Immediately following Thanksgiving break, Northwood’s Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined teams traveled to Steamboat Springs, Colorado for their first jumps and competitions of the winter season. The team consisted of Max Fey ‘28, Eli Larkin ‘27, Henry Loher ‘26, and Jack Kroll ‘25. When they arrived, they had just 2 days of training before the competition.
Saturday, December 7th was the first K90 competition. The competition doubled as both the first World Junior Championships Qualifier and the first US Cup of the season. World Junior Ski Championships is a competition where the five best athletes from each country are selected to compete, and the US Cup is the highest level of domestic Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined competition. Loher won the special jumping competition. Fey, Kroll, and Larkin all finished in the top 12. Then came the Nordic race, which was a 10k. In Nordic Combined, the winner of the jumping starts first at time 0.0. Then the clock counts up from there. For every point a jumper is back from the leader, it is a 4-second delay. Then, the chase is on for the leader as the first person across the finish line wins. After the 10k race, Fey crossed the line in 3rd and Kroll in 9th.
On Saturday, U16 athletes Larkin, and Fey competed on the K70. Larkin got first and Fey got 2nd.
Henry Loher ’26, celebrating after his winning second-round jump. Photo provided.
Sunday, December 8th was the second Junior World Championships Qualifier on the K90. Loher took the win again, giving him a 60-point lead in the World Juniors Qualifier. Henry is hoping he can “continue to have good jumps and strong performances” during the next two qualifiers here in Lake Placid on January 4th and 5th. If he makes the team, he will compete from February 12th to 16th in Lake Placid at the 2025 Ski Jumping Junior World Championships. Henry is “super excited to get to compete at home,” and he hopes “that some of the Northwood Community come out to watch.” Kroll finished the jumping 5th on Sunday, closely followed by teammate Larkin in 6th. Despite some bad jumps, Fey skied his way back to the podium over the 5k race, this time in second. Kroll finished 5th in the second Nordic combined Junior World Qualifier.
Jack Kroll after his 90m second-round jump to put him in the top 5. Photo by Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club.
Head coach Colin Delaney said, “Despite mild temperatures that kept us off the hill at home, everyone could come out and have jumps similar to or better than their best training jumps in the summer. It was great to have some career-best results. I’m looking forward to this winter, continuing to make progress in training in the gym while gaining consistency on the jump.” Congratulations to all the Northwood Ski Jumpers and Nordic Combiners, and good luck at the next set of qualifiers.
