Ski Team Reunion - Date Change

For those who haven't heard, we're planning a ski team reunion for this summer. Unfortunately, we've had to change the date - it is now June 25th instead of June 11th. We'll have a barbecue from 5-8pm - it should be a fun chance to reconnect with old teammates and share stories and classic photos like this one:


Family members are welcome, of course, including parents - we'd love to have anyone who's a fan of Bowdoin Skiing in attendance. I'll be sending out registration info to alumni shortly - anyone who's not on the alumni list should contact me for more information. Also, Andy Shepard has started a Facebook page with photos and updates. Hope to see you there!

Jeff Bush - Pro Ski Racer

I got an email from Jeff Bush '10 last week, who's been out in Colorado working for an outdoor education program. I'm happy to report that not only has he stayed in touch with xc ski racing, he's winning cash money. Here's the story:

I've been very tempted by the dark side (telemark skiing) here in Colorado and not nordic skiing as much as I should have. However, I got motivated enough to do two races and train a tiny bit for them. This entails one threshold workout and three or four skis total, but it was better than nothing. The first race was the Leadville Loppet, where I entered the 22k. It was a great day for racing and I got off to a solid start, in the lead pack. I skied smart for the beginning and drafted a bunch of different master blasters. Then I would race ahead on the downhills and catch someone else. My tragic error came in the last 3k where I took a wrong turn and lost sight of the skier I was about to pass. I pulled myself together and managed to finish 5th (6th if you count the classic winner), which I was happy about - 1st place in my age group, too, although I was the only one. Other than the turn though it was a very strong performance for me - I skied smart, and even though I was racing at 10,000 ft I used my knowledge of the sport rather than fitness to gain an advantage.

The second race was even more fun - a 600m sprint down Harrison Ave, the main street in Leadville. It was a small event, organized by the HS coach. There were head to head sprints on the snow they trucked in and I got to race in my favorite discipline, the super short sprint. I generally am very modest and try very hard not to sound pompous or arrogant, but there really wasn't any competition for me; there is no other accurate way to describe it. I won every race without contention. It was a fun experience for me, though, because I have actually never won a ski race before, and I also won $50! Not bad for a retired college skier.

It's always fun to hear about alumni racing success. One of these years we'll have to organize an alumni race...

Sugarloaf Marathon

Alec, Riley and Walt raced the Sugarloaf Marathon on Saturday - all 3 of them turned in solid performances. Skiing in his first and only race of the season, Walt skied with the leaders for a long time, and actually made a big move to break away from the pack around 30k - only eventual winner Wyatt Fereday was able to stay with him. Sadly, he blew up spectacularly at 42k - although he struggled mightily to hold off the chase pack, they finally caught and passed him just a couple kilometers from the finish, and he ended up in 7th. Nonetheless, it was an impressive performance from a guy who's trained less than I have this year. Alec turned in yet another strong 50k effort, finishing just a couple minutes behind Walt in 8th - the way these last few weeks have gone, we might have to turn him into a marathon specialist. Riley wasn't far behind Alec in 10th. Congratulations to Alec and Riley for completing the Triple Crown of New England marathons: Rangely, Bretton Woods, and Sugarloaf. Three marathons in 3 weeks is a heroic feat, especially for a couple of first-years with no previous marathon experience. Very impressive accomplishment - well done guys!

Results

A Humble Poem

Steph has turned her poetic talents toward a summary of the ski season:

Kaitlynn and Erin asked for a season recap

So here is a bit of poetic slap

We met at Mac House in the early fall

At first, roller skiing on Maquoit was a haul

Mark joined the team on a whim

We were blessed by his rear, which is far from slim

Scrambling up Baldface in the rain

Together, we learned to usher in the pain

Morse Mountain was our first hard workout

Dinner on the beach was fun, without a doubt

Later, playing Taboo we learned who was smart

And in Reed House we saw the fires begin to start

The following week the season began

Nathan and Tim showed up to drive the van

Fall break in the Bigelows was the best

Sleeping in Tim’s Cabin, the boys had a bro-fest

Back on campus, we ran the Phlail

Felted rocks for prizes, what a fail!

Riley learned that practice required gloves

And, the Beatles impersonator taught him: “all you need is love”

The Lobster Roll at North Haven was hard for some

Frisbee initiation nearly killed the fun

Parents weekend came and went

Scott and Dan gave the team some supplement

Then, we headed to Canada for Thanksgiving break

Spencer and Wilson, much bread did they bake

The abroad contingent finally returned

The freshman’s love, Maren and Erin soon earned

The snow at Foret was a great start

In our video, I had the only speaking part

Our potluck holiday was a meal oversize

An enchilada dinner took the cooking prize

Finally, we arrived at the Christmas Holiday

What would begin were three weeks of play

But back on campus, Nordic beards were showing

Although, there were no girls, at our boys throwing

In January the carnival season did commence

Racing at Lake Placid was super intense

Chris treated us to a lecture about keeping the vans clean

Although, whose oatmeal bowl on the floor was then seen?

