Back with another update, because we post all the time here at Bowdoin Nordic. The Williams Carnival was super fun! Skiing on fresh natural snow at Prospect was such a treat. Getting there was a bit of an adventure for some of us - the late van ran into some weather in New Hampshire, and the roads got really bad really fast. We were part of a line of cars that got stuck going up a hill outside of Keene - it was pretty sketchy, so I decided to play it safe and get rooms at a hotel for the night. We drove the rest of the way to the venue the next morning - a bit of an inconvenience, but at least we weren't starting from campus like the Williams Carnival 10 years ago! Fortunately, Leslie was at Prospect early and had made good progress with testing by the time we showed up - she went straight to the old school kickers and found a great combination that gave us good skis for both races. The women were on fire, which seems to be the norm these days - Emma 4th, Morgan tied for 8th, and Jori just a second behind in 11th. Mirra (24) and Natalie (27) also grabbed top 30 finishes. Zach returned from a mid-season hiatus to post an outstanding 7th place finish, with Carson 16th and Adam 17th to tie his personal best. This race was particularly satisfying not only because half our team had been stuck in a snowstorm the night before, but also because we really showed off our double poling power in this one. All season long I've been convinced that our skiers have great upper body power, and this course had a lot of nice rolling terrain that allowed us to take full advantage of this.
Day 2 was everyone's favorite - relay day! Snow was falling, faces were glittered, and everything was just perfect. Jori got us off to a hot start by breaking away with a lead group of 4 - Mirra skied with them for the first few kilometers and finished her leg in 6th. What a treat to see her skiing so fearlessly these last few weeks, knowing that she belongs in a group of top college skiers! Morgan took over for our first team and kept us within striking distance of the podium, and Ingrid kept our second team ahead of all but one second teams and several of the first teams. Emma closed it out with a tremendous effort - she skied the second-fastest anchor leg to bring us in just 8 seconds from 3rd and 12 from 2nd. So close! Still a race to be proud of - one of the very best performances we've ever had. Natalie brought our second team in with an 8th place finish and 2nd among second teams. The men's race was equally exciting. Zach skied a brilliant opener, tagging off in 3rd just 5 seconds from the lead. Carson hung on for a good while before dropping back to 4th. Adam skied alone for most of the race before being edged out on the final climb and settling for 5th - again, a great performance and one of our best relay showings ever. For our second team, Will went out hot in an attempt to hang with the leaders. Although he wasn't able to maintain the pace, it was so great to see him skiing so aggressively - this is how breakthroughs happen. James and Silas both did great work to pick off places and bring the team into a respectable 15th place finish. Overall, a really fun day and a great team effort - such a joy for our skiers to be able to work toward a single goal together on race day. For the carnival, we ended up as the 5th nordic team - hard to believe that there were 4 teams better than us on a weekend where we skied so well, but that's a testament to how competitive EISA is this year. Fun times to be part of a league where everyone's pushing each other to get faster!
Speaking of fun times and getting faster, the past couple weeks have been incredible for North American skiing, with back to back World Cup weekends in Canmore and Minneapolis. Our own Renae Anderson '21 qualified for starts in both events! She skied 2 sprints and a distance race in Canmore and then came home to race another sprint at the legendary Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis. What a thrill to see one of our alums skiing in World Cup races - our first World Cup skier since Kaitlynn Miller '14! Check out Renae's blog for her thoughts on the whole experience. Lastly, congratulations to Bowdoin Nordic alum Claire Wilson '97! As the Executive Director of the Loppet Foundation, Claire was the lead organizer of the Minneapolis World Cup races - by all accounts this was an amazing event thanks to the incredible work of the Loppet Foundation and the entire Minnesota ski community. We're proud of you, Claire!
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