Well - that was exciting! We've had quite a busy time of it lately, with all kinds of championship action happening over the last few weeks. Here's a rundown:
Regionals (UNH Carnival): Jackson was looking pretty scratchy right up until the last minute - a few inches fell the night before the first race, setting us up for some beautiful skiing. Elliot went out strong with the leaders - although he fell off the pace after 10+k, he was well clear of the pack and cruised to 6th place. Adam fought through traffic to post a 32nd place finish, and Silas had a nice PR in 47th. Tough luck for Ayden - he broke a binding right out of the start, lost a minute or so before he got someone's super short training ski for a replacement, and battled for 10k before packing it in and saving himself for the next day. The women's race went out hot, with Renae and Aggie in a large lead pack. They hung in there beautifully until a little misfortune on the final lap - Aggie had a stumble, lost contact, and faded to 17th, while Renae had a pole break when another skier stepped on it, and she had to settle for 9th. Always tough to see a potentially great race taken down a notch, but still excellent skiing by these two - super exciting to see Aggie skiing with the top group for almost the whole race! Meanwhile, Morgan did her usual mass start thing, getting caught up in the pack off the start and then passing tons of people throughout the race to end with an outstanding 18th place finish. That night we had a wonderful dinner to honor our three amazing super seniors: Noah, Elliot, and Renae. It's been a great run with these three - they've brought so much to our team, both on and off skis. We'll say much more about them later - for now, a big thanks to all three of them for everything they've done for Bowdoin Nordic. Also, an equally big thanks to Angus Badger '89 and Rachel Vose '87 for hosting our dinner, and the Eckstein/Hamilton and Ketchel families for organizing a fun and special evening for our team!
Next day's classic was a solid if unspectacular affair. Elliot led the men in 7th, with a nice bounce-back race for Zach (16th) and another steady performance by Adam (32nd). Adam has been rock-solid all season, and it's been fun seeing him find a new level in the last couple carnivals. Renae went out super hot and fell off the pace a bit to finish a still solid 10th, with Aggie 22nd and Morgan 28th. Nice race by Ingrid in 35th - she really found her classic form in the final two carnivals, which bodes well for the future! As a team, we were 6th in the nordic scoring - not the big finish we were hoping for, but still a very respectable close to the carnival season.
Rangeley Loppet: Ok, not technically a championship, but still a very cool post-season event. Aggie won the 50k! This was the latest in a long tradition of Bowdoin Nordic winners at Rangeley. Hey, free bear. Props to retired skier Peter Moore for jumping into the race as well - although he didn't match Aggie's win, he's still a winner in our hearts.
Paralympic Games: The legendary Jake Adicoff '18 made a triumphant comeback this year on the world's biggest stage. Four years ago, Jake closed out his ski career with a silver medal in the Pyeongchang Games. To no one's surprise, he decided to make a run at the 2022 Games - after a year of hard training (including multiple medals in the delayed 2021 World Championships in Lillehammer a couple months ago), he was ready for Beijing. Guided by Harpswell native Sam Wood, Jake blazed through the 2022 Games to claim three medals: silver in the 20k classic and skate sprint, and gold in the mixed relay! It's been such a thrill to see Jake working his way back to top form over the past year after a few years away from elite skiing. Congratulations Jake - also to Sam and the whole US Paralympic Team!
Junior Nationals: Grace represented Team Mid-Atlantic (and Bowdoin) at Junior Nationals in Minneapolis last week. She gradually found her footing and got stronger as the week went on - 19th in the 5k skate, 14th in the classic sprint, and finally 7th in the 10k classic mass start to earn All-American honors! She closed out the week with a strong leg for the Mid-A mixed relay team. A great way to finish her first college season - congratulations Grace!
