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!
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