LAKE PLACID — Lake Placid Skating Club’s Dominica Sarandeva won the gold medal in Friday’s Empire State Winter Games’ Intermediate Ladies Free Skate competition by a commanding four-and-a-half-point margin.

Sarandeva of Lake Placid felt right at home on the Olympic Center ice. She landed six double jumps en route to a total score of 56.21 from the five watchful judges.

Annabelle McKenzie of Baldwinsville also performed a deduction-free program and finished with the silver medal. The Skating Club of New York skater wove in five double jumps and two double combinations and finished her routine with a score of 51.41.

Fellow Skating Club of New York skater Dominika Dal of Liverpool was third, with a final score of 45.84. She attempted two jump combinations but executed just one cleanly.

–

Nordic Skiing

–

Nordic skiers from Saranac Lake and Lake Placid grabbed the top three spots in Friday’s youth boys, ages 7-11, overall 2.5k Freestyle Nordic ski race on the trails of the Dewey Mountain Recreational Ski Center in Saranac Lake.

Saranac Lake’s Liam Stoddard finished first, completing the 2.5k (1.5-miles) of up and down trails in 12 minutes and 47.8 seconds. He was followed by a pair of Lake Placid rivals, Connor Mannion and Tyler Erenstone. Mannion finished the race at 16:27.9, while Erenstone emerged third in 17:36.9.

On the girls’ side, a pair of Old Forge skiers went one and two. Autumn Armendola won Friday’s overall crown in 17.16.6 and Grace Bartlett skied to second place in a time of 17:52.9.

Autumn Miller of Raquette Lake grabbed the third spot in a time of 21:52.9.

“Skiers found conditions soft and slow due to more than a foot of new snow that fell overnight in a winter storm,” Empire State Winter Games’ Nordic Sports Coordinator Larry Wilkinson said in a statement. “Even though it was 2.5K (1.55 miles), it was hard work for the racers.”

–

Biathlon

–

Kate Carlson from Jericho, Vermont, was the girl’s winner in the 6km U-14 biathlon sprint race held at Mount Van Hoevenberg on Saturday.

Carlson cleared the six-kilometer (3.7-mile) distance in 22 minutes and 46 seconds while missing just one target in the prone position and one 150-meter penalty loop.

She finished more than four and a half minutes in front of fellow Jericho racer Ryley Morigeau, whose three misses added 450-meters of extra skiing and finished in a time of 27:10.

Jenna Stainken of Willsboro completed the event in 28:05 and missed just one of 10 shots, five in prone and five in standing position.

Saturday’s race temperature was 10 degrees Fahrenheit and winds blew between five to 10 miles per hour.

Forrest Slingerland from Glens Falls overcame four missed targets from the prone position and raced to the boy’s 6km, U-14 biathlon crown, with a time of 23:13. Filippos Kogiantis of New York missed each of his prone position shots, but was clean in the standing position, and finished second place at 26:42.

Henry Crowl of Keene wound up in the bronze medal spot. He finished his ski at 31:24 after seven misses and 1,050-meters of penalty distance.

Eli Walker claimed the race distance’s men’s M50 title. The Jackson, New Hampshire Nordic skier, who held off 10 other competitors, missed only two shots from the standing position and zipped through the 6km in 23:19.

The men’s M50 silver medal was won by Christian Otto from Scarsdale, while Brian Dooley of Waterbury, Vermont, captured the bronze medal.

Otto missed only three targets and clocked a time of 25:49, while Dooley’s four misses from the prone position caused him to ski an extra 600-meters and finished with a time of 30:06.

–

Ski Jumping

–

Henry Loher of Wilmington led three New York Ski Educational Foundation ski jumpers to a podium sweep during Saturday’s Open boys K20 ski jumping competition at the Olympic Jumping Complex.

On the same day when the Women’s Olympic ski jumping Champion was crowned in Beijing, China, Loher recorded a pair of 16.5-meter jumps to win the gold medal. Eli Larkin of Plattsburgh improved on his first jump of 15.5-meters with a mark of 16-meters to win the silver medal.

The bronze medal was awarded to Lake Placid’s Duncan Van Dorn. His first jump measured 16-meters and during his second, he flew 16.5-meters. Although Van Dorn jumped further than Larkin, it came down to judging points, where Larkin carried a two-point edge, 54 to 52.

NYSEF jumpers also claimed the podium’s top two spots in the boy’s U12 K20 event. Max Fey and Will Coffin, both of Lake Placid, went one and two. Fey’s two jumps measured 15-meters each, while Coffin recorded jumps of 15 and 15.5-meters. These two jumpers were also separated by judging points. Fey tallied 52 points from the three watchful judges, while Coffin earned 50.5.

The bronze medal was awarded to Dylan Cote of Lyme, New Hampshire. He recorded jumps of 10 and 10.5-meters.

On the girls’ side, Grace Weinstein of Etna, New Hampshire won the Open event with jumps of 14.5 and 15-meters, while Carley Bannerman of Norfolk, Connecticut was second with a pair of 12-meter jumps. The bronze medal went to Islay Sheil of Salisbury, Connecticut. Her two jumps were measured at 12 and 11-meters, respectively.

NYSEF’s Leila Fey of Lake Placid captured the U12 girl’s silver medal. She had jumps of 10.5 and 9.5. Celia Osborne of Sunapee, New Hampshire took gold when she soared 12-meters in the first round and 10-meters in the second.

The bronze medal was claimed by Emmeline Saint-Fleur of Thetford Center, Vermont. She recorded a pair of eight-meter jumps.