NCAA Championships: The big finish. Renae and Elliot qualified for the championships - four trips to NCAAs in four years of college skiing - remarkable! Thanks to favorable class schedules and flexible professors, we were able to fly out to Utah a few days early to get a head start on acclimating to altitude. The next few days were fairly low-key - schoolwork, rest, cooking, and just enough skiing to stay sharp. Our big highlight was a trip to Sundance after a mini-snowstorm to check out their gorgeous little trail system. It was pretty magical - aspens and high meadows with the mountains right up close, and fresh snow coating everything. Quote of the week: "This is the most beautiful place I've skied all year. Besides Wirth." Finally, it was time to race. The course was in fantastic shape for the 5/10k classic race - good coverage and nice firm tracks. After the usual frantic scrambling to get the skis ready, they were off. The races were an interesting contrast. Renae started out hot - really hot. As in, she posted the fastest split of anyone in the race at 1.1k! This turned out to be unsustainable - she gradually got tired and slowed a bit before really struggling through the final kilometer. She finished 29th. Elliot's race was basically a mirror image - he eased into the race, with the slowest split of anyone through the 1.9k mark. From there, he gradually picked it up and gained several places, but ultimately couldn't find his top gear and joined Renae in 29th place. Not what we were hoping for, but two respectable finishes - between the travel, the altitude, and the combined load of a season of racing and schoolwork, you never know exactly what you're going to get at a western NCAAs. And this field was easily the most stacked college field I've ever seen. By my count there were 7 Olympians between the two races: 5 from the US, 1 from Poland, and 1 from Estonia. And some of these skiers didn't even end up in the top 10! Most years we look at the NCAA winners and wonder if they'll go on to be successful at the international level - usually they don't. This year, the top NCAA skiers have already had significant international success. And then you've got a whole host of others who have been to U23s or World Juniors, and the usual assortment of high caliber Euro skiers. So this was a tough, tough field. Disappointing results are disappointing results, but context really does matter.
Two days later, we were back at it in the 15/20k skate race. We were lucky to have Wilson Dippo '12 drop by to help us with testing - what a luxury to have a third wax tech! Last time Wilson and I worked together was the 2014 NCAAs, also at Soldier Hollow, so it was nice to get the band back together. Elliot was up first - he was in perfect position in the middle of the pack for the first couple laps, but as things started to spread out he somehow got caught in no-man's land and skied most of the race totally alone. Tough way to get through 20k, especially at altitude! On the last lap, the group that had been chasing him finally started to close the gap - one of them got past him on the final climb, but he put in a heroic surge to stay ahead of the rest and hold onto 28th place. Again, not quite the result we were looking for, but he skied this race about as well as we could have asked - it was a great effort, and the best that he had in the tank on this particular day. A worthy ending to an absolutely fantastic college career! By the time Renae hit the snow, the sun was really beating down and it was HOT! We threw on the best warm topcoat and structure that we could find and sent her on her way. Like Elliot, she got herself into a good mid-pack position off the start. With a couple Olympians off the front, the field strung out, and she ended up in a large pack spanning the teens and low 20s. Gradually people fell off the back, and by the 10k mark she was in 13th. Coming off the big downhill and heading into the final lap, she used the draft perfectly to slingshot past a couple skiers and narrow the gap to 10th place. By the time I saw her again she'd moved into 10th and opened up a four or five second gap on the rest of her group. The next few minutes were pretty intense - there's no place more nerve-wracking in NCAA skiing than 10th position in the final lap of a mass start! Renae was hammering to get away, the pack was chasing hard, and everything was up in the air. Coming up the final climb, she pushed the V2 way up the hill, and I started to think she might actually pull it off. The gap stayed the same all the way to the top, her skis ran well on the descent, and by the time everyone started sprinting into the stadium she was too far ahead to catch - All-American! What a way to finish her career! Renae is now the second All-American in Bowdoin Nordic history - the other being Hannah Miller from 2017, of course. Elliot's and Renae's combined efforts jumped us into 16th place for the overall championship - our best-ever finish! A fitting end for two of the best skiers in Bowdoin Nordic history - we're incredibly proud of them both.
