Whitehorse biathletes Erin Oliver-Beebe and Jennifer Curtis can hit the target.

Even if they do sound modest.

The two 16-year-olds competed in the Calforax Cup in Canmore, Alta., last weekend.

Oliver-Beebe finished second in the senior girls six-kilometre sprint on day one with a time of 24:18.7 and Curtis placed fourth with a time of 26:01.5.

The second day of competition placed the two Yukoners behind Saturday's first-place winner, Lauren Andrews of the Foothills Nordic Club out of Calgary (24:13.9), in the senior girls 7.5-km pursuit.

Oliver-Beebe started the pursuit five seconds behind Andrews while Curtis started 15 seconds back.

Despite the nerve-wracking gap, Oliver-Beebe came out on top, winning the event in a time of 39:05.4.

Curtis narrowly edged out Andrews in a photo finish to win second in a time of 39:34.8, over the Calgary biathlete's 39:49.9.

Curtis played catch-up with Andrews for most of the race.

"Then the last one and a half kilometers I caught up and passed her 100 metres before the finish line, and then we had a sprint to the end,” Curtis said.

"I was so tired, it was sort of like – go!

"It was an interesting feeling, because it was me chasing someone else, and I sort of forgot about everyone else behind me. It was just me and the person in front of me.”

At last year's Calforax Cup, in Camrose, Alta., Oliver-Beebe won second in the senior girls sprint race and first in the 7.5-km mass start. Curtis placed eighth in both the sprint and the mass start.

Curtis said she wanted to set reasonable expectations heading into her first Outside race of the season.

"I felt that I really improved from previous years,” she said. "My skiing improved. I just recently joined the Yukon ski team, so I'm doing that as well as biathlon.”

Oliver-Beebe said she was pleased with both of her results to start her 2010-2011 campaign, which will include a trip to Halifax, N.S., for the Canada Winter Games in February.

She was, however, lacking in one department.

"I felt my skiing was good this weekend; my shooting, not so much, but hopefully it'll get better,” Oliver-Beebe said.

"I just didn't have good shooting this weekend.”

The two biathletes will travel to Whistler's Callaghan Valley this coming weekend to compete in the B.C. Cup.

The competition will be a jump from senior girls (15-16 years old) category to youth women (17-18 years old), which is the age category for the Winter Games.

The major difference, aside from the higher level of competition, is a technical one: youth women biathletes compete carrying the .22-caliber biathlon rifle, while the senior girls rack their rifle, which means they leave it at the range rather than ski with it.

"It's quite a bit different,” Curtis said. "It changes your balance, and it's heavier, so it's more work.”

She added that the team wanted to start the year off with a positive experience by competing in their own category.

"And then switch; so now all of our races are going to be in youth women in preparation. I think it's going to be interesting, but hopefully it'll be good,” Curtis said, noting that she made a similar jump before, moving up to senior girls when she was 14-years-old.

Coach Judy Hartling said the ultimate goal is to prep for the Winter Games.

"It's really important to go in and get results like that early in the season,” Hartling said.

"They're going to go in with the confidence of this last weekend of doing so well, and they're just going to build on it.

"Last weekend … Jennifer and Erin skied faster than the winner in the youth women, so I expect them to do very well this coming weekend. If they had skied in the youth women they would have been on the podium too.”

Hartling agreed that competing in the senior girls in their first outing was the perfect prep.

"It's just a training thing. You can use it as mental training, a confidence builder.

"It was just something that we discussed, and we decided, do you want to do it in the youth or in the seniors? and it was decided that we would do this one, last weekend, in the seniors, as part of a build up to the training, knowing that we were going to do youth at Whistler the very following weekend,” Hartling said.

Oliver-Beebe said she's going to work on her shooting heading into the weekend.

"Hopefully I'll be able to hit more targets,” she said.

Curtis will focus on her own game.

"I just want to push as hard as I can and have similar races,” Curtis said. "It doesn't really matter (how I finish).

"I feel I'm more prepared. We've trained with our rifles, so we've done what we can, and whatever happens happens.”

Added Hartling: "It's early in the season for them to get results like that. I expected them to do well, but to make a clean sweep of it on Sunday was really exciting.

"They're very committed, they gave it their all.”