On Saturday, January 24, 2009 the Wisconsin Biathlon Association presented it's first annual Winter Biathlon Festival at McMiller Park in Eagle, WI. Despite frigid temperatures, the event was well attended and enjoyed by all.
The day began with with an open 6km sprint format race with two shooting bouts and a 30 second time penalty assessed for each missed shot. Thirteen certified competitors braved the cold temperatures to try their luck in the first biathlon event in Wisconsin in recent memory. Mark Torresani (27:47) of paced the field, logging the fastest ski time of the day, enough to hold off Jason Wagner (27:53) by six seconds for the win. John Arntzen (27:56) claimed the third podium spot, finishing nine seconds back. The top shooting performance of the day was provided by Brett Wagner, with 2 prone misses and 3 standing misses. Dianne Dagalen led from start to finish to become the women's field winner.
Following the open race, a 4km novice event was held to provide newcomers a chance to try a biathlon event. A fine group of 28 participants toed the line for their first ever biathlon event. The race format consisted of one shooting stage in the prone position, using the larger sized targets. Marc Class dominated the field, turing in the second fastest ski time of the day and perfect shooting on the range for a winning time of 14:56. Mark Wirfs also had zero misses and finished 25 seconds behind in 15:21. Jim Stevens completed the podium, finishing third, with two missed shots and a time of 16:25.
In the female division, Stephanie Holmes paced the field with fast skiing and solid shooting (one miss) finishing in first place with a time of 21:02. Linda Wolff (23:59) and Adrienne Walts (35:40) rounded out the podium as the second and third place finishers.
Thank you to all the volunteers who helped make the event a success. Also, special thanks to the following sponsors for providing product donations for our raffle drawing: Atomic Ski, Infinity Ski Poles, Chi-Town Sports, and Lapua Ammunition.