Maine Event 2019

It's been a beautiful fall, but yesterday was a throwback to last year - cold and rainy!  That didn't stop seven dauntless Bowdoin nordies from tackling the Maine Event agility challenge at Pineland.  After a smooth qualifying round, we were poised to crush the head-to-head heats.  Sadly, the cold and wet played havoc with the timing equipment, so instead we ended up throwing out the first round and doing a second individual round to determine the final standings.  Our folks held their own in a good strong field of college skiers and juniors - Christian took the men's win with a blazing run, while Greta tied for 2nd and Lily was right behind in 4th.  Greta's sister Elsa was in town for Family Weekend - she jumped into the race and won!  Pretty good day for the Bolinger family.  Overall a good solid dose of skill building and fun times.  Thanks to NENSA for putting this event together!

Fall Camp & More

We started up with official practices a couple weeks ago - so much going on!  Here's a quick recap:

First order of business was tryouts.  We started off gradually with some basic workouts and an agility test; Gabby led the women and Christian blew up the men's test - a real jump for a skier who started his college career as more of a distance/grinder type guy and is now looking like a pretty legit all-arounder.  After a little recovery/intro to pool running, we hit the second half of the week hard:  first a good batch of skate intervals where the group looked sharp and competitive, and then double fitness tests with the 2000m erg test in the morning and the Morse Mountain uphill run in the afternoon.  Zach set a new combined run/erg record, edging out the old standard set by Mac Groves '17 - pretty impressive showing for a first-year - while Gabby and Lily both broke Renae's team record.  Lily also shattered Hannah Miller '17's old erg record.  The whole group put up remarkable numbers - fitness-wise, this group is far ahead of any previous Bowdoin Nordic team.  Exciting way to start the season!

We kept the momentum going with a trip up to Carrabassett Valley for Fall Camp.  About half the team jumped into the Sugarloaf Uphill Climb while the others did a bounding workout up the mountain and cheered them on.  Again, they showed great fitness, this time against outside competition - Christian and Gabby were both second overall and Lily was fourth.  Zach and Meredith were the top juniors, and James was third for junior men.  After an evening recovery jog we settled in for a nice dinner orchestrated by Russell and some quality team time.

Next day was the iconic Bigelow Traverse - an 18-mile run/hike of the Bigelow Range.  The older skiers ran the entire 18 miles and five peaks; we played it safe with the younger skiers and sent them down Horns Pond Trail, cutting off Cranberry Peak.  We had some pretty tired folks that night, but not too tired to rally for a long classic roll on the Long Falls Dam Road - another ski team favorite.  By the time we got back to campus, everyone was exhausted but happy - great training, great team time, perfect weather, and some of the most gorgeous fall colors any of us had ever seen.  One other great thing about camp - we ran into lots of Bowdoin Nordic alumni!  James Crimp '13 and Tyler DeAngelis '15 raced the Uphill Climb, Jackson Bloch '15 was there coaching with Colby, and Tess Hamilton '16 crossed paths with us while leading an Outing Club trip in the Bigelows and later ran the traverse, met us at Long Falls Dam Road, and rode along with us while the team skied.  Thanks to Tess for several of these great photos.  Also, many thanks to our hosts, Ronn Gifford and Mary Denison, and Linda and Marty Kenniston, for providing us with comfortable lodging.  This camp would not have been possible without their help!

Since then, we've settled into our regular fall training routine, and we've been hitting up our favorite training venues, including our first beach skiing workout of the year.  A nice hard workout on a wide open beach under blue skies - couldn't ask for better fall training.  One more big week of training and then it's time for a well-earned rest!

Phil Soule Phlail 2019

Yesterday's 14th Annual Phil Soule Phlail 5k was a big success!  It was a fine fall day for a race, and over 100 runners and walkers turned out to honor Phil Soule's legacy and celebrate Homecoming.  Since we had a big group of skiers to work the race this year, for the first time ever some of our people were able to run, and a good time was had by all.  Bowdoin student John Auer '23 won the men's race in a blistering 16:24, and Anh Nguyen of South Portland was the women's winner in 22:49, closely followed by Bowdoin Nordic alum Rachel Zafren '18.  Stephen Lento was the top alumni lineman in 23:44.  We were thrilled to see a few others Bowdoin Nordic folks show up:  Brent Jepson '74, former captain Grace Hyndman '11, and former assistant coach Zach Stegeman.  Overall, a great day at the races.  Complete results here.

Now we're on to the season - tryouts start today!