Bates Carnival

Great start to the season at the Bates Carnival this weekend. We headed up to Rumford on a beautiful Thursday afternoon - almost warm enough for t-shirts. The January thaw has been hammering us all week, but there was still more than enough snow for the Chisholm Ski Club to put on a great event up at Black Mountain.

A "wintery mix" was coming down on Friday morning before the skate race. Apparently, our team likes wintery mixes, because we posted some historic (not historical) results. Our men finished 4th - best finish ever since Bowdoin became a member of EISA in 1994. Walt was 5th - best finish ever for a Bowdoin skier - with Forrest just 3 seconds back in 8th, giving us two skiers in the top 10 for the first time ever. These were huge results - top 30 finishes have generally been a benchmark of success for the Bowdoin team, yet suddenly we have two skiers in the top 10. Niko finished 52nd in a large and deep field (94 finishers), just 90 seconds behind Walt, to round out the team scoring. Our women put up a solid race as well, ending up in 9th. Courtney led the team in 58th, with Sarah in 66th - both were within striking distance of some outstanding skiers. Those margins will shrink in the next few weeks. Maresa completed the scoring in 79th and looked pretty lively - not bad for someone who spent the last several months in Botswana training on a treadmill.

Today's classic race was a bit less exciting for us. Lots of folks seemed to be a bit under the weather, perhaps trying to fight off illness, and our team score reflected this. Still, we saw some great individual highlights - Colman hammered the course for a 45th place finish, less than 40 seconds from the top 30; Jeff had his best college race ever; Shem looked springy and smooth; Courtney showed as much pop on the steep hills as anyone out there. Good efforts all around.

I'm very happy with this start to the season. We've just come off of a training camp and some travel, and most people have had very few race starts up to this point. As good as yesterday was, I know that this crew is capable of skiing even better. With some rest and a couple more races under our belts, we'll get faster every week. Our best races are still ahead of us, and I can't wait to see them.

Nick took some good photos today, which I'll post tomorrow. For now, here are a couple shots by Steve Fuller, a ski coach from Freeport who also happens to be a great photographer. Check out more of his stuff here - photos from today will probably show up on his site soon.

Maresa with game face.

Jeff - the summer training is paying off.