Old Duluth East Nordic

Here is an update on the Marshall Sprints. Numbers: 200 skiers are signed up from 9 schools. Waxing: No waxing will be allowed inside the school. Please wax at home or if you must wax, wax outside next to the race course Concessions: We will have a fully stocked concession stand with wild rice soup, taco in a bag, hot dogs, etc.. Bib Pick-up and race fee collection will be at the concession stand The Course: The course is in excellent shape. We have over a foot of base and have had new snow every other day for the past week. I have a new Cragin Groomer which makes a very flat course that sets up very firm. I will groom Thursday night. There will be a 2 kilometer warm-up and practice loop groomed as well. Timing: Chuck Olson of itiming.com will be timing the race. The Jr. High race and preliminary races for JV and Varsity will be timed by chip. Skiers will start alone every 15 seconds. Be sure and coach your kids about how fast this will be. We have a ramp to start from and the ramp is long enough for 2-3 kids to be on it at a time. Second Rounds: The Jr. High skiers will ski just one race and will not go on to another round. All JV skiers will ski a qualifying race and then the top 18 JV boys and girls will have an opportunity to improve their position with a second head to head race. That starts at 1:00pm. It will work like this: skiers who finish 18th, 17th and 16th will race head to head to see if they can maintain their rank or improve 1-2 spots. Then skiers who finished 15th, 14th, 13th will go head to head to see if they can improve or maintain their spot. For JV we will alternate boys then girls in this final round. Put another way, the top 18 JV skiers will have a second race to see if they can move up one or 2 spots or maintain their position in the final rankings. All Varsity skiers will ski an individual start qualifying race and then the top 16 will advance to an elimination round that starts at 2:30. Due to concerns over course width in a few spots, the top sixteen skiers will go head to head two at a time. The winner will advance to the next round and the loser will be done for the day. In the quarter final round the two losers will go head to head to determine 3rd and fourth place. We will alternate boys and girls by rounds. Boys 8th finals, Girls 8th finals, Boys quarter finals, girls quarter finals, Boys Semi Finals, Girls Semi Finals, Boys race for third, Girls race for third, Boys finals and Girls Finals. All skiers will keep their original bibs for the whole day. I have paper ones ordered and if they come in the bibs will be theirs to keep. The schedule will be the one published here http://www.marshallschool.org/MarshallSprintsInvite.htm A start list will be emailed to you tomorrow and will be published at www.itiming.com Prizes. We will award a limited edition Marshall Sprints Poster designed by Kai Salmela to the top 8 boys and girls in Varsity and JV and the top 10 Jr. High Boys and Girls. Dave