St. Mike's Carnival 2022

Wow that was cold!  Absolutely frigid temperatures at the St. Michael's Carnival last weekend.  It wasn't so much that the daytime temps were cold, although they were.  It was more that the overnight lows were absolutely arctic, and it took the better part of each day to warm up.  Fortunately, there was no wind this weekend - the jury moved the races to the warmest part of the day and everything was just fine.  But cold.

The Sleepy Hollow course is rolling, with a lot of gradual up and down and not a ton of steep climbs or technical descents - good fun skiing that really rewards people who know how to work transitions, preserve momentum, and ride a gliding ski.  In short, this was a great course for Elliot to get his mojo back.  He skied a smooth, strong race to finish 8th in the 10k skate, with Zach also stepping up his game in 25th and Carson finishing 30th to score his first ever NCAA points.  This seemed to be the theme of the day, with Ellie (27th) and Ingrid (30th) posting their first top 30 finishes as well.  Aggie led the women in 17th, with Renae right behind in 18th.  All 6 of our women finished in the top 35 - excellent depth, and so close to NCAA points for everyone!  Both teams were 5th on the day.

Next day was a 5k classic.  This one was less about gliding and more about double poling - just a pure power race from start to finish.  I was a bit worried about how our men would handle this - we've always been more of a grind-it-out team who thrives on endurance/fitness based skiing.  But this turned out to be a great day for them - their best race of the season so far!  Elliot continued his strong weekend in 9th, with Zach posting an outstanding personal best in 16th and Carson with a solid 32nd.  Fourth place as a team!  Renae bounced back to lead the women in 7th, with Aggie 22nd and Ellie 29th.  Sixth as a team, just a few points out of 3rd.  For the full weekend, we were 5th overall in the nordic scoring.  I continue to be impressed by how well our young skiers are performing in their first collegiate season together.  After graduating so many amazing skiers in the past few years, I was keeping my expectations tempered, but this group is quickly exceeding my highest hopes.  Can't wait to see what they can do in the coming weeks!

The Bowdoin Nordic parents also deserve a special shout-out for this carnival.  Our team parents are always amazing, and this weekend they really went above and beyond.  They were so incredibly kind and thoughtful about taking care of our shivering athletes after the races - I can't even imagine how cold they must have been standing around the food table.  We can't thank you all enough!

Chummy Cup next weekend - the Maine State Championship!  Time to defend our title - can we make it three in a row?  It's going to be tough - Maine college skiing is looking pretty stout these days.  For the first time ever, we'll contest the Chummy at Sugarloaf, hosted by the University of Maine-Farmington.  Change is good and different venues are fun - can't wait!

Colby Carnival 2022

 At last - our first carnival!  It's been a long wait, and everyone's been through a lot in the past couple years, so this Colby Carnival felt really good.  The folks at Quarry Road had the course in amazing shape as always - a 2.5k loop with tough climbs, technical downhills, and a nice wide open stadium area.  On Day 1 we made history with the first ever EISA women's 20k - fantastic!  Several of us coaches have been pushing for equal distances for the last couple years, so it was extra rewarding to see everyone racing the longest distance in college skiing.  The women's race went out hot, as usual - the exciting thing was that Renae was the one in the lead coming out of the stadium.  For the next 18k she was in and out of the lead - she kept pushing the pace, and although the lead pack left most of the field behind, there were 5 others she couldn't quite shake.  On the final lap they slipped past her, and she crossed the line in 6th, just 10 seconds from the win.  It was a fantastic effort and a great learning experience.  Meanwhile, our newcomers were thriving in their first ever collegiate races.  Aggie stayed within sight of the leaders for much of the race, despite a long stretch of skiing by herself - she paced it beautifully and picked up a few places in the final kilometers to finish 11th.  Morgan took a more extreme version of this strategy, going from 60th place after her first lap to 15th at the finish - just an amazing display of fitness and determination.  Ingrid (33) and Ellie (37) were not far from the top 30, and Mia finished 53rd.  Just a really impressive showing by the whole team.  They were rewarded with a 3rd place team finish - right up there with the best performances in Bowdoin Nordic history.

On the men's side, Elliot skied smoothly but couldn't quite match the pace of the lead group.  Like Aggie, he skied by himself for a long time - absolutely brutal in a race of this length when most others are working in packs.  He ended up with a respectable 14th - a good step forward in his comeback from a shoulder injury.  Carson skied a well-paced race, moving up several places and edging Zach in the final sprint - the two of them finished 32nd and 33rd, respectively.  Adam (39) and Silas (51) also acquitted themselves well in their first EISA races - really an impressive showing by all of our newcomers.  The men were 7th on the day - a decent finish, and one that we'll hope to better as we ease our way into the season.