The course at Bond Brook made me want to die

In fact, when skiing the down hills I started to cry

Kaitlynn’s top fifteen outdid Wilson’s performance

As a result, a mullet briefly enhanced Tim’s appearance

On Saturday, Nathan taught us to ski with a beam

Thus, the Broomhall Cup went well for the team

Racing Vermont was hilly and hard

But dinner at Kaitlynn’s made it worth every yard

Carnie Crush weekend was certainly a success

Full of photographed skiers in varying states of undress

As if to provide the strength of our team an advertisement

James once again broke his equipment

For the New Hampshire races the boys stayed at my house

Timmy slept in the bed of his potential future spouse

The season wrapped up at Black Mountain in Rumford

Bowdoin was skiing so fast it was absurd

It was Grace's final race of the year

Next fall will not be the same without her, I fear

The season ended where is began

In Mac house we located our final plans

All told, this season has been absolutely insane

But Spring break is here, and I’m off to Spain

JNs Wrap-up and Bretton Woods

Junior Nationals is over, with New England taking a decisive victory. It's been a good week for James. Friday's 10k skate race wasn't his best, but he hung in for a respectable 33rd. In Saturday's 3x3k classic relay, he skied a very good scramble leg and put his team right in the mix with the 7th fastest split time (final team finish was 9th). Overall, a fun experience and a great way to cap off a very successful season.

Full Results

Meanwhile, a few of the boys headed over to Bretton Woods yesterday for another marathon. Alec appears to be some kind of closet marathon specialist - he had another great race, finishing 10th in a field filled with college skiers. Riley skied to a solid 16th place finish. Great work by both guys to complete their second marathon in 2 weekend. Spencer had intended to race, but he suffered a freak cheese-making accident last week that left him with stitches in one hand (this would only happen to Spencer), so he skied part of the 25k with no poles just for fun. It sounds like this same crew is headed to Sugarloaf next weekend for yet another marathon - they'll be up against Walt, who's making a big comeback with his first and only race of the season - should be fun to see how it goes.

50k Results

NCAA Races Live

NCAA Championships got underway yesterday with the 5/10k skate - tomorrow is the 15/20k classic. You can watch a live webcast of the races here. I caught most of yesterday's races - it was pretty exciting to watch the coverage side-by-side with the live timing. Tomorrow's races are mass start, so it should be even better.

JNs Update

Junior Nationals is well underway in Minneapolis. James has acquitted himself well so far - a respectable 23rd in the skate sprint on Monday, followed by a stellar 7th place finish in today's 15k classic (just missed 6th by a boot length - still need to work on lunges, I guess). Today's race was particularly impressive - he was right in the thick of a group of great skiers. I'm pretty sure that today's effort will earn him All-American status, although this information isn't out yet. For what it's worth, he was also faster than all of the J1s, some of whom are pretty nasty. The J1s and OJs had completely separate races, so it's hard to say how different conditions and tactics affected the times - in any case, it's clear that James is skiing at a really high level right now. Great work, James!

Results

Rangeley and the Last Day

Last Saturday saw a small but hardy crew make the journey up to Rangeley for what has become an end-of-season Bowdoin Nordic tradition: the Rangeley Lakes Loppet. Alec, Spencer, Wilson, Riley, Rainer, and Tim all raced the 50k. The day started out suprisingly cold and windy, but shortly after the start things began to warm up and the snow got decently fast. The pace was relaxed, to say the least, in the early kilometers, and several skiers stayed with the lead pack for a long time, including Spencer, Wilson, and Tim. Eventually, Tim went to the front and started pushing the pace a bit, which thinned things out somewhat, but there was still a group of 8 or 9 skiers on the train by the lap. Gradually, people started falling off the back, including Wilson and Tim, but Spencer stayed with the lead group. Finally, master skier Phil Lawson showed the youngsters who was boss, making a big move with about 8k to go and breaking up the pack on a series of hard climbs. I was sad to see Spencer get dropped, but on the other hand it's always good for the college boys to get an occasional reminder that the wily veterans can still get it done. Meanwhile, Tim used the hills to move up, and the two of them ended up skiing the last few kilometers with John Dixon from Colby. Fortunately, they both pulled away from John before the final sprint, when, unsurprisingly, Spencer outkicked Tim to lock up a respectable 5th place finish. It wasn't Spencer's best day, but it was a pretty impressive effort considering that he was fighting a bad cold and probably shouldn't have been racing (with carnivals over, he figured he might as well go for it). Wilson was not far behind, gutting out an 8th place finish that left him wrecked for the next couple days (seems like he was in the process of falling victim to the same thing Spencer had, but on steroids). Alec had the race of the day - he finished 11th in hist first-ever 50k. This was probably his best race of the season - he skied smoothly throughout the race and outlasted a number of good skiers. Riley ran a bit low on fuel, but hung in there to finish 19th, while Rainer battled his way to 49th - this was the first 50k for both of them as well. All told, a great effort by all of our guys, and a very fun and challenging day.

