Crosscut Hosts Biathlon Community for 2025 Senior Nationals and Spring Festival

Crosscut Mountain Sports Center, based in Bozeman, MT, hosted the biathlon community for the final domestic event of the season, the 2025 U.S. Biathlon Senior Nationals and Spring Festival, March 27-29. The event saw 173 athletes, ranging from U15 to masters, toe the line in a sprint, mass start, and super sprint over the course of the three-day event. 

Racing kicked off on Thursday, March 27 with the sprints, both senior national championship and collegiate national championship medals on the line. The senior women’s sprint saw Chloe Levins (Williston, VT/Unaffiliated) claim the national title, shooting clean. Joanne Reid (Grand Junction, CO/Colorado Biathlon Club) raced to second with two misses on the day, and Kelsey Dickinson (Winthrop, WA/Craftsbury Green Racing Project) landed in third place, also shooting clean. 

“[The race] was awesome,” said Levins in a post-race interview with Brian Halligan. “It was perfect spring skiing out there! The air is pretty thin, but the snow is great. I’m coming almost directly from Oslo, our World Cup final, which obviously has no elevation, so this is a big change for me, but I’m really happy to be here.”

Jake Brown (St. Paul, MN/Craftsbury Green Racing Project) defended his national title in the men’s sprint, missing just one target in standing. Bjorn Westervelt (Stowe, VT/Craftsbury Green Racing Project) finished second overall, shooting clean, and Paul Schommer (Appleton, WI/Team Birkie/Ariens Nordic Center) landed third, with three misses. 

To view all sprint results, click HERE.  

This year’s sprint race doubled as the 2025 Collegiate National Championship. Both Grace Castonguay (Jackson, NH/Craftsbury Green Racing Project) and Westervelt defended their collegiate national titles. Emma Stertz (Grand Rapids, MN/Team Birkie) and Hannah Chipman (Norwich, VT/Dartmouth College) stood on the podium with Castonguay in second and third, respectively. Joining Westervelt on the men’s podium was Van Ledger (Lake Placid, NY/Team Crosscut) in second and Tim Cobb (Westford, VT/Team Crosscut) in third. Team awards saw Montana State University take the win, with Paul Smith’s College in second, and the University of Vermont in third. 

The mass start races took place on Friday, March 28. Flipping start orders from the previous day, the men’s mass start kicked off first. Westervelt’s strong performance landed him the men’s mass start national title. Schommer crossed the line +20.2 seconds back in second place, and Vincent Bonacci (Salt Lake City, UT/Team Birkie) raced to third, his first national championship podium since 2023. 

The women’s mass start saw Dickinson claim the victory, her first national championship title. Levins followed just +13.9 seconds behind Dickinson, and Reid landed in third place, +15.2 back from Levins. 

The final day of racing featured a super sprint, a race for fun with no national championship medals on the line. Levins took home her second victory of the weekend, with Castonguay earning her first podium in Bozeman in second place. Dickinson rounded out the super sprint podium in third. On the men’s side, Westervelt also raced to his second consecutive podium. He was joined by Brown in second and Schommer in third, Brown’s second podium and Schommer’s third podium at Crosscut.  

To view all super sprint results, click HERE. 

Thank you to Crosscut Mountain Sports Center for organizing such a great event to close out the 2024-25 racing season and to the biathlon community for traveling to Bozeman to compete, coach, volunteer, and spectate! Live stream recaps from all three race days can be found on Brian Halligan’s YouTube page, HERE. Thank you to Zilla Productions for streaming the event.