Polar Bear Biathlon Club

The summer is shorter than usual this year for our younger biathletes.  With them getting out of school at the end of June, 27th, and going back on the 2nd of September it works out to barely 8 weeks.  This being said we are trying to offer them plenty of chances to train/shoot.  For this reason we have set up weekly sessions at Adirondack Woodcraft Camps on Tuesdays.  Plus this summer we are doing additional sessions every couple of weeks at McCauley Mountain on Sunday afternoons and To this training you can add a good supplement.  Unfortunately, Mother Nature has not been cooperating.  So far, we have had one Tuesday since the start of the summer that it hasn’t rained and one Sunday session.  Every other session has either been rained out or rained before we finished.  Still, what little shooting that we have been able to do, it has been very encouraging.  Those present are making nice strides to become better biathletes.  Some sessions there are one or two present, others we have six or seven shooters.  A nice feature that has developed over the last year is having both young and adult shooters.  It is nice to see both levels of athletes working together, helping each other with suggestions and questions.  I am very pleased with this mix!  More as the year wears on!

 

The Polar Bear Biathlon Club hosted two biathlon activities this past weekend.  The first activity was the second of two Junior Development Clinics.  Originally scheduled for ten attendees, the actual number of biathletes was seven.  One withdrew before the clinic and we had two no show.  Having said this, the other seven had a great time honing their skills in biathlon.  Coaches Art Stegen and Sean Halligan started the day by fitting rifles to each junior followed by discussions related to gun handling and technique devel0pment.  Each of the participants zeroed their own rifle and ended the day with fun competitions involving physical activity and shooting.  As always safety was the first order of business!  The day was very productive in the development of our future biathletes.

On Sunday, June 22nd, the Polar Bears hosted a summer biathlon running race.  This was a modified pursuit race with all racers running five .65 km loops.  There were four shooting stops, for the competition classes, they were prone-prone-standing-standing.  For the sport classes and the Boy/Girl classes, they shot prone-prone-prone-prone, large targets each time.  The results of this race are as follows:

Competition class:

P    P    S    S     Tot     Time

Open Men-Joachen Hoppert      4     5    4     4      17      34:06.7

Master Female-Lesley Leach         3     5     3    4       15      51:35.9

Junior Male–    Connor Hrynuk     2    3     4     3       12     36:34.5

Sport class:

P     P    P     P    Tot     Time

Girl– Megan Greene                         1     1     2     3       7       40:06.2

Boy– Henry Uzdavinis                     0    0     0     1       1        30:35.1

Tyler Rudolph                         3      2     3     1       9       38:07.4

Novice Female-Lynn Zombek  2      2      2    3       9       48:08.5

Janine Phaneuf                     2     1       2     3      8       52:59.3

Novice Male-Ray Gardner          1     3       4    2       10     1:02:32.8

 

We would like to thank everyone that helped out over the weekend and took part in our clinic and race.  Great job everyone.  For those of you that would like to see the webpage that we used to calculating the race results go to http://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=24396.

Our next race will be a sprint race at Adirondack Woodcraft Camps.  This will be a 6 km three lap race, two shooting stops:  prone/standing.  Come join us on August 24th!

On Sunday, June 8th, two Polar Bear Biathletes traveled to Day, New York to take part in a Junior Development Biathlon Clinic hosted by the New York Junior Development Committee and Junior Development Coach Algis Shalna.  The day started with Sean Halligan, Art Stegen, and Algis Shalna making sure the participants were properly suited to the rifle that they were using.  This was followed by Coach Shalna discussing the techniques that were needed to be successful in biathlon.  Topics such as how to approach the range, holding the rifle, official rules on gun handling, etc. were covered during this part of the session.  Once completed the athletes moved to zeroing on their zero board.  Zeroing means that each athlete shoots five bullets at one target and than their sites are adjusted so to improve their shooting results.  Each shooter fired 20 rounds at paper targets to allow for the zeroing process to be completed.  When completed they broke for lunch.

After lunch Coach Shalna instructed the athletes in proper technique for shooting in the standing position.  Following this the members of the clinic spent time shooting in the standing and prone positions.  After approximately an hour of shooting the clinic participants took part in several fun, and challenging races to test what they had learned and demonstrated the skills explained throughout the clinic.  These competitions entailed each athlete running a short distance and shooting twice in each leg of the races.  All in all it was a very good day!

On June 21st there will be another Junior Development clinic hosted by the Polar Bear Biathlon Club.  Local biathletes that are currently scheduled to participate are Megan Greene, Tyler Rudolph, Connor Hrynuk and Henry Uzdavinis.  The clinic on the 21st will be instructed by former National Team Coach and National Guard Coach Art Stegen and former National Guard Team Member Sean Halligan.  On Sunday the 22nd we will host a Modified Pursuit Biathlon race open to all!

