February Catch-up

Ok, three carnivals just flew by – lots to catch up on!  Here’s a quick rundown of the highlights:

UVM:  This was a combined SuperTour/Eastern Cup event at Craftsbury – always exciting and slightly chaotic with the big fields.  Leslie had to run the show by herself since I picked a fine time to go down with COVID – fortunately, she was ably assisted by our volunteer wax tech Peter Moore.  A ton of snow fell before and during the sprint race, and it was another soft and sloppy day.  Leslie and Peter did a LOT of testing – nice to have a youngster around to put in those kilometers finding the fastest wax!  The skiers paid them back with some strong performances – Renae and Elliot qualified for the open heats (no small accomplishment in a SuperTour) and Aggie and Carson qualified for junior heats.  No one advanced out of their heats, but all of them were right in the mix.  Renae ended the day in 6^th for EISA skiers, with Aggie 18^th and Morgan 39^th.  For the men, Elliot in 8^th, Zach in 22^nd, and Carson in 26^th accounted for the scoring.  Adam (31^st) and Luke (58^th) scored nice personal bests, and Noah found some positive energy in 56^th.  Things got a bit tricky the next day in classic – lots of cold, fresh snow that was acting warm, probably due to the wet transformed stuff underneath.  Renae led the way in 12^th, and Morgan had one of her best races of the season in 28^th.  Things stabilized a bit for the men, and they really nailed it – Elliot 6^th, Carson 21^st, Zach 22^nd, and a personal best for James in 46^th.  Fifth place overall for the team.  Big thanks to Leslie and Peter for their incredibly hard work this weekend – they put in a ton of time with testing, waxing, and driving, and they did a fantastic job making this carnival happen.  It was a nice reminder that the team does just fine without me there – might have to take a carnival off more often!

Dartmouth:  Warm temps greeted us at Oak Hill.  The classic race was one of those days that starts out cool and just keeps warming, with the sun blasting exposed parts of the course but leaving others untouched.  The snow wasn’t fully transformed to start, and we ended up chasing a lot of different possibilities.  We had a wide range of ski outcomes, from great to non-amazing, but the skiers made them work pretty well.  Elliot (5^th) and Zach (20^th) continued their steady progression to lead the men, with Renae (8^th) and Morgan (30^th) leading the women.  This was a tough waxing day, and we would have crashed and burned without tremendous help from John, who did his usual excellent work with the klister iron.  That night, the team had a great dinner at the Miller house, where the women were staying – huge thanks to Alison, Eric, and Kirsten for taking such good care of the team and making the whole weekend a better experience for all of us!  Next day’s skate race was even warmer than the classic – just a beautiful day.  Slushy snow made for a slow grind – although the men looked strong, the results didn’t match the eye test.  Elliot was 13^th, and Zach sneaked into the points in 30^th.  Fortunately, the women got both – they looked amazing, and the results were excellent as well.  Renae was 7^th, Aggie 17^th, Morgan 28^th, and Ellie 34^th, helping us continue our streak of 5^th place team finishes.  The carnival ended with some Carni Crush nonsense that everyone assured me was tasteful and appropriate.

Middlebury:  Dramatic weather shifts made the Midd Carnival interesting – super warm temps the day before, a ton of rain that night, and then a quick temperature drop in the early morning hours.  The races were pushed back to afternoon to let things stabilize and give the crew a chance to put the course back together.  They did an amazing job, and we ended up with excellent skiing.  The team responded with their best classic performance of the year.  The whole women’s team was brilliant, led by Renae in 6^th.  Grace and Ingrid scored classic PRs in 36^th and 37^th, respectively.  Ellie had 3 crashes that took her out of contention for a good result, but she skied like an absolute superstar nonetheless – a great display of resilience and perseverance.  Not to be outdone, the men absolutely crushed it, with Elliot scoring our first podium of the year in 3^rd.  Rikert seems to activate some kind of superpower for Elliot – he’s finished on the podium in the Midd Carnival classic race in 3 out of his 4 years.  Zach followed the lead with a personal-best 15^th, Carson completed the scoring in 27^th, and James tied his PR in 46^th.  The next morning, snow started falling and continued throughout the skate race, making for a soft surface and slowing things down just a touch.  Renae went out with the lead group and spent a lot of the race at or near the front.  They got well clear of the field, but the pack stayed together until the final downhill, and she ended up at the back of the group in 5^th, just 4 seconds from 2^nd.  It’s always a bummer to come out on the wrong end of the close finish, but this was an excellent race nonetheless – one step closer to being able to close the deal next time.  For her consistent performances, Renae was named EISA Skier of the Week!  Aggie skied most of the race alone and showed great toughness to grind it out in difficult circumstances, finishing 16^th.  Morgan had different circumstances but similar toughness, recovering from an early crash and a broken pole to fight her way back to 24^th.  And Grace skied a nice, steady race, moving up through the pack to end in 36^th.  The men followed up with another good showing – Elliot missed the lead pack, but looked super smooth and strong skiing alone in 6^th and gradually moving up to 5^th by the finish.  Zach posted his best skate finish ever in 20^th, and Adam finally achieved that elusive top 30 finish with a brilliant late race charge to end in 30^th, with Carson close behind in 31^st.  As a team, we finally climbed up into the 4^th spot for the overall nordic scoring.  This was undoubtedly our best carnival of the season – just a really great showing that leaves us with great momentum coming into Regionals.  Big finish coming up at Jackson, right back where we started the year in Jan Camp.  Can’t wait!

