Marshall Avenue Birkie Skiers improve race times

The Classic style of cross country skiing is a lot about technique and efficiency. This year, Darrin Meendering, Grady Meendering and James Bigelow showed much improvement over 2022.

10,105 participants competed in this year’s American Birkebeiner cross country ski festival in Hayward, Wisconsin. Three of those competitors were from Marshall Avenue. Darrin and Grady Meendering trained to ski the 29 kilometer (18 mile) Korteloppet this year. With more miles of training and better technique, Darrin shaved almost 2 minutes off per kilometer while going twice the distance. Grady trimmed 1 minute and 46 seconds off his per kilometer time.

James Bigelow improved the most by shaving 3 minutes and 13 seconds off per kilometer in his Prince Haakon trek of 15 kilometers (9.3 miles). 

See complete story in this week's issue of the Springfield Advance-Press.