After a somewhat disappointing Junior Nationals in Lake Placid last March, Ski and Snowboard Club Vail head Nordic ski coach Lenka Sterling heard a common sentiment from her athletes — all of whom left the 1980 Olympic venue beaten, battered and bruised from a myriad of moist, East Coast conditions.

“They said, ‘next year will be different,'” Sterling said. “And it sure was.”

SSCV walked away from the 2025 Junior National Championships at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center in Midway, Utah, last week with an individual national title, two runner-up finishes, three bronze medals and a host of top-10s.

“I was thinking of last year — it was pretty rough for everybody,” Sterling said. “It was so fun to see them put it together (here).”

The combination of good health, timely peaking and a familiar course which highlighted the high-altitude trained skiers’ strengths made for a successful four days of competition at the 2002 Olympic venue, Sterling said.

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“That’s the hard thing about racing: all these things need to come together to have these special races,” the coach stated.

One athlete who put together a particularly special weekend was Will Bentley. Two years after winning his first national title, the future CU Buff returned to the top step of the podium in the individual start classic race at Soldier Hollow, SSCV’s other de facto ‘home course’ on the Rocky Mountain circuit. Bentley covered the 7.5-kilometer course on the opening day of competition in 24 minutes, 00.5 seconds, half a second quicker than Bridger Ski Foundation’s Callahan Waters and 7.1 seconds ahead of Alaska Pacific University star Oskar Flora. His SSCV teammates Landon Laverdiere (24:12.1) and Alex Current (24.23.4) finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

“That was really cool to see,” Bentley said of the collective effort, which also included a 10th from Andrew Lombardi in the U20 race. “Those boys put in a lot of work. We have a lot of fun training together.”

Standing on the course collecting live splits, Sterling noticed at one point that Bentley, Laverdiere and Current were sitting 1-2-3.

“We were freaking out a little bit,” she said. “That was a super awesome result for them. I don’t want to say it was a surprise, but it was definitely a huge goal for them to be in the top 10.”

Bentley came into the individual start with high expectations.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself, so to do that was really nice and a relief,” he said of his victory before adding that his experience in Lake Placid a year prior taught him to intentionally savor his special accomplishment. “When I was a U16 I was like, ‘OK, cool, now I need to focus on the sprint,’ and I never took a deep breath.”

The classic individual start successes continued at the U16 ranks, too. While Alaska Winter Stars’ Jack Leveque — who made headlines as one of the top 15-year-olds to compete at the FIS World Junior Championships earlier this winter — won the race in a swift 12:03.1, Peter Kan claimed the silver (12:50.5) and Freedom Bennett (13:14.9) placed ninth in the 74-skier field.

Bennett and Kan finished third and fourth, respectively in the sprint on March 12 and Bennett took the runner-up role behind Leveque — who won all three individual events — in the mass start freestyle on March 14.

“They’re definitely friends who push each other,” Sterling said of the pair. “They’re pretty good for each other. They both do things a little differently, I noticed more so this year, but at the end, they kind of are there together in it.”

Bentley rounded out the podium in both the U18 sprint and freestyle mass start. He said he was most proud of his sprint performance because of his energy, tactics and mental management of the rounds.

“You’re tired, your legs hurt and you have to tell yourself, ‘it’s go time again,'” he said. Bentley picked up a few tips from his Scandinavian opponents at the Nordic Nations Cup, an international event for some of the best U18 skiers in the world. One Norwegian explained the proper sprint mindset as “going to war,” Bentley said.

“You have to put yourself in that mindset of ‘it’s go time,’ flipping that switch,” said Bentley, who finished as the top American and 11th overall out of 111 athletes in the 7.5-kilometer mass start freestyle in Gjoevik, Norway on Feb. 23.

Meanwhile, Current continued his breakout week in Soldier Hollow, finishing seventh out of 90 skiers in the mass start.

“I think for (Alex), that was definitely confidence-building,” Sterling said. “Seeing himself as part of that top-10 and then confirming that was huge for him.”

SSCV wound up third out of 36 clubs in the overall boys standings and seventh out of 34 on the girls side. Claire Chimileski and Gracen Kennedy led the way on the opening day, finishing 10th and 11th out of 94 starters in the U18 classic.

“Seeing they can be up there totally changed their week,” Sterling said before adding that the pair has “progressed through the winter” since a disappointing season-opener in Steamboat Springs.

“I’m very proud of them for keeping with it and trusting the process and knowing the season is long,” the coach continued. “Seeing they can be up there totally changed their week.”

Fresh off her double gold at the CHSAA state championships last month, Isla Elton finished 16th in the individual start. Ella Bullock, who will ski next year at Williams, led the way in a rowdy skate race with an 18th-place result. While the Midway venue sits at roughly 5,500 feet, it wasn’t the standard sandpaper slow Rocky Mountain snow. Slush in the skate race resulted in several falls, Sterling said. In the relay on the final day, teams were switching from klister to ‘zeros’ — tools of the trade in sloppy, warm conditions — mid-race.

“I was pretty proud of them for handling it and not giving up on the fight — the whole girls group in general,” Sterling said.

SSCV will conclude the season at the International Spring Series at Trail Creek Nordic Center in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, from March 29 to April 2. Before that, however, Bentley and his teammates are revving up for the final Vail Town Series race, the Wilson Cup at Maloit Park this Saturday at 10 a.m. Of course, the senior has some off-snow matters to attend to as well.

“I missed about a month of school,” Bentley noted. “So I have some school work to do.”

Looking ahead, Sterling is encouraging her athletes to enjoy some lighthearted spring skiing sessions. The added benefit of practicing on slush could come into play next year in Cable, Wisconsin, as it did in Lake Placid a year ago, she said. While there’s always time to get better, however, now is the moment to celebrate some redemption.

“It was just super cool to have them have a good week and see their faces light up,” Sterling said.