Cross-Country Journey Quinn-Hurst Hopes Trek Leads To Utah In 2002

Amid the many world-class, cross-country skiers that will amass on Mount Spokane this weekend for the Wild Moose Continental Cup, there will be one Spokane native who will begin her yearly trek toward national prominence.

Erin Quinn-Hurst, an 18-year-old senior at Lewis and Clark High School, who finished 11th in last season’s Junior Nationals, on Saturday will participate in the first of at least 20 races this season.

Last year she finished fourth in the Wild Moose Cup despite falling and suffering a minor injury to her back.

Quinn-Hurst’s season normally begins in December and runs into April. Since her freshman year, her season has culminated in racing at the Junior Nationals - also known as the Junior Olympics.

Her parents, Jon and Mary, have been avid cross-country skiers since picking up the sport while attending the University of Washington. When Jon left college he became a certified instructor at a ski school run by his brother, Tom Hurst.

They introduced their children to the sport at an early age, and both Erin and her brother Colin, 14, ski competitively.

“I was skiing when I could walk,” said Erin, “and before that I was on my dad’s back when he was skiing.”

You can find Erin training on Mount Spokane nearly every day she is not racing. Her father joins her four days a week as one of her coaches. In fact, the Quinn-Hursts are on the mountain so often they bought a condominium up there.

“My dad’s three rules for skiing and training is that you have fun, and you have fun, and you have fun,” said Erin. “It’s never been a have-to. It always been do you want to?”

Erin’s school work hasn’t suffered despite spending so much time racing and training. Sporting a 3.94 grade-point average, Erin hopes to get an acceptance letter from Dartmouth. If all goes well, she will be skiing at the NCAA Division I level for the Hanover, N.H., college.

Not surprisingly, her rigorous training regimen makes social life tough.

“I try to get my social life out (of the way) in the spring and the fall, before my training gets big in the fall,” she said. “It is hard and sometimes it feels as though the sacrifices are big.”

The very nature of cross-country racing makes it an introspective sport. Normally in cross country, athletes race in intervals rather than in a mass start. Racing against a clock rather than an opponent can make it difficult for some athletes.

“You’re competing against all these people, but you’re also competing against yourself,” Erin said. “I think mental focus is a big thing, though. Especially for me, and I’m hoping that is what will make my year go real well.”

She dreams of one day making the U.S. Olympic team, perhaps for the 2002 event in Salt Lake City. The Olympics is a reasonable goal, she feels, due to the amount of contact and interest she has had with coaches training Olympic-caliber athletes.

Jim Galanes is the coach of Gold 2002, a team comprised of current and hopeful Olympians. Galanes hand-picks 12 athletes in the summer for his four elite training camps on Eagle Glacier just outside Anchorage, Alaska. Erin has gone three times in the past two years.

Despite the individual honors Quinn-Hurst racks up, she is quick to remember the people who help her.

“I don’t know if it’s me,” she said. “I think it’s all the people who make everything possible; the friends, the teachers, the coaches, my family … they’re all really neat people and they deserve lots of the credit.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WILD MOOSE CUP AT A GLANCE Where: Mount Spokane State Park nordic trails When: Saturday, classic races 10 a.m. through 1 p.m.; Sunday, freestyle races 9 a.m. through 2:30 p.m. Citizens races: Saturday, 1 p.m.; Sunday, 2:30 p.m. Distance: 5K. Late fees: $20 per day. Deadline: 1 hour before race time. Parking: Sno-park permits required; available at site Info: (509) 533-9354