ZAKOPANE, Poland – Six athletes who spend much of the year training and racing under the guidance of the Maine Winter Sports Center, including Kelsy Bouchard of Fort Kent and Walt Shepard of Yarmouth, recently competed here at the World Junior Biathlon Championships as members of the U.S. Junior National Biathlon Team.

Bouchard gave the U.S. its first top-10 finish of the week when she placed ninth in the 10-kilometer Individual race with a time of 49 minutes, 55.1 seconds.

Competing in the Youth Women’s events, Bouchard also finished 51st in the 6K Sprint race at 33:52.2, 45th in the 7.5K Pursuit (10:21 behind the Russian winner), and helped her 3-by-6K Relay team to a seventh-place finish out of 15 teams.

In Junior Men’s events, MWSC’s Tim Burke of New York was the top American finisher in the 10K Sprint, coming in 44th place with a time of 31:53.6, and in the 15K Individual, finishing 21st at 50:30.1.

Brian Olsen of Minnesota finished 72nd in the 10K Sprint (34:23.3) and 58th in the 15K Individual (54:52.3), while Shepard finished 75th in the 10K Sprint (35:02.5).

Burke and Olsen also skied for the U. S. Junior Men’s Relay team, which finished 18th out of 18 teams in the 4 by 7.5K race.

Tracy Barnes of Colorado was 41st in the Junior Women’s 7.5K Sprint (33:06.5), 42nd in the 10K Pursuit (10:35.9 behind the German winner), and 52nd in the 12.5K Individual race (58:56.5).

Twin sister Lanny Barnes finished 48th in the 7.5K Sprint (34:09.7), 45th in the 10K Pursuit (11:31.9 behind the winner), and 21st in the 12.5K Individual (52:40.5).

The Barnes sisters also skied for the U.S. Junior Women’s Relay team, which finished 12th out of 14 teams in the 3 by 6K race.