Spokane brothers to compete in Cross Country Junior National Championships

Dozens of Nordic skiers gathered at Mount Spokane last month for the final junior nationals qualifier race of the season, capping a three-month stretch that included races in Oregon, Utah and Washington.

When the races were over, two brothers from the Spokane Nordic Association Race Team had something to celebrate – and another set of races to add to their calendar.

Isaac and Aaron Pooler finished the season with enough points across eight races to qualify for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Cross Country Junior National Championships in Lake Placid, New York.

The national competition begins Monday and runs through the week. The Poolers will compete in a variety of races, with a rest day scheduled for Wednesday.

It’s a big accomplishment. It’s also familiar territory for Isaac. He competed in the national competition last year in Fairbanks, Alaska.

This year, he’s glad to have company.

“Last year, I was the only guy from Spokane going,” Isaac said. “Now it’s great that there’s another guy going from Spokane, and also it’s my brother.”

The brothers have been skiing since they were young. They got started in the sport through the Spokane Nordic Association, a nonprofit that offers lessons and programs for kids. Isaac and Aaron went through all of the kids programs. Fairly quickly, they realized they were fast.

Both are also cross country and track athletes at Mead High School, where Isaac is a senior and Aaron is a freshman.

Skiing in the winter provides a good way to stay in shape, and a different sort of challenge.

“It’s a complete, full-body (workout),” Isaac said. “It involves your arms, your core, your legs. It’s kind of a utility knife of all the stuff you can do.”

“I like focusing on form and just getting better at it and working every day,” Aaron said. “Also the community is really fun.”

Snow was a bit of a problem this year. Jason Halloran, head coach of the Spokane Nordic Race Team, said the 17-member team was roller -skiing into December, just so they could do something to keep their skills sharp.

“That’s not a fun place to be as a skier,” Halloran said.

The team competed at four qualifying events around the region, each consisting of two races, beginning in Bend, Oregon, in mid-December.

That first race helped Isaac see where he stood against the competition in the Pacific Northwest’s U18 division, with formidable teams from the Methow Valley, Leavenworth and elsewhere.

He said it felt like he was “on the bubble” in terms of making nationals after that race. Stronger finishes in Utah convinced him that he had a good shot, and by the time of the final race of the season at Mount Spokane, the points gap was large enough that he felt his spot was assured.

Aaron’s spot in the U16 division was less certain. His finish at Bend wasn’t what he’d hoped. But he worked on his technique and race strategy with each contest, cracking a sort of code for shaving off the most time – instead of pushing hard going uphill and relaxing on the downhills and flats, he started pushing hard throughout the race.

“I’ve learned that you gain much more time over the top of hills – especially over the top of hills – and on the flats and downs than you would pushing up the hills,” Aaron said.

He finished better in the Utah races. A week later, at races in the Methow Valley, he found himself among the top finishers. In one of the Methow races, he logged a time that was just five seconds behind his older brother’s.

The Mount Spokane races, held on Feb. 17 and 18, solidified their spots. The top 10 points-getters in each age division are selected for nationals – Halloran said both Poolers finished close to ninth in their respective divisions.

Halloran said that there are often skiers from Spokane who qualify for nationals, but this is the first time he’s aware of that a set of siblings qualified.

“I’m proud of them,” he said, adding that they improved throughout the winter.

“They got to be better at the technique but also better at how to race,” Halloran said. “The things like where to push hard and where they’re losing time that they shouldn’t be losing time.”

At Lake Placid, they’ll ski against some tough competition. Top skiers from each of the eight Nordic divisions around the country will be there.

They’ll ski as representatives of the Pacific Northwest region, alongside skiers from Washington and Oregon with whom they’ve competed all winter long.

That’s one of the perks of going to nationals, the brothers said. They’ll have a week to ski and spend time with the other Pacific Northwest competitors, many of whom have become their friends.

“We’re all really good friends,” Isaac said. “We know each other and yeah we compete against each other, but we’re still really good friends. It’s just nice because then we can actually get time to hang out.”

Isaac is also returning to the national competition with experience. Last year, he said, he was worn out by the third race of the week. After finishing in the top 50 in the first couple races, he came in second-to-last in the third race.

This year, he and Aaron will focus on not being intimidated by the stage, and on treating each contest as if it were just a normal race.