Colby Carnival

All kinds of excitement at the Colby Carnival this weekend. First, the 5k race loop was cut down to a 3.3k loop to eliminate some challenging turns that some coaches felt were too sketchy. Next, the races were shortened to 10/10k due to the shorter loops. Then, a huge storm rolled in on Friday morning, and it snowed heavily before and throughout the classic race. Lastly and most importantly, we had some very good performances both days. The big highlights were a 13th for Kaitlynn and an 18th for Wilson in the classic race. Wilson skied smoothly throughout the race and basically just crushed it, even though he was the last carnival starter and was skiing alone for most of the race. Kaitlynn got off to a slow start, but was able to jump in behind one of UVM's top skiers halfway through the race, and she hung on all the way to the finish - a nice display of tenacity. To my knowledge, this was the best-ever finish for a Bowdoin Nordic first-year woman. It was great to see things come together for these two - the whole team gets energized by results like these.

Today's skate relay also went well. Our women's A team ended up a respectable 18th with the A team men in 10th, which is one of our better relay finishes ever. The men beat Middlebury for the first time since 2007 and ended up 6th in the team scoring. Overall, a solid step forward from last weekend. Lots of people who were flat in Lake Placid are starting to come around. Not everyone has found their top form yet, and consequently we're not quite where we want to be as a team, but we're making progress - lots of reason for optimism. Best of all, there's tons of snow at Pineland, cold temps in the forecast, and no racing until next Sunday. We're looking forward to some great skiing and productive training this week.

Results