FORT KENT – The Olympic biathlon team is starting to take shape – on the men’s side, anyway – with one event to go.

Maine Winter Sports Center team member Tim Burke of Paul Smiths, N.Y., earned his first career win in an Olympic trials Monday in the men’s 12.5-kilometer pursuit race, following Friday’s second-place finish in the sprint. Burke’s podium mates from the sprint, Jeremy Teela and Lowell Bailey, returned to the top three.

Burke earned his third top-three finish of the trials at the 10th Mountain Ski Center – he was also second in Thursday’s individual race. His current total of 201.49 points for his best two race finishes has him on top of the scoreboard, followed by Bailey (199.70), Teela (198.95) and Brian Olsen (196.61).

The situation on the women’s side is far different as five women and four men seek berths on the team that will go to Turin, Italy, Feb. 10-26.

Sarah Konrad of Laramie, Wyo., claimed her second top- three finish of the trials, winning the 10K pursuit in a time of 35:49.1. The second-place finisher was Sonne Nordgren of St. Croix, Minn. Annelies Cook of Saranac Lake, N.Y., rounded out the top three.

While Burke, Teela and Bailey have dominated, eight different women have placed in the top three of the three races so far. Konrad, one of the oldest competitors at 38, was third in Friday’s sprint and so is the only repeat podium finisher so far.

“It’s like a snowglobe,” said Cook, who competes for the Maine Winter Sports Center. “Put all the women in, shake it up. Who knows what’s going to happen tomorrow. It’ll be interesting. It’s kind of fun that way, though.”

There are four open spots for men and five for women, and the decisive final race will be Tuesday’s sprint. The men will race a 10K starting at 10 a.m., followed by a 7.5K women’s race at 10:30. Burke will start 12th and Konrad will be 18th.

Even though she’s had disappointing results in shooting, Rachel Steer, the top-ranked U.S. woman internationally, has been consistent enough to hold the top spot in two-race rankings. She has 201.4 points, followed by Konrad (197.99), Tracy Barnes (196.25), Caroline Treacy (195.49) and Lanny Barnes (195.41), Tracy Barnes’ twin sister.

Like many of the top men, Burke did much better in the first two stages of shooting, which were both prone, than in the last two, which were both standing. He cleaned the first stage and had one miss in the second, but racked up two in each of the standing rounds.

“After prone with only one penalty, coming into standing, I was probably thinking a little bit ahead of myself, to Torino [Italy, the site of the Olympics], and just needed to stay more focused,” said Burke, who completed the pursuit in 39:41.9.

Bailey, too, had one penalty in the prone but struggled in the standing shooting stages. In the first stage, he took three quick shots, all misses, and then paused noticeably before firing off two more shots. He hit both remaining targets.

“I just had to take a breath, resettle in that one or two second [pause], reset the way I was approaching the shots,” said Bailey, a MWSC skier who grew up in Lake Placid, N.Y. “Those first three shots, it’s such a timing issue with standing especially. … So if you’re a split-second too early or a split-second too late, you’re off by this much, and that was the case in my first three standing shots. I was fortunately able to hit the last two.”

Bailey’s legs tend to shake a bit at the range, and that didn’t help, either.

“Today I was struggling a little on the hills out there,” Bailey said. “My legs were not as fresh as they’ve been in the past two races and it kind of caught up with me in the standing.”

Teela had seven misses to Bailey’s six but outskied Bailey. Teela, an Anchorage native who trains in Fort Kent, was 27.4 seconds behind Burke while Bailey was 1:36.1 behind.

The women’s race was tight in the top five. Konrad finished in 35:49.1, with Nordgren seventh-tenths of a second behind, followed by Cook (16.1 seconds back), Tracy Barnes (22.9) and Steer (36.8).

Steer, the winner of Friday’s sprint, had another disappointing day on the shooting range with six penalties – five of which came in the prone.

“I just was having a really hard time with my prone shooting and I’m having a heck of a time figuring out what I’m doing wrong,” said Steer, who lives in Anchorage, Alaska.

Konrad had eight penalties, the most of anyone in the top 10, so once again she had to rely on her skiing. She had seven penalties over two shooting rounds in Friday’s sprint.

“I felt pretty confident in my skiing after the sprint race and so I really knew I just needed to get in there and shoot my targets, and not waste any time on the range and try to get as many targets down and ski as fast as I could,” she said.

Cook had just two penalties, which tied with Tracy Barnes and Deborah Nordyke for the best shooting of the day in both races. Monday’s improved conditions of light wind, clouds and sun and cold temperatures, compared to last week’s ice and snow, helped her.

“Maybe I got too psyched out with the weather,” Cook said. “Today I just came in and did what I usually do, so that felt good.”

Cook and Nordgren are both first-year seniors and two of the youngest competitors at the trials. Nordgren’s 22nd birthday was Monday.

“It’s a good present,” she said with a smile.