, so both days a top-10 — that’s a great result for someone born in 2007.”
In the end, Elijah Weenig, Krystof Zatloukal and Carl Rune pulled away from the high school senior, who had clearly emptied the tank after four laps on his home course.
On Sunday, Bentley launched out of the start seven seconds behind DU’s Norwegian superstar Andreas Kirkeng — who took down some of the best U.S. athletes in both a sprint and mass start at the senior national championships in Anchorage at the beginning of the year.
“I’m excited to see what he’s going to do at the U18 trip and (Will) just seems like a nice guy,” Weinberger said when asked about having the SSCV athlete on her squad next year. “I think he will fit in really well.”
University of Utah’s Zachary Jayne overcame a nine-second gap on CU’s Johannes Flaaten to claim the pursuit title in an aggregated time of 47 minutes, 56.9 seconds.
“The goal was just to go out there and see what we can do,” Bentley said. “It was fun.”
The defending national champs got a good look at one of their prized recruits last weekend.
“Vail kids consider Soldier Hollow as a home course, we’re there so often,” Current said. “I love their new course. “The last couple JNs, it’s been kind of an experience — get to meet new skiers, hang around — last year was pretty good. I’m hoping for a top-10 this year.”
“Yesterday was great, today was great. Made up a spot — so great racing all around,” Current said with a smile. Coming off back-to-back Junior National Qualifier weekends, including the ‘Super-Q’ at Soldier Hollow last month, Current said the main goal for the DU Invite was to improve his FIS points ranking. The two-time junior national qualifier is eager for the 2025 championships, which are returning to the 2002 Olympic venue in March.
Bentley will also be getting some international experience later this month. The 17-year-old was one of eight Americans chosen for the U18 Nordic Nations Cup in Gjovik, Norway from Feb. 15-23. Right now, he’s not sure what his objective goals are for the event, which will bring together some of the top athletes from Norway, Sweden and Finland for three races.
“Last lap it was just hang on as long as possible and try to go at the end,” Bentley said. “I was pretty cooked.”
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“Get experience and go hard,” Bentley said.
His SSCV teammates Andrew Lombardi and Henry Ogden were 24th and 28th, respectively, on Sunday.
“We really nailed the summer training this year,” Current said regarding the team’s improvement. “With Eric (Pepper) and Lenka (Sterling), it’s just been great training and so I think I’ve just got a lot faster. I’m ready to roll.”
Bentley wasn’t the only bright spot for SSCV last weekend. Alex Current put together a nice weekend as well, finishing in front of a few college skiers with a 19th-place pursuit result.
“My coach kind of said, try to catch Kirkeng before the big hill,” said Bentley, who did just that within three minutes. The two-time RMISA most valuable skier winner proceeded to tow Bentley up to the top-five.
