Natalie Hynes isn’t slowing down this season; she’s getting faster.

The 18-year-old Yukon cross-country skier raced to two podium finishes at the second Haywood NorAm stop in Rossland, B.C. last weekend.

Hynes, a freshman member of the University of Alaska at Anchorage Seawolves nordic ski team, was third in the first stage of the weekend series: the interval start free. She was just over a minute behind the winner in the 10K event.

She then took the second stage, a free sprint, off to recover from the travel from Anchorage and won Stage 3’s handicap start 10K classic race Sunday.

“She’s made a huge progression of the summer,” said Team Yukon Cross-Country ski coach Alain Masson.

Masson took nine athletes down to Rossland for the team’s first Outside competition of the season.

On average, the team skied well, posting 18 top 10 finishes.

“The snow was good and it was cold for this area,” said Masson. “Unusually cold for this area, close to -20.”

In the Yukon, -20 C is the temperature cut-off for races.

With the past few week’s cold temperatures in Whitehorse, Masson said that the weather in Rossland wasn’t a problem for the Yukon skiers.

Leading the men, Caelan Pangman McLean was fifth in the 15K junior men interval start free, ninth in the sprints on day 2 and second in the handicap start classic race on Sunday. He finished fourth in the aggregate junior men results from the weekend.

Also skiing for the Yukon team in the men’s junior division were Marcus Deuling (eighth in Stage 1 and Stage 3) and Michael Kishchuk (20th in Stage 1 and Stage 2, 17th in Stage 3 and 18th in aggregate).

The rest of the women’s team also performed well.

In Stage 1, Hannah Deuling was fifth, Mira Mason was eighth, Hannah Jirousek was 10th, Regan Fuerstner was 13th and Amanda Thomson was 15th.

In Stage 2’s sprint race, Deuling was fourth in the A-final followed by Thomson in fifth. Mason was the B-final winner to finish seventh. Also in the B-final were Jirousek and Fuerstner, who finished ninth and 11th overall respectively.

Sunday’s Stage 3 classic race saw all the women finish in the top 10. Deuling was third, Thomson was fourth, Mason was eighth and Jirousek was 10th.

“It was a great start,” said coach Masson, “And we’re really looking forward to the season.”

The Yukon team heading to the junior and U-23 trials for world championships will be announced today.