UVM Carnival 2014

Very busy but successful weekend at the UVM Carnival.  As usual, the carnival was combined with an Eastern Cup - lots of racers and long days.  In Saturday's classic sprint, Kaitlynn (10th) and Hannah Miller (26th) qualified for the open heats.  Kaitlynn drew a really nasty quarterfinal heat, with Rosie Brennan (2nd place in the classic sprint at US Nationals) and UVM's Anja Gruber, the top classic skier in the league.  These 3 broke away quickly, with Kaitlynn looking super strong in the double pole.  Unfortunately, her skis were a bit light on kick - she lost some ground on the big climb, finishing the heat in 3rd and ending her day.  Hannah skied really well and was right in the mix, finishing 5th in her heat to move up a couple spots in the final standings.  For men, Mac had the race of the day - he was on fire.  After qualifying for the junior heats, he broke open his semifinal heat with a big surge on the climb to advance with a comfortable margin.  In the finals, he went big right from the start and put a small gap on the field, but a few of them caught back up - they battled to the finish, with Mac finishing a close 3rd.  Great showing for a young skier who's been overachieving all year.  The carnival results were based only on the qualifier - Kaitlynn was 5th, Hannah 19th, James 24th, and Mac 29th.  As a team, women were 5th and men were 10th.

Sunday's skate featured fresh, wet snow that quickly packed down to a hard and fast surface.  Times were super tight, especially in the women's 5k.  Kaitlynn finished 11th, with Hannah Miller close behind in 20th.  Eva and Tess both had strong races as well, finishing 37th and 39th, respectively, giving us a team finish of 7th.  On the men's side, James had a huge race - he caught a ride from a UVM skier halfway through the first lap and was able to hang on all the way to the end for a 6th place finish (5th place for NCAA skiers).  It was a determined effort and a super fun race to watch.  Jackson had our other big breakthrough for the day, finishing 23rd (20th NCAA) for his first-ever top 30 finish - a great race in any circumstance, but absolutely amazing for a skier coming back from a semester in Costa Rica.  Riley and Alec were close behind in 37th and 39th, respectively.  The men finished 5th - our best men's finish since 2008.  All in all, a very successful weekend for our team.

A lot of people showed us great hospitality last weekend.  Ruth's family invited the team over for a fantastic dinner on Friday night, and the parents teamed up for an equally delicious meal at the Miller house on Saturday.  We had a huge crowd of parents at the races, and they worked really hard to give the skiers a great post-race meal both days.  Thanks to everyone who took good care of the team these past few days.

The weekend was clouded by the tragedy at the Craftsbury Marathon, where Dartmouth skier Torin Tucker collapsed and passed away during the race.  It was a heartbreaking loss that left us all feeling shaken and grateful for the ones we love.  Our thoughts are with Torin's family and friends.