UNH Carnival 2017

Jackson was its usual gorgeous self for the UNH Carnival last weekend - I'm pretty sure they have more snow than anywhere in New England.  The course was in great shape despite a little rain on Thursday.  And we had an intriguing twist to this particular carnival - the University of Utah came all the way across the country to use these races as a course preview for NCAAs, so the competition was extra tough.  On Friday morning, we did the usual pre-race scrambling of a classic day - since it was a klister day, it was a little extra frantic, and the gusts of wind that blew over our tent didn't help.  But everyone stayed pretty calm and got to the line on time.  Orion was our first starter - he looked like a mini Kris Freeman as he came ripping across the field and into the woods, and I knew it was going to be a good day.  All of the guys were gunning it, but also keeping technique together nicely - the best classic skiing I've ever seen from this group.  It showed up in the results - Mac 22nd, Sean 23rd, and Orion 27th, with the others not far behind.  It's even more impressive considering that there were 4 Utah skiers ahead of them.

The women had a tough act to follow, but they skied great as well - Hannah was back on track in 12th, with Lily 39th and Fiona 56th (also with 4 Utah skiers near the top of the field).  This was a big step forward for the women's team.  They beat some good teams and were close to a few others - an encouraging indication that this young group is getting stronger every week.

One last highlight from the day:  former Bowdoin Nordic and USST coach Marty Hall was there to watch the races.  It was great to catch up with one of the legends of US skiing - good to see that Marty's passion for ski racing is as strong as ever.

That evening, we celebrated our fine races with our new Jackson tradition of Thai takeout, along with a skier-led revamp of our team Instagram account.

Shortly after the skiers had finished waxing up their warm skate skis and gone to bed, dry sharp snow started falling heavily.  Oops - someone didn't check the forecast carefully enough... I was a bit stressed the next morning, but the new snow mixed nicely with the old stuff and the temps warmed quickly, so we ended up right in the zone for warm skis.  We got a bit behind with topcoating the skis, but fortunately H. Marshall and Cirque showed up to help and saved the day.

The men's mass start was fairly clean.  All of our skiers settled into a solid mid-pack position.  At first they were all spread throughout the pack, but as the race went on our top skiers came closer and closer together, until they all finished in mad scramble just a few seconds apart:  Mac 26th, Sean 28th, Sam 30th, Jake 35th, and Christian 39th.  A great day, particularly for Sam - his first top 30 finish ever after years of hard work. We're four races into the carnival season and the men have put all 3 scorers in the top 30 in 3 of them.  We've never had that kind of depth before, and it's super exciting to see all these guys pushing each other to new heights.

The women's race was equally exciting.  Hannah eased into the race cautiously, starting around 30th and moving up gradually.  By the end of the first lap she was on the edge of the top 20, and heading into the last lap she was in the mid teens.  After a frantic last few kilometers she ended up in 15th, nearly chasing down the 13th and 14th place skiers in the final sprint.  Ellie had a nice finishing surge as well, making a great power move over the last little rise to pick up one more place and finish 45th, and Lily rounded out our scoring in 54th.

Overall, this was a very successful carnival - the team as a whole skied as well as I've seen from us in years.  I can't wait to see what we can do in these next 4 weeks!  Many thanks to all the parents who came out to cheer us, set out food, and lug heavy stuff up and down the hill to the stadium.  Particular thanks to Orion, Doug Hands, and Steve Fuller at Flying Point Road for the great photos!