Thurston, Sweet head to Finland for Nordic Jr. Championships

January 23, 2021  |  By Lisa Scagliotti 

Harwood Union's Ava Thurston, of Waterbury, competes at U-32 in a 2020 race. File photo by Gordon Miller.

U.S. Ski & Snowboard last week announced the teams to represent the United States at the 2021 U23 and Junior FIS Cross Country World Championships in Finland where Vermont - and Waterbury - will be well-represented.  

The top 12 junior women and men Nordic skiers on the team include four Vermonters including Waterbury’s Ava Thurston and Finn Sweet. 

They will head to the junior worlds competition Feb. 8-14 in Vuokatti, Finland.

A junior at Harwood Union High School, 17-year-old Thurston is the reigning Division II Nordic state champ and three times has won the state title in her fall sport of  cross-country running.

Thurston’s Harwood coach Tom Strasser noted that she competed last weekend in the Craftsbury Rodrigues Cup, which showcased the best Vermont skiers. “Ava placed 4th overall in the women’s category made up of professional, collegiate, and local club teams… which was the middle of Craftsbury's professional women’s team and above the general collegiate skiers,” Strasser said. 

At the 2020 U.S. Junior National meet in Tahoe, Thurston placed 4th in the classic 5-kilometer race before COVID-19 ended the competition early, Strasser said. 

This won’t be Thurston’s first international competition. Last year she traveled to the Scandanavian Cup Championship in Sweden where she finished eighth out of 108 skiers in the 5-K classic freestyle race; in the sprint she came in 15th competing as an Under-16 skier in the Under-18 category. 

Now Harwood junior Ava Thurston competes at the Vermont state Nordic meet in 2019 as a freshman. File photo by Gordon Miller.

One of Thurston’s 5th-place relay teammates in Sweden was Nina Seemann of Craftsbury who also made the junior world team this year. 

This year’s ski season is off to a slow start with state officials slowly lifting COVID-19 restrictions on high school winter sports.  It’s unclear how many races teams will get in before the snow melts. “We are allowed to race, but only one school can be at the venue at one time,” Strasser said. The guidance specifies that groups not exceed 25 participants and that competitions may happen within those limits as long as the groups don’t interact. 

Waterbury has followed Thurston’s running and skiing career to date as part of a familiar active family in the community. Her parents are avid cross-country skier, runner, and elementary school teacher Tom Thurston, and freelance writer and faithful runner Heidi Hill who wrote the book “Fit Family” as a guide for parents raising children to embrace outdoor recreation. 

Thurston’s younger sister, freshman Julia, is carrying on the family tradition as Harwood’s No. 2 cross-country runner last fall. 

Last June, Sweet graduated from Craftsbury Academy where he was president of his class. He told the Times-Argus that he plans to join his older sister Phoebe on the University of Vermont ski team next fall. His experience while at Craftsbury last year included SuperTour racing and the national championships.

The junior worlds teams each have six skiers and two alternates. Other Vermonters tapped for the team include top-ranked Will Koch of Peru, Vt., and first alternate Brian Bushey from Montpelier and Green Mountain Valley School who competed at last year’s junior world’s as well. 

The U23 world team includes another two Vermonters: Alex Lawson of West Burke and Middlebury College on the women’s team; and UVM’s Benjamin Ogden from Landgrove, Vt.

Last year U.S. athletes earned 10 World Championships medals, including the Junior men who successfully defended their team relay gold medal; the Junior women won the team relay silver medal, according to the team announcement last week.

In naming the team, U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross Country Development Coach Kate Barton saluted the programs, coaches and athletes across the nation dedicated to continuing to support their developing athletes in this unique year. “I miss head-to-head racing and national-level events, but I am more grateful than ever for the opportunity to come together as one team to compete with this group of athletes and staff against the best competition in the world,” she said. 

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has presented some challenges to selecting this year’s teams. National-level competitions were canceled this season with some regional competitions held to qualify for World Cup. For the junior competition, criteria evaluated some seasonal but also historical performances.