Bates Carnival 2020

Back-to-back carnivals in Maine - great stuff!  Back-to-back third place finishes - even better!  The Bates Carnival started off with some exciting weather - mixed precipitation for the drive up that kept things interesting.  Luckily we had a beautiful house to relax in, thanks to some generous friends of Leslie's, Ann and Peter LeBourdais.  This place was an amazing ski house - tons of space plus a sauna and an indoor basketball hoop - very Bowdoin Nordic.  After a restful night, we woke up to find that the snow/rain was now coming down as ice.  This left the course with a lot of fresh snow mixed with loose ice pellets - perfect for classic waxing.  It was one of those days where every team came up with a different solution - hard wax, klister, or some combination of the two.  We opted for klister, with everyone giving different feedback and getting different adjustments - pure chaos, which we barely managed with much help from our new ace wax tech Rachel.  Gabby and Renae jumped in with the lead pack and stayed there for most of the race until things splintered in the final kilometers.  Gabby ended up 7th and Renae 9th, with Lily completing the scoring in 32nd and Tri grabbing a PR in 43rd.  The men's race played out quite different from usual, with the top 2 guys breaking away early and the rest of the group fragmenting into smaller packs.  Christian and Elliot went back and forth with a chase pack, with Christian ending up with a career-best 6th.  Elliot finished 9th and Peter 21st.  The women were 3rd on the day, with the men in 4th.  That night we enjoyed a great dinner hosted by a big crew of parents, led by Bobbie Gostout.

Next morning was cold and sunny and perfect for ski racing.  This was another combined carnival/Eastern Cup, so there was a big crowd on hand and tons of energy.  We ripped through a bunch of testing with help from Rachel, Noah, and long-lost alumna Ellie Hands '18 and got the skis out with plenty of time to get out on course and cheer.  The women put 3 in the top 20 - Renae 16th, Lily tying her skate PR in 18th, and Gabby 20th - for a solid 5th place finish.  The men must have gotten fired up from indoor basketball or something, because they laid down the most complete team performance I've ever seen from Bowdoin Nordic - seven men in the top 30!  Elliot 8th, Peter with a breakout race in 10th, Christian 12th, Cirque 19th (a PR), Russell 24th, Zach 28th, and Ayden 29th - plus James scored a big PR in 50th.  I have no idea what got into them, but this was so so much fun to watch - I don't know if I've ever seen the whole team so happy after a race.  The men were 2nd on the day to lock up an overall nordic finish of 3rd for the second straight week - fantastic!

The weekend wasn't over yet, though - we had some bonus racing on Sunday with Luke and Orion in the Eastern Cup classic sprint.  Leslie nailed the wax and the boys nailed the qualifier, with Orion 5th and Luke 21st.  Luke finished a close 5th in his quarterfinal to end the day 21st; Orion won his quarter and then settled for 5th in the semis to end in 9th for the day - a great showing and fun time for both of them.  A fine ending to another great weekend.  Many thanks to Ann and Peter for hosting us, to the parents for feeding us, and to Rachel, Ellie, and Noah for helping us get fast skis.  Can't wait for next weekend!