Regionals 2025

Regionals is always a special carnival - a final chance at NCAA qualifying and personal bests, and one last dance for the seniors.  This year, UNH hosted Regionals at Jackson - a great venue for racing and spectating, with lots of ups and downs, constantly turning trails, and of course the Wave, a super fun downhill with lots of bumps and rollers.  Day 1 was a 7.5k classic on an abbreviated course that cut off some of the biggest hills - lots of double poling and short punchy climbs.  Emma finished 5th, just 3 seconds from the podium, with Jori 13th and Gillian 19th.  On the men's side, Will scored a solid 20th place finish - it's been fun seeing him establish himself this year as a consistent top 20 threat.  Adam finished 26th, with Catcher in 40th.  Michael nudged his PR up by one spot in 54th.  No showstopping performances, but a decent day overall.  That night we had a great dessert ceremony to honor our seniors, Adam and Grace.  We shared some thoughts and memories about what these two special people have meant to our team, and Leslie led an impromptu Taylor Swift performance - good times.  Many thanks to Debbie Carlisle and Rachel and Craig Mattern for organizing!

Next morning was cold and sunny and perfect.  Things heated up fast, and by the time the races started we were into classic Regionals mode with warm temps and bluebird skies. The women's mass start once again became a tactical affair, with a group of 20+ athletes skiing together for the first 10k, including Emma, Jori, and Gillian.  On the first big climb of the final lap, Emma made a decisive move to shatter the pack and open up a few seconds gap.  For the rest of the race, she stayed just a bit ahead of the chase group - they kept pushing hard, but she never let up.  She came out of the woods with enough of a lead to cruise into the finish and claim her second win of the year - amazing!  Meanwhile Jori and Gillian had stayed close behind, fighting for position as the pack strung out.  Down the final stretch they held off some hard charging skiers to claim top 15 finishes - Gillian 14th, Jori 15th.  Gillian came into this race needing a miracle finish to qualify for NCAAs, and she almost got it - just 9 more seconds would have done it.  It's a bit sad to come so close and just miss, but she ended with her best race of the season to cap one of the most successful first-year seasons in Bowdoin Nordic history - we can't ask for anything more than that.  Keira closed out a great first-year season of her own in 30th, with Kira just behind in 32nd and Grace in 35th.  This was an exceptional performance by Grace - she had dropped off the pace of the Kira/Keira pack after one lap, but she skied with incredible determination to close the gap and get herself back into the mix.  In my opinion, this was her best collegiate performance ever - such a nice way to end her career!  In the men's race, Adam was fighting to extend his career - like Gillian, he needed a near miracle to qualify for NCAAs, and like Grace, he had gotten gapped by the start of the second lap.  He put in a big surge to ski up to the lead group and settled in, skiing comfortably as the pack dwindled.  By the start of the final lap he was in a great position, but he still had way too much company, with at least 10 other skiers in contention for a top-5 finish.  Somehow he kept picking up places, and on the final climb he made a push to get himself into 5th.  By the end of the Wave he was still in 7th, with a host of skiers just ahead and behind.  In the final sprint, he was able to pick off one more place, earning 6th by a lunge.  While all this was happening, the other guys were fighting hard.  Will had some bad luck when another skier broke his pole - he lost his group and drifted back a long way before getting a replacement, finishing 33rd.  Lars ended up skiing alone early on, but was able to move up gradually for a solid 37th place finish.  Caleb scored a PR in 49th and Michael tied his in 54th, with Catcher closing it out in 56th.  After the dust had settled, we had a few minutes of anxiously checking live timing and trying to do math on the fly to figure out if Adam had qualified for NCAAs.  Luckily, the list was updated shortly after the race to end our suspense - after a quick double check to make sure it was real, we realized that he was in!  What an amazingly clutch performance - it took the best race of Adam's life at just the right moment to lock up his championship spot.  One tenth of a second slower and he wouldn't have made it.  Such an exciting finish to a great day.  As a team, we finished the weekend in 5th.  We wrapped up the weekend with the EISA season awards - Emma was named First Team All-East for the second year in a row!

With that, we're officially done with the 2025 carnival season.  It's been a good one despite a lot of ups and downs with weather, illness, and injuries - this team is such a great group of people, and they've been a lot of fun to work with.  We'll take some time to reflect on the season soon enough, but for now we're fired up for post-season racing!  Emma, Jori, and Adam are all headed to NCAAs at Dartmouth next week.  Catcher and Keira will be racing at JNs over Spring Break, and several others are jumping into the Rangeley Loppet this weekend.  More updates to come!