Broomhall Cup 2022

Against all odds, the 2022 Maine State Championship race happened!  For a while it looked like it wouldn't - a blizzard hit Maine last Saturday, and lots of weather related confusion necessitated first a date change (Saturday to Sunday) and then a venue change (Sugarloaf to Quarry Road) at the last minute.  By Sunday morning, the storm was over, the sun was shining, and there was A LOT of fresh snow on the ground.  I mean A LOT.  This was the kind of race where the snow was so soft that you'd just sink in and flounder if you tried to kick hard, and the hills got chopped up into a sloppy mess right away - challenging conditions that required a balance of fitness and finesse.  The women's race quickly narrowed down to a three-person battle between Renae, Aggie, and Erin Bianco of Colby.  They skied together and traded off the lead for the first 8k before Aggie made a decisive move heading into a series of big climbs.  She was skiing super efficiently - sliding her ski up the hill for quick, subtle kicks - and she was able to pull away from the others in the final minutes to take home the individual championship.  Renae hung on for 3rd - her 4th podium in 4 years of Chummy Cup racing!  Meanwhile, the rest of our skiers were battling it out with the other Colby and Bates skiers, with Ellie emerging as our third scorer in 8th place.  We finished the women's race just one point behind Colby, so everything was riding on the men's race.

The men's race was pretty much the opposite - we had the usual frantic start with a big crowd racing together, but after 2k order had been restored, and Elliot had a commanding lead.  Like Aggie, he was skiing beautifully - just effortlessly floating up the hills while most others were sinking and slipping.  He steadily pulled away from the group, cruising up the last few hills with a big smile on his face.  The only drama came with about 1k to go, when he caught a ski in the powder at the bottom on the final downhill and went completely off the trail.  From where I was standing, it looks like a pretty great fall - kind of a barrel roll into a ditch full of deep snow.  It seemed like forever before he got back on course - maybe a minute?  This would have been a disaster under almost any other circumstance, but in this case it was just a minor scare that was more funny than anything else.  He skied it in with no further setbacks to claim his second state title - a great finish to a Chummy career in which he never finished worse than 2nd.  While Elliot was cruising, some good races were going on behind him.  The Bates guys skied like heroes, taking 4 of the next 5 spots to finish as the top scoring men's team.  On our side, Adam paced his race nicely and moved up to 13th, with Zach rounding out our scoring right behind in 14th despite a disintegrating boot.  In the end, our best efforts weren't enough to keep the cup at Bowdoin - Colby was rewarded for their excellent depth in both races with a fine team win, and we finished a close second.  Next year!  Nonetheless, it was a super fun day that felt extra special after the long wait, and also because it almost didn't happen - it was pretty cool to see all three teams rally for a last-minute switch and get fired up for the race despite not having the usual trappings of an important event.  Big thanks to Colby and Quarry Road for stepping up to host at the eleventh hour - we're super lucky to have this great venue as a resource for Maine skiing!  We were also fortunate to have great waxing help at this race - volunteer assistant John Eldredge, Noah, and former Bowdoin skier Peter Moore all stepped up to help Leslie get the kick dialed in.  And as always, many thanks to the parents who braved the post-blizzard roads to cheer on the team.  Now the team is off to Craftsbury for the UVM Carnival/SuperTour - more snow coming up, so all those soft snow skills will come in handy again!