June 1st is the beginning of the new biathlon season for the Polar Bear Biathlon Club.  On the 1st we will have a family shooting session at McCauley Mountain beginning at 1 p.m.  The following week two Polar Bears will travel to Day, New York for a Junior Development Clinic.  This clinic will be hosted at the Saratoga Biathlon Club and instructed by Algis Shalna, USBA Development Coach.  Henry Uzdavinis and Tyler Rudolph will be spending the day learning proper shooting techniques and developing their shooting skills.  This clinic is by invitation only.  Two weeks later we will host the second Junior Development Clinic at McCauley Mountain, Saturday June 21st.  The instructors for this clinic will be Art Stegen and Sean Halligan.  Coach Stegen was the USBA Coach for the national team in previous years.  Coach Halligan raced on the National Guard Team in previous years and worked with Coach Stegen during his earlier career.  This clinic is also by invitation only.  Henry Uzdavinis, Tyler Rudolph, Megan Green, and Connor Hrynuk will all be attending.  These clinics are designed to enhance the development of the youth in New York State to reach a higher level of skill in the sport of biathlon.

On June 22nd there will be a Summer Biathlon Running Race at McCauley Mountain.  The course will be approximately 5 km in length and classified as a sprint race.  This means that the course will be a three lap event with two stops to shoot.  Each competitor will shoot five targets at each stop.  For each miss they will run an additional penalty lap.  There will be two sets of classes, one for seasoned biathletes and one for novice biathletes.  Awards will be given for the top three in each race class, both men and women.  Registration begins at 8:30 a.m.; Zero at 9:00; and race starts at 10:00 a.m.  Registration for the race can be done online at Skireg.com or day of race.  Racers must be a current member of a NYS Biathlon Club, and a member of USBA.  Day of race membership can be obtained for both requirements at the race site for $10 each.  Preregistration is $15 per racer and day of race registration is $20.  Please come out and join us.  There will be a safety clinic at 9:40 for all new competitors.

Future shooting dates and race information will be published on this site throughout the summer.  Please check this site weekly to see what is  happening in Polar Bear Biathlon!  More to come!!!

Due to lack of entrants this weekends Summer Biathlon Race has been canceled.   Our next race that we originally planned for August 18th has been canceled due to a conflict with the Old Forge Triathlon.  Hopefully we will have a better turn out next year.  Come and join us on January 1st 2014 for our Resolution Day Race at McCauley Mountain Ski Center.  See you then!

For the first time in three years Old Forge has useable snow for Christmas.  Thursday, December 20th it began to rain.  It rained all day and late in the afternoon/early evening it began to snow.  By morning there was about five inches of snow on the ground.  It was watersoaked and sloppy, but the temperatures dropped and it snowed most of the day on Friday.  Saturday it snowed more and on Sunday, December 23rd it snowed even more.  After settling, there is still twelve inches of snow on the ground.  The lower loops of nordic trails at McCauley Mountain are pacted and skiable.  There is between 0 and 5 inches of packed snow on the trails.  The low spots are wet, but will freeze with the cooler temperatures.  The forecast for the week is for snow showers daily.  No rain is scheduled for the area!  What does that mean?  We are having our first winter biathlon since February 2011!

Plan on joining us on January 1st for a day of nordic skiing, for this using the best equipment like using the best ski goggles brand which are great for people into this sport. If you know what you like, you know what you need to enjoy the snow. Here you will have Alquiler material esqui baqueira for all types of snow; from ski, snowboard, to ski cross, competition, lady, freeride or freestyle and also mountain and safety equipment (Arva Pala and Sonda). There will also be a biathlon race starting at 10 a.m. followed by a nordic race at noon.  The long range weather forecast is for cold weather, which will make the snow cold and crisp!  Come on out and join us for the day and make New Year’s Day a New Year’s Nordic Day in Old Forge!  Merry Christmas and we’ll see you on the 1st!

Beginning on June 26th the Polar Bear Biathlon Team will begin their summer shooting sessions.  At 6:30 every Tuesday running from June 26th through August 7th we will be shooting at Woodcraft Camps.  We will shoot for about 9o minutes per session.  All of our shooters, adults and youth, are invited to attend.  We will also have shooting on weekends when possible!

We hope to see all of you through out the summer.  We will be upgrading the last of the biathlon rifles this summer.  Which means that we will be sharing rifles throughout the season.   See you on the range!

