Bates Carnival & Eastern Cup

The first carnival of 2016 is in the books, and it was a good one for Bowdoin Nordic!  Heavy rain early in the week wiped out the skiing almost everywhere around New England, including Black Mountain.  Fortunately, the good folks at Quarry Road agreed to host the race - they stepped up and made a TON of snow to cover a 1.5k race loop.  With a little fresh snow mid-week, conditions were pretty much perfect for Friday’s classic sprint.  The day started out well with people burning up the prelim – H. Miller (11^th), Sean (15^th), and Mac (29^th) all qualified for the heats, with Jake just missing in 38^th and H. Marshall posting her best race ever in 49^th.  Things got better in the heats, with both Sean and Hannah advancing past the quarters.  Sean made the semis with a great lunge at the line; although he was knocked out in the next round, he came back strong in the B final to lock up 10^th place – the best debut of any Bowdoin nordic skier ever! (at least in the EISA era).  Hannah was solidly in control in the quarters and semis, finishing second in both behind the top-seeded skier.  She ran out of gas in the finals but still hung on for a career-best 5^th place finish.  It was a fantastic start to the season and an exciting day that got the whole team fired up and feeling confident.

 That night, we stayed in Augusta due to a nasty storm in the forecast (kind of silly to stay in a hotel 40 minutes from campus, but there was nothing available in Waterville except a place described as “scary” – after getting caught in the middle of a drug bust outside our motel a couple years ago, we try to be choosy about our lodging these days).  The storm hit that night, and we woke up to find our vans encased in ice with a couple inches of fresh snow on the ground.  The snow kept coming down throughout the races, making for soft and silky smooth skating.  The temps were colder than originally forecast, and our wax call for the men was clearly too warm.  For a minute it looked like we were in trouble – fortunately, our salvation arrived in the form of James Crimp ’13, who braved the storm and drove over from Rockland to help wax.  James was a total hero and helped us blast through the ski prep – we couldn’t have gotten it done in time without him!

The races were almost as exciting as the lead-up.  Since the event was a combined carnival/Eastern Cup and also was held on a short loop, there were skiers coming and going constantly – lots of passing and being passed, and lots of opportunities to work with other skiers.  Our skiers battled hard and looked good – I was pretty happy with how the team skied.  Somehow, though, our results were only OK, which was a bit of a surprise.  Just a reminder that our league is really deep – a lot of good skiers showed up ready to ski fast on this day.  Jake had the race of the day – he skied with a ton of fire and posted a career-best carnival finish of 35^th.  H. Miller led the women in 19^th – she was obviously a bit tired after a very long sprint day, but she hung in there nicely and put in a great surge in the final kilometer.  Marshal also had a great race – he latched on to a Williams skier early in the race and skied on his tail for the rest of the race, staying smooth and relaxed the whole time.  It was great to see him skiing well after so many setbacks last season – hopefully the first of many good races this season.

As if the combined Eastern Cup/carnival wasn’t enough, the race also served as the Maine State Championship.  Colby dominated to bring home the Chummy Broomhall Cup for the first time in 4 or 5 years.  We finished 3^rd once again – one of these years we’ll win that cup!  Jake and Hannah earned All-State honors for their efforts – First Team for Hannah and Second Team for Jake. 

 One other highlight from the day – Kaitlynn showed up to race, fresh from her amazing performance at Nationals.  Not only was it great to catch up with her a bit, she also won the race and made it look easy – super controlled and powerful the whole time.

Even after such a long weekend, one skier hadn’t had enough – Sam decided to race in Sunday’s Eastern Cup classic race to score some points for JN qualifying.  He was seeded way in the back of the mass start, but managed to pass a ton of people to move up to 28^th by the finish in a very strong field.

Overall, it was an exhausting but successful weekend.  I’m more certain than ever that our team is ready to put up some great results this season – can’t wait to head back up to Quarry Road for the Colby Carnival this weekend!