Midd and EC Photos

Lots of great photos from last weekend, courtesy of Scott McGovern, Hannah Miller, and the Kenneys:

ECT at the Silver Fox Trot - Steph, Rainer, Mark, and James

James

Rainer

Mark

Maren

Kaitlynn

Hannah

Riley

Wilson

Scott

Grace

Emma

Chris

Wilson and Scott

Alec

Spencer

Middlebury and EC Wrap-up

Just a quick recap of much racing action from the weekend:

Friday's skate at Middlebury was a very good day for our team. We had weird weather - super warm, windy, and intermittent rain - almost winter thunderstorm weather. Our skiers weren't fazed, though, and we posted some great results, highlighted by the Eusden brothers' stellar skiing - 14th for Spencer and a personal-best 41st for Riley. Riley was crushing it - he looked like a whole different skier out there. Got to love first-years - they get better every week. Good skiing on the women's side as well. Hannah was burning it up for the first 5k - V2-ing up hills and holding her own against the top skiers in the 6th seed. She got tired and lost some ground on the last lap, but still a very competitive 30th place finish. Kaitlynn was just behind in 31st - a well-paced effort that saw her gain several places in the last couple kilometers. In the team scoring, the men beat UNH - this means that we've beaten every team except Dartmouth, UVM, and Williams in at least one event this year - gives us a clear goal for Regionals...

Saturday's sprint relay was a bit less successful. We were fired up for the races, and the skiers left everything out there, but we just couldn't hang in with most of the other teams. Not our day, for whatever reason. Lots of good fire, though - everyone was battling hard, and Grace in particular seemed to find another gear, which was fun to see. We also discovered that Sanville prefers to be "yelled at" in short races - this quickly devolved into derogatory comments about the Birkie and other Midwestern institutions, which was fun. Not our typical coaching approach, but it seemed to help him ski faster. Overall, a very fun day in spite of the results.

Meanwhile, the ECT spent the weekend in New Hampshire contesting the final 2 Eastern Cup races. The whole crew raced well all weekend - Steph and Rainer had fantastic skate races, and Mark got back into the action after a nasty illness that kept him sidelined for the past month. James was chasing a berth on the Junior National team - he qualified by crushing Sunday's classic race. New England has more depth than any other region in the country, so this was a great accomplishment. He'll be headed to Minnesota shortly after the end of the carnival season - we're excited to see how he fares!

Eastern Cup Results

Lots of photos to follow in a future post, thanks to the great crew of parents who supported the team at both events. Particular thanks to Patti and Gary Lynn for hosting the ECT in beautiful Bow, NH - this trip would have been hard to pull off without their help.

Dartmouth Carnival

Great skiing at Dartmouth last weekend. Thanks to this stellar winter we're having, there was plenty of snow at Oak Hill. With its winding trails, technical downhills, and challenging climbs, Oak Hill is always a fun place for a race. Good weather and solid performances for our team, including a huge race for Hannah in the 5k skate - her 24th place finish was her best of the season and 2nd best ever. We knew she was poised to break through soon, and she did. Emma had a great race as well, using her farm girl strength to power her way to a personal best 49th place finish in the 15k classic - great to see her coming back strong after a lingering illness over Winter Break. Alec skied very well in his first collegiate 20k, and Spencer finished just outside the top 20 on both days - probably his best all-around carnival ever. The weekend wasn't without some frustrations - the abrasive snow on Saturday caused a few people to lose their wax partway through the classic race, and James broke his boot midway through what was shaping up to be a great performance. Still, it was a very good weekend overall, and one that leaves me feeling like we're on track to have great finishes in the final two carnivals.

Much thanks to the many team parents who showed up with food and cheers. Thanks also to the long-lost alums who showed up on Saturday bearing donuts and helping with feeds: Matt Bowers '10, Elissa Rodman '10, and Jeremy Huckins '05. Great to see you guys again!

Here are a few photos from the indefatigable Kenney family:

Men and Beards

Here are some thoughts from Wilson about the men's team performance this season:

With so much talent departing from our senior class last year it looked like this season would be a wash. We lost our top two guys, and I'll admit I was pretty pessimistic about the Bowdoin men's chances for doing anything at all this season. But then December came in, and with it a glimmer of hope for the Bowdoin men - Rainer put down his razor and said enough was enough. Pretty soon Spencer and myself decided that we too were done accepting mediocrity. Unfortunately, most of our freshmen seemed to worry that this was some sort of prank or hazing ritual - and to make matters worse one of our top men thought that by going for broke he would ruin his chances with the ladies (he didn't have a chance as it was). Bowdoin, however, would not be undone. We got back to campus and started working like we've never worked before. I am pleased to say that a team which came in with almost no talent whatsoever rose to the occasion and put in some fairly respectable showings for the Bowdoin Nordic team's most important competition. Yes, I am talking about one of Bowdoin College's oldest traditions/competitions - the 214th annual Men's Nordic Team Beard Growing competition (The competition took several years off during WWI and WWII out of respect for the soldiers).

In the tradition of other great Bowdoin Beards like Matthew Bowers' interpretation of Ambrose Burnside's, Niko Kubota's 7 stray chin hairs, Nat Herz's single side burn, and countless other exhibits of pure Skill, Determination, Talent, and Hardwork I am pleased to announce the 2011 Nordic Beards:

UVM Carnival/Stowe Eastern Cup

Another good weekend at Trapps at the combined UVM Carnival/Eastern Cup. This was our best weekend so far as a team - good solid skiing by everyone. Friday's mass start 15/20k classic was highlighted by Kaitlynn's 19th place finish. The women beat Colby for the first time in years - I can't even guess when that last happened. The men were solid as well, with Spencer and Wilson in the top 30 and James just missing it by a lunge. Sub-par skis for a couple people kept a good day from becoming a great day, but even so this was our best ever classic showing at a carnival.

Saturday's skate was beautiful and sunny, with tons of Eastern Cup skiers joining the college crowd. Spencer led the way in 20th, following his usual pattern of picking up steam after a sluggish January. Wilson scored NCAA points for the 4th time in 5 qualifiers - he finished 29th, just 15 seconds from another top 20. Kaitlynn was our top woman in 34th with her best skate performance of the year. Hannah had a great half-race - at 2k she was just 15 seconds down to Erika Flowers of Dartmouth (who ended up finishing 4th) and she stayed on Erika's tail for another kilometer before an unfortunate stumble and face plant. This cost her a lot of time and momentum, and her result wasn't anything remarkable - still, her performance in those first 3k tells me that she's capable of skiing in the upper half of the field. With a little better luck in these next few races, she'll have some nice finishes.

Sunday's Eastern Cup also went well, although it was lightly attended by Bowdoin skiers due to illness. Grace, Alec, and Rainer all scored some of their best NENSA points ever.

EISA Results
Eastern Cup Results

Much thanks to the parents who came out to support the team this weekend. Deborah Miller hosted our team for a delicious dinner on Friday, with some help from the Lynn family, and several families were in attendance at the races with food and cheering. Here are some photos courtesy of Greg Askins and the Kenney family.





Astute alums will recognize John B. Hall '08 on the right - he and his family came out to cheer on the team on Saturday.

Saturday was also Hannah's 20th birthday.



We just found out that Dan has mono - what a bummer. After a nagging shoulder injury that cost him a lot of training and racing last year, he wasn't due for any more bad luck for a while, but he got it anyway. Here's hoping that he'll be able to make the most of these last few weeks and then have a huge season next year.