On Day 2 - actually, there was no Day 2.  Cold temps and high winds led to the cancellation of the classic race, much to everyone's disappointment.  It was pretty sad to lose half a carnival after waiting so long for the season to start, but we've got lots more good stuff to come.  And as a consolation prize, we did a great little time trial with Colby the next day when the winds had died down.  Overall, a fine start to our season.  Many thanks to the parents who showed up to support our team - check out these photos courtesy of Tom Bartol.  Also, thanks to alumni parent Jim Ahearne, who counted a LOT of laps to keep our skiers on track during the 20k.  St. Michael's Carnival in VT up next - can't wait!

Jackson Camp

 Jan Camp is rolling along.  We just wrapped up our traditional mini-camp in Jackson, NH - 3 1/2 days of great training at one of our favorite venues.  For our first afternoon, we did a nice easy ski at Prospect Farm - remarkably good snow considering the tough weather throughout the East last week.  Snow fell the next morning - just in time to freshen up the course for a little 5k classic time trial.  Classic racing opportunities have been minimal so far, so this was an important chance to get into classic race mode and preview the Regionals course.  Next day was the big show - a 10k mass start skate with skiers from several other EISA teams.  UNH, Bates, Colby, SLU, St. Mike's, and Dartmouth were all represented - not a bad little field to prep for the season!  Elliot and Zach skied with the top group in a closely contested men's race, finishing 5th and 10th.  Aggie went off the front of the women's race for a solid win, with Ingrid in 4th place.  Overall a really productive effort by the team - just what we needed to sharpen up for the real thing next weekend.  Big thanks to UNH for organizing, and Jackson XC for hosting!

In between all these ski sessions, we did our usual team stuff - hanging out in the Eagle Mountain house, Thai takeout, and our first round of Maine vs World challenges.  Luke led Team Maine to victory in the memory challenge, while Team Central dominated Name That Tune.  The overall competition will only heat up as several members of Team West make their way back to campus in the next couple days.

We closed out the trip with a nice long classic cruise up the Hall Trail to Maple Mountain, where my 26-year-old Rossis met their end going over some fun little dips on an ungroomed trail.  Ah well - all good things must end.  Great camp, and great team energy heading into the last few days before our first carnival!

Meanwhile, several of our skiers were out in Utah - Renae, Morgan, Carson, and Mia all competed in some or all of the Senior Nationals races.  Good solid showing by all of our people.  Carson made the junior heats in the skate sprint, while Renae was the top EISA skier in both distance races and finished 16th in the classic sprint - fantastic!  Great quality race experience for all four of them.

Now we're just a few days away from the Colby Carnival.  It's been a long, long time since our last carnival - hard to believe this is actually going to happen!  We're knocking on wood, doing everything we can to stay healthy, and getting ourselves in race mode as the big day draws nearer.  Can't wait!

Happy New Year!

 Happy 2022!  Now that we're on the verge of another carnival season, I should probably catch up our loyal fans on what we've been doing these last couple months.  Here are a few highlights:

- After much agonizing about our Fall Camp venue, we settled on a split camp - 4 days at Craftsbury, 5 days at Lake Placid.  It was pretty sad to give up on Foret - first ever Thanksgiving Camp at a different venue!  But there was just too much uncertainty with Quebec, especially with the border crossing situation.  Fortunately, our split worked out beautifully.  Craftsbury had a great little 800m loop with a nice mix of terrain for all types of technique work.  Lots of other skiers there, but somehow it never felt too crowded for productive skiing.  The food at the Outdoor Center was great and spirits were high.

- Next stop was Lake Placid with a similarly sized loop comprised mainly of a long grinding climb and a nice fast descent.  This felt a bit more like our traditional camp, since we were living in a couple rental houses and cooking our own food.  After a few days of quality training and foosball, we did our first on-snow race of the year - a 6k time trial with a few other college teams:  UVM, Bates, and SLU.  So great to get the season started with a race against college competition!  Renae led our women with Aggie close behind, and Zach and Elliot did the same for men.  With snow falling throughout the time trial, we were set up for a couple beautiful days of exploration around the Mt Van Hoevenburg system - such a nice way to close out the camp.  Nine good days of training, technique work, and team time - a really successful camp.

- As usual, we came back to no snow and short days - tough training in December!  Fortunately, Quarry Road had a great loop open, and we were able to do a the Quarry Road Opener with Colby, UNH, Bates, and a several other skiers.  Zach and Renae again led the team, with several others posting strong results, most notably Ingrid and Luke.

- A semester-long project for our women's team has been upper body power development.  We measured our progress with another round of our 2000m erg test.  Results were impressive, with some huge PRs.  Every single skier beat her previous best time, and Morgan set a new team record in 8:05.  The energy was fantastic - really encouraging to see not just the fast times but also the excitement and encouragement.

- After a typically hectic exam period, people took off for home and holidays and a much-needed break.  Most of the country has limited snow, but from what I've heard everyone's found ways to make it work and get quality training (most notably Ayden crushing a 400m loop at Weston).  Now we're coming back together for Jan Camp - got a small group on campus and we're headed to Jackson today to meet up with most of the rest for a long training weekend and a mini preview of the UNH Carnival.  Meanwhile, US Nationals are well underway - we've got a few people competing there as well.  Look for a report on all this fun stuff next week!