Things settled down nicely for Saturday's skate - beautiful sunny day. The men settled nicely into various packs and then steadily moved up. James hung around in the middle of his pack (around 20th) for a while before deciding to go for it entering the final lap - he went to the front and skied strongly to stretch out the group, ending up in 14th - a great display of fitness. It was nice to see him ski aggressively in a mass start - not his usual tactic, but it was the right move for this race, and a good learning experience. Riley and Jackson weren't far behind - they did an excellent job of working together to help each other stick with their pack, finishing 28th and 30th, respectively. Putting all 3 of our scorers in the top 30 is something that we've almost never been able to accomplish, so this was a nice finish - the men earned an impressive 5th place team score for the race. The women followed up with a solid performance of their own. Kaitlynn and Hannah Miller ended up in the same pack. It became clear pretty quickly that Hannah had something extra - she was skiing with the fire in her eyes, inching closer to the front of the pack - at one point late in the race, she was in 10th, just a few seconds from 8th. As the pack broke apart, she dropped back a few spots, but still finished strongly, winning a sprint finish for 13th. It was a fantastic effort and a super fun race to watch - it made me wish that the season wasn't ending just yet so we could see what Hannah could do with a few more races. Kaitlynn was clearly tired and didn't have great skis, but she showed real determination and held on to finish 18th. Shelby also showed great mental focus - despite breaking a pole and drifting to the back of the pack early in the race, she was able to get herself back on track for perhaps her best race of the season. Overall, it was one of our best carnivals of the year - we finished 7th as a team, which is our best-ever finish at Regionals. Nice way to end the regular season!
We had great support from the parents, as always, including a pair of fantastic dinners from Meg and Laurie Groves. Thanks to all of the Bowdoin Nordic parents for their hard work taking care of our team this year!
The sad part of the weekend was the reality that our seniors have skied their last carnivals as members of the Bowdoin Ski Team. James, Kaitlynn, Riley, and Alec have been the backbone of our team for a long time now, and they were a crucial part of our success this year - they've done a fantastic job setting the tone and creating an atmosphere of hard work and fun on our team. It's hard to imagine next year's team without them - they will be missed.
Fortunately, it's not over just yet - although the carnivals are finished, there's still some racing to be done. James, Kaitlynn, and I are headed out to Utah soon for NCAAs, and Ruth is taking the rest of the crew up to Rangeley for what has become a team tradition, the Rangeley Lakes Loppet. No doubt people will be doing a few other races here and there over Spring Break as well. Keep an eye on the blog for updates!
Here are some photos from Deb Miller, and a couple from Peggy Brown:
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