UNH Carnival 2023

 Back to Jackson for the second time this month for the UNH Carnival!  Jackson is always a lovely venue - nice winding trails with some fun descents, very spectator friendly, and surrounded by beautiful mountains.  And it's even better when you're staying right across the street at a nice old school hotel, the Eagle Mountain House.  A couple days before the races, New England got a big snowstorm followed by some rain, so the course was covered with saturated snow when we arrived on Thursday.  It froze up overnight and groomed out nicely for Friday's 5k skate race - super fast and fun skiing, and the race was over in a flash.  Zach led the men in 19th, with Carson in 25th, Adam scoring a nice PR in 28th, and Ayden skiing a fantastic race to finish 35th.  The women put 5 in the top 30 - Aggie 16th, Jori 19th, Emma 20th, Morgan 24th, Kira 27th - with Ingrid in 34th and Grace M in 37th for emphasis.  Really impressive display of depth!

Things got interesting the next day for the 20k classic - a little flurry shortly before the race put us right on the edge between klister and hard wax.  We were pretty committed to klister by this point, so we kept plowing ahead and did what we could to keep the skis free.  After as much testing as we could manage, we scrambled to get the skis out on time for the men.  The lead pack broke up more quickly than last weekend, but Carson was able to hang on to a small chase group and finish 11th - only a stumble in the final sprint kept him from another top 10 finish.  Zach was a bit under the weather but managed a respectable 34th, and James came back from sickness for a gritty 39th place finish.  We tweaked the women's skis a bit and sent them off, hoping they'd be able to make them kick as the sun hit the course.  Jori skied an almost identical race to last weekend, jumping in with the lead group and hanging tough once things strung out to finish 11th.  The rest of our crew did an outstanding job of moving through the crowd - Emma scrapped up from a middle seed to work her way into 14th, with Morgan close behind in 19th.  Aggie kept calm and skied smoothly throughout the race for a personal best classic finish of 21st.  Kira got caught up in traffic in the first few kilometers, but showed impressive perseverance to work her way back to a great PR of 23rd.  Grace M was once again close to the elusive top 30 in 36th - another strong race in a remarkably consistent season so far.  Grace E was not far behind in 40th - a fearless performance from a tough young skier.  Just a crazy, chaotic, exhausting, and super fun day of racing.  Big thanks to volunteer assistant John Eldredge, who drove up to help us out with waxing - we never could have gotten all those skis ready in time without him!  Overall a really solid carnival that left us feeling confident and eager to get back after it.  We've got a bit of a break this week with no carnival - several of our skiers will be doing the Quarry Road Eastern Cup, but no overnight travel.  Should be a fun weekend!

Jan Camp 2023

 A slow start to winter made for an extra busy Jan Camp this year - lots of trips to Quarry Road!  After our first few practices of the new year, we headed to Jackson for our traditional training/racing weekend.  A little snow just in time left us with surprisingly good skiing after weeks of warm temps.  We were able to do a great mini-carnival with UNH and skiers from several other EISA teams - a fun 8.8k skate race on a little stash of snow high in the hills outside of town.  Really nice showing by our skiers - Emma 3rd for women, and the men put 3 in the top 5, with Carson 2nd, James 4th, and Ayden tied for 5th.  After a nice long adventure ski with some glade skiing and creek crossings, we headed back home.  Big thanks to Jackson XC for putting together amazing skiing in such tough conditions!

After a few more days of the Quarry Road grind, it was carnival time!  Bates Carnival got things started at Black Mountain, where they had just enough snow to put together a nice race loop.  Once again, some timely snow helped us out considerably, but not enough to allow for tracks, so we ended up with a double skate weekend.  Day 1 was a warm, wet and sloppy 7.5k skate.  Aggie led the way in 11th, with Carson in 17th.  Things cooled off and firmed up for the next day's 10k.  The women's team really hit their stride in this one, with Aggie scoring her first top-10 finish in 9th, Morgan setting a new personal best in 13th, and Jori finishing 15th.  Carson and Zach led the men in 25th and 26th, respectively.  Kira (31), James (33), and Grace M (34) nearly scored their first NCAA points.  The women were 3rd on the day, and the team finished 6th overall for nordic - a respectable start to the season for this young team.

Even by mid-January, snow was still scarce across the East, so it was back to Quarry Road for a few more sessions - although of course we'd rather be training at Pineland, we're so lucky to have this great facility right up the road!  Soon enough it was time to head to Vermont for the St. Mike's Carnival, which had been relocated to Rikert.  Rikert has always been a great venue for our team, and this carnival was no exception.  Friday's skate sprint saw 5 of our skiers qualify for the heats:  Aggie (15) and Jori (18) for women, and Carson (24), Adam (27) and Zach (30) for men.  The heats were super fun to watch - Aggie finished a strong 3rd in her heat to end the day in 14th, and Carson and Adam were right in the mix before settling for 5th and 6th, respectively, to end up in 24th and 29th.  Jori advanced by nearly winning her quarterfinal, and then fought hard in the semis before running out of gas to finish 6th and end her day with a remarkable 12th place finish.  Meanwhile, Zach fearlessly challenged USST skier Ben Ogden (just back from an outstanding finish in the Tour de Ski) in his quarterfinal - although he didn't win that battle, his tenacious skiing earned him a trip to the semis.  He was equally aggressive in the next round, and just missed advancing with a lucky loser spot.  He ended up with a career-best 7th place finish - the best sprint finish ever by a Bowdoin man.  Amazingly, the next day's 15k classic was even better.  Jori got out to a hot start and stayed close to the lead pack the whole race, earning an impressive 10th place finish.  Morgan finished 16th despite skiing the whole race alone, and Aggie (26) and Emma (27) earned top 30 finishes as well.  In the men's race, Zach and Carson went out hot, got in with the lead pack, and managed to stay close for the whole race to finish 8th and 9th, respectively.  This was one of the best displays of confident, courageous racing I've ever seen - neither of these guys had any reason besides self-belief to think they could hang with the lead group for even a small part of this race, but they went for it anyway and got richly rewarded.  I couldn't be more proud.  Adam completed our scoring with a determined effort, moving up from last place leaving the stadium to 30th.  As a team, we were 5th for the weekend, just 1 point behind Dartmouth in 4th.  A great way to close out Jan Camp and send us into the heart of the season with momentum.

Just like that, we're a third of the way through the carnival season!  The semester is underway, and things will get busy very soon, but for at least a few more days we're in a semi-calm period.  Hoping to take advantage of it to crush the UNH Carnival in Jackson!