Lots of racing going on last Sunday. The ECT was at Holderness for the final Eastern Cup race, the Cheri Walsh Memorial, a 7.5/15k mass start classic race. Several of the carnival team skiers came over the day before to give support. We were fortunate to have great hospitality from 2 sets of parents for this race: the men stayed with the Cooks in Bradford, and the women and I stayed with the Pedrin-Nielsons in Plymouth. The course was in great shape in the morning, with cold dry snow and firm tracks, but things softened up considerably as the sun climbed higher. We ended up with some tricky waxing - the sun was blasting some parts of the course, and hard waxes didn't seem to be kicking, but the snow stayed cold and dry in the shaded areas. Fortunately, I had a number of enthusiastic volunteer assistant coaches to help out, and we got the skiers to the start line just in time. The wax was hit or miss on various parts of the course, but others seemed to be running into the same issues, and our skiers toughed it out to post some decent finishes. Tom and Matt had a great duel to the finish, with Tom taking it by a ski length. Matt has been coming on strong for the last few weeks after being sick on and off ever since Thanksgiving - it was great to see him continuing to make progress. If we can keep him healthy next year... I'm also pleased to report that Shem edged out a Colby skier at the line - those little individual victories matter, especially when it's Colby. Overall, a beautiful day for racing, with some great efforts by our skiers. Here's a link to results. As always, the parents were amazing, and we walked away with as much food as we could carry for the ride home. That didn't stop Nick and Nat from doing an impromptu donut challenge on the way home. Nat had been talking up his eating skills all week, but Nick gave him a good thrashing - 19:50 to 53:09 for the dozen. Still, they both deserve high praise for finishing - many donut-loving Bowdoin skiers of years past (including myself, 3 times) have tried and failed.
That same day, John, Colman, and Forrest raced the Stowe Derby. Forrest had bib 1, based on his second place finish last year. He was gunning for the win, but he got a bit too aggressive with a full tuck on one of the long straightaway downhills, and he ended up with a really painful crash that had him hobbling for the rest of the race. Colman posted an 8th place finish and was the 2nd college skier. John started with bib 211 and had to pass dozens of people on a thoroughly trashed course, but ended up 11th nonetheless. Results here, and photos here.
Walt was our other racer of the day - he competed at a citizen's race in the Sebago area and dominated, with future Bowdoin skier Spencer Eusden finishing 2nd.
Here are some photos of the Cheri Walsh, courtesy of Tom's brother James:
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