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!