It was a busy day at the Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club stadium on Saturday. There were 125 athletes who strapped on their skis for the Yukon Championships.

As the skiers departed for their distances, fans lined the perimeter of the course, ringing cowbells and cheering their favourite athletes along.

There was a good mix of skiers from the squad program, lynx program and the biathletes even got in on the action.

Skiers were as young as seven. Also racing were two former Yukon Olympians, Emily Nishikawa and Knute Johnsgaard.

Results (at the time of publication they were still unofficial:)

Cheyenne Tirschmann skied her way to the U14 Girls title. Aramintha Bradford placed second and Sarah Svoboda came third.

The U14 Boys skied five kilometres, like the girls. Finegand Bradford, 19:19, finished 23 seconds ahead of the next skier Jonah McConnell. Only one second separated second and third. Nicolas Giangrande grabbed the final podium position.

Simon Connell, 16:55, earned the 2006 Boys race. Connell had a thrilling finish down to the wire against Nishikawa.

Felix Masson and Finnegan Gallant placed second and third respectively.

Constance Lapointe put the winning time in the U16 Girls division. Her time of 18:52 outpaced second-place finisher Abigail Jirousek by 1:08. Sophia Giangrande, 20:17, earned third.

Kate Mason won the U18 Girls category in 19:59, 30 seconds ahead of Maude Molgat. The third skier in the group was a DNS (did not start).

Janelle Greer was the lone Senior Women athlete and she posted a quick time of 19:35.

Nishikawa can add another first-place finish to her impressive resume. She won the Masters Women division in 16:56.

Kirstenn Magnusson was second and Heather Milligan third.

All the above-mentioned races were five kilometres.

Cole Germain topped the 2005 Boys 10 kilometre race with a time of 32:15. Bruce Porter came second in 40:17.

The U18 Boys class was taken by Isidore Champagne in 34:04. He outpaced Noah Marnik by 2:11 and Noah Connell came third.

It was a tight race in the Masters Men race. Colin Abbott proved the quickest on the day finishing in 30:06. Johnsgaard was only four seconds behind. Matthias Purdon rounded out the podium in 30:28.

Emilie Stewart-Jones was the lone racer in the Senior Women race. Her time was 35:16.

The U8 Girls class had a tie for first. Clare Connell and Lindsey Stipdonk both finished the 700 metre race in 8:11.

Aiko Wellman-Gagne was third.

Leon Borlase was the quickest U8 Boys skier. His time was 6:16. Sam Pearce and Eli Patera Marchand were second and third respectively.

The U10 Boys category came down to the wire. Erik Embacher, 4:53, finished four seconds quicker than Tammo Waldron. Paxson Lipovsky was third.

Maggie Jane MacDonald won the U10 Girls race in 6:39. Kyana Fairfield and Hazel Prescott grabbed the other top positions.

The U12 athletes raced 1.2 kilometres. Johannes Benkert won the boys’ division in 22:59. Only seven seconds later, Kieran Horton crossed the finish line. Peter Embacher, 23:15, was third.

Niamh Hupe posted the winning U12 Girls time of 23:38. Natalja Hendricks and Emily Kralisch-Seguin had identical times of 24:01 to tie for second place.

The Yukon Championships will continue next weekend with sprint races.