Williams Carnival 2014

What a strange weekend!  The 2014 Williams Carnival almost wasn't, at least for the Bowdoin Nordic team.  With a big storm all across New England on Thursday, we made the difficult decision to stay on campus that night and drive all the way to VT the next morning before the race.  This meant an early wake-up and a long drive - with the leftovers from the storm still hanging around, it took us 5 1/2 hours to get to Prospect, with the last few miles being slightly hairy.  We arrived at the venue with 20 minutes to spare before the start of the women's relay - no time for a proper warmup, skiing the course, or much of anything else.  Amazingly, it all worked out.  Hannah Miller scrambled for the first team - she must have had some residual adrenaline going from the sketchy driving conditions, because she tagged off to Eva in fourth place.  Eva skied with great determination to keep the team in contention, persevering through a fall and tagging off to Kaitlynn in sixth, right behind fourth and fifth.  At this point, I thought we had a decent chance to snag fourth, but I was absolutely floored when Kaitlynn came flying out of the woods in third after a blistering anchor leg.  She held her position (and even gained a good amount on the Dartmouth team in second) to wrap up the first ever relay podium in Bowdoin Nordic history.  Absolutely stunning - I watched the whole thing in a daze, almost unable to process what I was seeing.  Such a great moment for our team.  The rest of the crew gave an equally great effort in the same challenging circumstances - the women's 2nd team kept battling and finished 17th, and the men were 12th.  A 12th place relay finish is pretty solid, and I'm really pleased with how this group skied, even if their performance was inevitably overshadowed by the women's heroics.

Saturday's classic race was another good one.  The snow kept falling - somehow the tracks were decently firm, but many of the uphills got chopped up pretty quickly nonetheless.  This, combined with the rolling topography of the course, made for a race with a lot of double pole and herringbone.  For some of our skiers, we made a strategic decision to wax thin and cold, in the hopes that fast skis would overcome any losses from marginal kick on the striding sections.  It worked out pretty well - Hannah Miller had a huge breakthrough for a career-best 8th, while Kaitlynn was just 15 seconds from the win in 2nd - best ever Bowdoin Nordic finish!  Hannah Marshall also had a great day, with a PR of 51st despite fighting a cold, and Jackson scored a classic PR of 37th.  The women were once again 3rd for the day (Olivia rounding out the scoring in 48th) to complete an incredible weekend.

Things got weird again on the drive home - after smooth sailing for a couple hours, the roads got really slick around Concord, and we made the decision to pull over and get a hotel for the night.  Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea - we snagged the last 2 rooms in a 20 mile radius, stuffed as many people into them as we could, and sent the rest up the road to Tess's house in Hopkinton, where the Helmboldt/Hamilton family welcomed their unexpected guests with incredible hospitality.  A surprise ending to a very unusual weekend.  Thanks so much to Krista and John for taking in the team!

I should also mention that Mac and Tess raced the NH Eastern Cups instead of the carnival last weekend, with Ruth driving over to serve as wax tech.  They were both solid in both races - although it looks like they're going to narrowly miss qualifying for JNs, they've made a good run at it, and hopefully they'll continue making progress for the rest of this year and next.

Here are some photos from Deb Miller:

And one more, courtesy of Chris Cannon: