LAKE PLACID — The Junior World Championships in Lake Placid saw an unforgettable week for the U.S. juniors, with athletes delivering standout performances on the HS100 hill. With multiple events packed into the competition schedule, the team put on an impressive display, earning historic podium finishes and personal bests along the way.

The competition kicked off with the individual events, where the U.S. women set the tone for the week. Josie Johnson led the way with a 13th-place finish, putting together a strong performance. Sandra Sproch followed closely behind, securing 17th place in an impressive showing. Estella Hassick finished 37th, while Kaija Copenhaver, making her Junior World Championships debut, gained valuable experience and finished 43rd.

On the men’s side, Tate Frantz of Lake Placid and New York Ski Educational Foundation alumni delivered one of the biggest moments of the competition, landing on the podium in second place. A story on the men’s competition can be viewed at tinyurl.com/45j8af58.

Wilmington’s Henry Loher, a current NYSEF-Northwood School athlete, who competed in his first Junior World Championships, also notched a strong result in the individual competition earning a 21st place finish with two solid jumps against the best U20 jumpers in the world.

“If you look at the top 10 currently in the World Cup standings, all of those athletes podiumed at World Juniors,” NYSEF’s head ski jumping and Nordic combined coach Colin Delaney said, noting how historic these results have been.

As the week progressed, the team events provided excitement as well. Frantz, Loher, Jason Colby of Steamboat Springs, Colorado and Bryce Kloc of Clifton Park became the first ever U.S. men’s team to reach the podium in a team event, finishing third behind Austria, which won the gold and Slovenia, which took the silver medal.

Meanwhile, the women’s team of Johnson, Sproch, Hassick and Copenhaver also put in a strong effort, placing seventh overall.

The final event of the competition, the mixed team event, added yet another historic milestone for the U.S. Featuring Frantz, Colby, Johnson and Sproch, the team delivered a performance to remember, securing a second-place finish with 861.6 total points. The Slovenian team won with 919.8 points.

This marked the first time the U.S. has ever reached the podium in a mixed team event, following up on the historic men’s team podium finish from the previous day.

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Nordic combined

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In the Nordic combined events, Lake Placid native and NYSEF athlete, Kai McKinnon, led the U.S. women with a 12th place finish in the Individual Gundersen Normal HS100 event in a time of 17:34.4.

“The event in Lake Placid was amazing, ORDA and Lake Placid did a really great job getting everything ready and the conditions were perfect,” McKinnon said in a statement. “I didn’t perform as well as last year but I am really excited to turn that around for World Championships.”

The U.S. women were rounded out by Steamboat Springs, Colorado natives Haley Brabec (17:59.0) in 20th and Ella Wilson (19:36.4) in 26th.

Norway’s Ingrid Laate was the overall winner in 14:58.6. Slovenia’s Teja Pavec (15:12.9) was second and Germany’s Trine Goepfert (15:15.5) was third.

Two days later, McKinnon and Brabec teamed up in the women’s team sprint event and placed eighth in 23:16.1. The Finnish duo of Beta Hirvonen and Minja Korhonen won the race in 20:52.2.

On the boys side, Caleb Zuckerman of Hanover, New Hampshire led the U.S. in individual competition, placing 30th in 28:35.8. Austria’s Paul Walcher (24:12.2) won the event. Japan’s Atsushi Narita (24:18.2) was second and Germany’s Richard Stenzel (24:54.7) was third.

Also for the U.S., Arthur Tirone of Steamboat Springs, Colorado was 37th in 29:05.4, Anders Giese of Wilmette, Illinois was 42nd in 30:14.9 and Ethan Maines also of Steamboat Springs, Colorado was 44th in 31:20.3.

In the boys team sprint, Zuckerman and Tirone partnered up to place 10th in 33:30.3. Austria’s duo of Walcher and Andreas Gfrerer won in 30:03.5.

Later that day, in the mixed team Gundersen, the U.S. team of McKinnon, Wilson, Giese and Ronen Woods of Anchorage, Alaska placed eighth in 49:16.5. Germany had the top team in 42:27.3

This week McKinnon will head to Trondheim, Norway to compete in the Women’s Mass Start Normal Hill HS102/5,0 Km event at World Championships at the end of this month with the possibility of also competing in the team normal hill competition and women’s individual normal hill.