The St. Lawrence Carnival was worth the drive - what a special weekend for our team! Luckily for us, this carnival took place during Winter Break, so we were able to leave earlier in the day and roll into Lake Placid at a reasonable hour. The next morning, the venue was in perfect shape for a 20k mass start skate - plenty of snow and nice wide, well-groomed trails. Our day got off to an exciting start with the women's race - Emma jumped in with the lead group, with Jori close behind. The field strung out pretty quickly on the long climbs that Mt. Van Hoevenburg is famous for, but there was still a surprisingly large pack skiing together at the end of the first lap. Somewhere on the second lap, Ava Thurston of Dartmouth broke away, with Emma in a small chase pack a few seconds back. By the 15k mark, Emma had bridged the gap, and on the first long climb she took the lead. For the rest of the race she stayed just barely ahead of Ava and a few other chasers - every time it looked like they were going to catch her she found a little more in the tank. From my place high up on the course I could see two little specks coming down the final hill, but I had no idea what was going on (pretty standard, really). I held my breath and watched as one ant-sized figure crossed the line ahead of another, and exhaled in relief when I heard the announcer make it official - Emma had won! This was a huge moment for Bowdoin Nordic - our first individual win ever in an EISA carnival. When I became head coach of this program in 2007, the idea that one of our skiers could win a carnival was a nice daydream, but most definitely only a dream. In the years to come we earned a podium finish here and there, including a couple 2nd place finishes by Kait Miller '14 and Emma herself, but a win was always a bit too much to hope for. Now it's finally happened - congratulations to Emma, and to everyone who's supported our team over the years!
During all of this excitement, lots of other great races unfolded. Jori scrapped her way to 13th, and Gillian continued her amazing run with another 17th place finish. Francie had an absolutely fantastic race, finishing with a personal best of 49th - not something we could have ever dreamed of just a year or two ago. The men followed up with a solid race of their own, highlighted by Adam's career-best 11th place finish. This was a great display of perseverance - Adam had a weird feed mishap that left him coughing and dazed going into the second lap, and for a while it looked like he was going to fade badly. But he pulled it together and skied his way back into the mix on the third lap, and then put down the fifth-fastest final lap of the whole field, gaining eight places to finish just outside the top 10. Will hung in there to finish 27th, and Michael scored for the team for his first time ever in 66th.
The next day's 7.5k classic was combined with an Eastern Cup - always a bit chaotic, but also fun to see all the club teams and junior racers. Again, conditions stayed nice all day, and we got to use hard wax - not something we ever take for granted in the northeast, especially these days! Emma again led the team in 8th, with Jori steady in 12th and Gillian 23rd (for EISA). Keira scored a nice milestone in 30th - her first ever top 30 finish! On the men's side, Will continued moving up with a 21st place finish, just ahead of Adam in 22nd. Catcher (48th) and Caleb (63rd) scored the best finishes of their young careers. As a team, we finished 5th for the nordic portion of the carnival - a good solid showing.
We're now almost two weeks into the new semester - quite a change of pace from Jan Camp. We've had just enough snow to ski locally - piecing it together with loops around the athletic fields and golf course rambles, with a few trips to Quarry Road as well. Last weekend was off, so we did a nice fast classic time trial to stay sharp. Now we're on the verge of the St. Michael's Carnival at Sleepy Hollow, and a few of our skiers will be doing the Eastern Cup at Quarry Road this weekend. Lots more great racing to come!