Results

With Rangeley in the books, we rallied for one final team practice on Sunday - a victory lap of sorts. After a nice easy ski, we finished with a great game of Polasky Ball - the team's PB skills have improved remarkably since camp, which was nice to see. And with that, our season is officially over. Lots more individual post-season racing is in the works for March, including James at JNs (reports to follow soon), but the 2010-11 edition of Bowdoin Nordic is now part of history.

Regionals Recap

Shamefully late, I know, but here's a recap of a fantastic weekend at Regionals:

Saturday morning (5/10k skate) was cold and windy, with a several inches of new snow on the ground from a storm earlier in the week - tough conditions for racing, but our team stayed focused and positive. They've done a great job of this for the last several weeks - one of the things I'm most proud of them for. Hannah came out strong again, finishing 30th. Times were incredibly tight - 8.4 seconds would have put her in 21st. Lots of fast skiers in that group just ahead of her - a good sign that she's skiing at a high level. She'll be on the right side of those battles next year. Kaitlynn was just a few seconds back in 36th, and Emma skied her best skate race of the year to finish 53rd. On the men's side, Spencer led with a 23rd place finish, followed by James in 30th, his first NCAA points after a few near misses. Times were again tight, with James just 50 seconds from the top 10. Scott rounded out the scoring with one of his best races of the season, finishing 38th. Spencer's finish put him ahead of Walt for the most top-30 finishes of any Bowdoin male skier in history. Here's a photo to commemorate the occasion, courtesy of Andy Shepard:


More fresh snow greeted us for Sunday's 15/20k classic. The final long mass start race of the year has generally been one of our best races, and this one was no exception. Spencer and James got themselves in good position out of the start and gradually started moving up as the race progressed. Entering the final lap, both of them looked like they were starting to fade, with Spencer trying to hang onto the top 20 and James just outside the top 30. Luckily, I was wrong - Spencer held it together and picked off another skier to finish 19th, and James found an inner reserve and blew past several skiers in the last few k to finish 25th. Riley quietly had a great race as well, moving up throughout the race and digging for a couple extra places in the final kilometers - he finished 42nd to close out an outstanding rookie season.

The women's race was equally exciting. In the early going, I saw a few slips and got really nervous, but the skiers pulled it together and got the skis working - they were fast on the downhills, with just enough kick for the climbs. Kaitlynn skied her usual calm, determined race, moving from the 20s into the teens. She finished 14th, ahead of several NCAA qualifiers and close behind a number of great skiers. She's so relaxed and patient in classic races that it's easy to take her results for granted, but this would be a mistake - her achievements have been remarkable this year, well beyond anything we've seen from a Bowdoin first-year woman. Hannah also had a great race, finishing 30th, a career-best for classic. It was a thrill to see her chase down a couple of Williams skiers in the last kilometer to secure a top-30 finish. Emma skied another excellent race, perhaps the best racing I've seen from her, finishing 50th as our 3rd scorer. The women also had their best team finish of the season - they beat Colby, tied Harvard, and were just 2 points behind St. Lawrence and Williams. It's exciting to be in contention with teams that have always been well ahead of us - a great sign of progress.

Overall, it was a great weekend - very satisfying to end the season at our best. I'm extremely proud of how everyone skied, especially in the classic race - the skiers were incredibly determined. I'm not normally one to play up the "pain and suffering" aspect of the sport, but it was impossible to not notice how hard our skiers were working on Sunday - they were absolutely destroying themselves as they fought for every second. If we bring this same focus and desire into next season, we have a lot to look forward to.

On a more sad note, Grace's college ski career came to an end last weekend. It's been a pleasure watching her develop as both an athlete and an individual over the past 4 years. She's been a fantastic captain this year and was largely responsible for turning our women into a super cohesive group. It'll be impossible to replace her leadership next year - we'll miss her dearly, and we'll look forward to seeing what the future holds for her.

And that's the end of our official college season. A few folks will do Rangeley this weekend, and James is headed to Minnesota for JNs. After that, everyone goes their own way for Spring Break and various other race opportunities. I'll keep the updates coming.