June 9th dawned with heavy overcast skies and light rain.  This was the second Junionr Development Clinic of the season and it was going to be wet!  We had six juniors, three experienced and three new, who would be training that day.  The clinic got underway at approximately 9:00 a.m. under the direction of Art Stegen and Sean Halligan.  The group worked on everything from dry firing, positioning, zeroing and training for biathlon.  After a short break for lunch the group continued with standing shooting techniques and ended the day with two short relays.  The rain was on again off again all day long.  At approximately 4:00 pm we were done for the day.  From the Polar Bear Biathlon team we had Maddie Phaneuf, Megan Greene and Henry Uzdavinis attending.

On Sunday the day started clear and warm.  This was to be the first summer biathlon for the season for the Polar Bear Biathlon Club.  There were 13 hardy souls who entered this sprint race.  There were two racers from Pennsylvania, Douglas Hoover and Frank Gaval, one from Canada, Annalisa Percy, and the other ten from NY.  The course was moderately hilly in the beginning of the loop with the last half of the loop being basically flat.  The temperature was approximately 80 degrees with high humidity at the start of the race at 11:00 a.m.   The sprint race had two shooting stops, the first prone and the second standing.  The fastest time of the day was registered by Youth Male, Brian Halligan from Ganesvoort, NY.  Brian beat out Douglas Hoover from Williamsburg, PA. by 32 seconds.  Both Brian and Douglas shot 7 for 10 in their races.  In the women’s race Annalisa Percy recorded the fastest time for females by over four minutes from second place Maddie Phaneuf.   Annalisa shot 2 for 10 and Maddie shot 1 for 10 in this race.

In the sport category, Girl Class racer Allyson Brosemer recorded the fastest time of the day beating out second place Senior Woman, Kathleen Rivet, by 1:24.  Both competitors went 9 for 10 with their shooting for the day.  First for the men’s class went to Senior Male, Paul Rivet who went 6 for 10 shooting.

The best shooting of the day for Women was shared between Allyson Brosemer, Deborah Brosemer and Kathleen Rivet all shooting 9 of 10.  All three of these ladies shot twice at standing targets.  For men it was Richard Sloman shooting 8 of 10.  Richard was in the competition class, which means that he shot once at small targets prone and once at large targets standing.  He missed one in each stop.

The following are the results by class:

Sport Division:   Girl Class  Allyson Brosemer  1st     9 of 10   38:49

Megan Greene        2nd   6 of 10   41:53

Senior Women      Kathleen Rivet    1st    9 of 10    40:13

Anne Greene        2nd  6 of 10   43:02

Danielle Beckingham    3rd   3 of 10   45:02

Deborah Brosemer        4th    9 of 10   53:57

Master Women   Lesley Leach       1st    6 of 10   41:02

Senior Men          Paul Rivet            1st   6 of 10   29:57

Competition Class      Youth Women        Maddie Phaneuf        1st     1 of 10     38:53

Youth Men               Brian Halligan          1st      7 of 10    24:10

Senior Women        Annalisa Percy          1st      2 or 10   34:25

Master Men             Douglas Hoover        1st      7 of 10   24:42

Richard Sloman        2nd    8 of 10   33:25

GrandMaster Men   Art Stegen                   1st     7 of 10    38:21

Frank Gaval               2nd    2 of 10   41:09

Spring is here and we are ready to pick up where we left off this past season.  Although we had little snow this past winter, the Polar Bear Biathlon Team kept up our practice sessions.  This past year we added a new dimension to our club.  We have introduced family shooting sessions.  Not only do we encourage team members to come and shoot, but also their parents.  With this addition we have a nice core of shooters coming along for the summer season.  Our new people are Kathy and Paul Rivet, Jon and Debbie Brosemer, Anne and Bill Greene, Danielle Beckingham, Lesley Leach, Janine Phaneuf and Deb Fuge.  Several of these individuals will be racing for the first time in June!

We are trying to shoot every two weeks at McCauley Mountain located outside of Old Forge.  Our next session will be April 29th at 3 p.m. for those that can make it.  Beginning once school is out for the summer we will hold weekly sessions a Adirondack Woodcraft Camps.  Thanks to David and John Leach we are able to run a shooting session behind the soccer field for about 90 minutes a week.  We have several of our Polar Bear Biathlon Team members attending which makes it nice for everyone.  Those sessions will run on Tuesday evenings beginning at 6:30 p.m.  This year we will have three targets set up for practice, two standard targets and one portable target.

The summer race schedule at McCauley Mountain will begin on June 10th with a 5 km sprint race.  There will be both competition and sport race classes to accomodate everyone.  The second race to be hosted at McCauley Mountain will be on August 18th, a modified pursuit race with four shooting stops.  More information will be post on this site as summer approaches for those interested in competing.  Both races will have pre-registration on skireg.com.  Please follow us on New York Biathlon as well as the Polar Bear Biathlon website.