UNH Classic Sprint

Great day for our team here at the races in Jackson. The forecast was scary, calling for snow, ice pellets, and rain - turns out that this was exactly what we got. Somehow, though, the waxing didn't end up being as messy as the weather - it was a bit tricky, with the conditions steadily changing throughout the morning, but we were able to nail down a klister combination that worked pretty well for most people (a few ended up going on zeroes, which also worked reasonably well). Kaitlynn and Spencer led the way, qualifying in 19th and 29th, respectively. Several others had solid races as well - Nate was just a couple seconds from qualifying, and Shelby, Hannah, and Maren were not far off on the women's side. Maren had her best collegiate finish ever (47th for EISA), beating some really strong skiers.

The day got better in the heats. Spencer skied a strong quarterfinal, finishing a close 4th and improving his placing to 23rd (22nd EISA). Kaitlynn got off to a quick start in her quarterfinal, and pulled away from the pack with one other skier to advance comfortably. She drew a really strong heat in the semis and ended up 5th, leaving her in the B final. Once again, she got off to a quick start - a couple of other skiers broke away on the one big climb, but Kaitlynn led the rest of the group back into the stadium and held off a pair of hard-charging UNH skiers to lock up 3rd in the heat and 9th place overall. A fantastic day of racing - first top 10 by a Bowdoin woman since 2001! Remarkably, she was the top skier not from Dartmouth or UVM, which left us in good position in the team scoring. The women ended up tying Colby for 7th and finishing just ahead of Williams, which hasn't happened in years - at least not during my tenure at Bowdoin. So, a very good day for our team. Hopefully we'll carry some momentum into tomorrow, which should be a FUN day - a 15/20k mass start skate on a winding rollercoaster course. I almost wish I were racing tomorrow. Almost.

We capped off a good day with a great dinner courtesy of Ben and Anne Niles, who are hosting several of our boys for the weekend. Ben and Anne, along with Greg and Joanna Askins, also took great care of the team at the races, providing warm food and drinks on a wet and chilly day. Thanks to all of you for helping make today great!