PRESQUE ISLE – Maine Winter Sports Center athletes clinched four of the 16 spots on the U.S. World Junior Biathlon team Sunday after three days of race trials.

Newt Rogers, Russell Currier, Annelies Cook and Bjorn Bakken garnered top overall finishes in their respective divisions during the team trials at the MWSC’s Nordic Heritage Center.

“We’re feeling quite good,” Andy Shepard, MWSC chief executive officer, said Sunday of the trial results. “We’ve definitely come a long way since we started five years ago.”

Local racers held their own at the northern Maine venue, which hosted 72 U.S. athletes. The top four overall finishers in each division – men’s and women’s youth and men’s and women’s junior – are heading to Finland in March to compete in the 2005 Biathlon Junior World Championship. The youth division is for athletes ages 17-18; the junior division is ages 19-20.

Rogers earned first place overall and Currier followed in second in the youth men’s division. They offered each other stiff competition, with Rogers placing first to Currier’s second during Thursday’s sprint, Currier capturing first and Rogers sixth during Saturday’s pursuit races, and Rogers regaining first and Currier again finishing second in Sunday’s final sprint.

Rogers’ finish time for the Sunday 7.5-kilometer sprint was 22 minutes, 1.2 seconds and Currier finished in 22:35.1.

“I skied out of my mind on that last loop,” Rogers said. “I was praying and skiing hard on the uphills, but I was calm the whole race.”

Rogers, 17, of Fort Kent, missed the team cut last year by four spots. This year, he said he’s looking forward to his first race overseas.

Currier, 17, of Stockholm will be competing in his second Biathlon Junior World Championship. His skiing was right on mark, but he is hoping to improve his shooting percentages by March.

Currier is hoping to finish in the top 10 for his division at the junior world championships.

“Things change,” Currier said. “My skiing has been very strong, so it’s all in the shooting for me.”

Cook shut out her competitor, garnering first place in all three of her trial races. The 20-year-old who hails from Saranac Lake, N.Y., but has been training in Fort Kent, finished her 7.5K sprint Sunday in 24:16.7.

Only two women competed for the four slots in the junior women’s division, so Cook said Sunday that she didn’t feel the pressure others were feeling to make the team.

“But a race for me is a race,” Cook said. “I try to go as hard as I can.”

This will be Cook’s fourth trip to the world juniors and she is hoping to make her first finish in the top 10.

Bakken garnered the fourth slot for the junior men’s division, finishing his final 10K sprint Sunday in 30:35.3, just 1:24 behind the top finisher. Considering he was battling the flu during the trials, MWSC officials are pleased that he still made the team and expect he will ski only stronger as March draws near.

Bakken is from Duluth, Minn., but has been training at Fort Kent and has been on the MWSC Continental Team for a year. He is making his second appearance at the world juniors.

“The races went very well,” Stephen Sands, executive director of the U.S. Biathlon Association, said Sunday, summing up the event. “We have a great group going over [to Finland].”

Sands pointed out the world juniors will be a new experience for some of the athletes, and the event will be made harder by a journey across the ocean, a big time change and competition with top athletes around the world.

“At times, you feel like you’re at a disadvantage,” Sands said.

But the USBA is focusing on the positive. They’re hoping many team members will place in the top 10 in their divisions.

And a medal?

“Well, that would be the cherry on the cake,” Vladimir Cervenka, head coach for the juniors team, said Sunday.