Midd Carnival and Nordic Combined Junior Worlds

Everyone loves the Middlebury Carnival (or at least I do).  What's not to love?  A well-designed course winding through Vermont woods and hills; fun twisty downhills and challenging climbs, but all very skiable; good snow and good snowmaking; and of course our team's favorite lodging spot, the Porter Mansion at the Middlebury Inn.  It's a great setting for ski racing, and our team always has a great time.  This year we had a special treat in the form of a double classic weekend - because the Bates Carnival sprint was changed to skate, the Midd sprint was changed to classic to go along with the scheduled 10k classic.  For a minute it looked like the weather would make the coaches' lives miserable - once again we had a nasty storm on our travel day, and this one included some rain.  Fortunately, it tapered off in time for us to drive over on Thursday afternoon/evening; better yet, the rain was light enough to leave the snow largely untransformed, and we continued our run of good clean hardwaxing.  Friday was a classic sprint - our performance wasn't amazing, but it was much better than our early season sprint.  Sadly, none of our men qualified - Lars was 29th for EISA, but didn't get to race heats due to some open racers who finished ahead of him.  Eli had a solid race in 41st, with Adam 45th and Sawyer 51st.  The women fared better - Emma qualified 5th, Jori 14th, and Kira 30th - her first time making the heats in a college sprint!  Keira missed qualifying by just half a second, finishing 32nd.  The heats were super fun to watch - Jori won her first round with an impressive running sprint up the last short hill into the stadium, and Emma led the whole way to cruise to a first round win as well.  Kira wasn't able to advance but had a great time chasing the group up hills and around turns.  Jori and Emma were paired up in the second heat - Emma again used a powerful double pole to take the heat win, while Jori kept it close in fourth.  The other semifinal came in faster, so she was knocked out of lucky loser contention and ended her day in 8th.  The finals were super competitive and the group stayed together through all the twists and turns - Emma double poled past almost everyone on the final climb, but wasn't quite able to overtake the leader, finishing 2nd for the day.  Fun stuff and a good momentum builder for the next day.  That night we enjoyed a fantastic potluck dinner courtesy of the team parents - so fortunate to have this kind of support!  We couldn't linger too long, though, because the team had important business back at the inn - Bowdoin Nordic alumni will be glad to know that the team is still carrying on the tradition of running around the Porter Mansion in their bathrobes.

Saturday was cold, with nice hard tracks for another perfect classic skiing day.  This race was combined with an Eastern Cup, so lots of excitement and lots of skiers on the trails.  Will led the men as the 26th EISA finisher, with Adam 29th and Catcher tying Lars for the last scoring spot in 40th.  Ollie had a nice race to finish 52nd - he's had some ups and downs with health and training this season, and it was so good to see him finally racing with better energy.  Michael also scored a nice PR in 55th, continuing his improvement in classic striding.  We were able to put five women in the top 30 in the women's race - Emma 4th, Jori 16th, Gillian 19th, Mirra 26th, and Keira 27th.  Grace also posted a season-best 44th.  These finishes were a great sign of depth, and also a sign of how much this group has accomplished that most of them walked away feeling like the race was only OK.  We'll continue chasing those high expectations!  We did get another podium on the day - Gillian was the top junior in the Eastern Cup!  That's kind of a big deal, given how competitive the New England JNQ field is - also a strong statement about the qualify of EISA skiing.  For the overall carnival we were 6th - a good solid weekend, if not our best.  Looking forward to a big finish at Regionals in Jackson next week!

While the rest of the team was skiing at Middlebury, Caleb was over in Lake Placid competing at the Junior World Championships for nordic combined!  This was tricky, since he's done no jumping all year aside from the qualifying competitions in December (and a couple practice jumps the day before the championships started).  Nonetheless, he was able to put up some respectable results, helping the US to a 10th place finish in the team sprint and finishing 30th in the 10k individual race.  So cool to have one of our skiers racing at a major international championship!  Looking forward to seeing how his combined career develops in the coming years - for now, we're exciting to have him back for Regionals.

Mid-Season Action

 The middle carnivals are done, just like that, along with some non-college races - lots going on these past couple weeks.  Here's a rundown:

St. Mike's Carnival:  Back at Sleepy Hollow for the first time in three years, and it didn't disappoint - nice fresh snow on rolling trails winding through a hardwood forest.  Classic Vermont skiing with an old-school feel - love it.  In the 10k classic Adam led the men in 12th, with Will 18th and Lars 35th.  Caleb also scored a personal best in 51st.  We put 5 women in the top 30 - Emma 2nd, Jori 11th, Gillian 22nd, Keira 25th (first top 30 finish for Keira!), and Mirra 30th.    Good solid start, but the real excitement was the 3x5k classic relay.  Will got our first team off to a strong start, 5th at the tag, and Adam went back and forth with some other teams and ended up tagging off still in 5th.  Lars was in a tight battle with some really strong skiers on the third leg and skied probably the best classic race I've seen from him so far, bringing the team to a very respectable 8th place finish, just seconds from 5th.  Our second team of Caleb, Catcher, and Michael finished 17th, with Michael showing off some really nice striding - a nice payoff for all the hard work he's been doing this winter.  Jori got the top women's team off to a fast start - she was at or near the front of the group pushing the pace for most of the first leg, and she tagged off in 4th.  Gillian showed some impressive poise skiing against a strong group of experienced skiers - she kept it close and tagged off in 5th, 10 seconds from the lead.  Emma made a pro move right away, putting in a strong surge to catch the lead group by the end of the first kilometer.  From there, she skied in a group with UVM and Dartmouth.  Late in the first lap she went to the front and tried to drop the others, but they stayed tight.  With less than 1k to go, Dartmouth pulled away, and although Emma couldn't quite match the pace, she outlasted UVM to bring our team into 2nd place - our best relay finish ever!  Meanwhile, our second women's team put together an outstanding race of their own.  Mirra kept the team in the mix despite the furious pace set by Jori and the leaders, and Kira and Keira showed off some beautiful striding to wrap up an 11th place finish - I'm pretty certain that this is our best second team finish ever.  It was a nice finish to a lovely day of skiing, and even more lovely to see our team on the podium.  As a team, we were fifth for the carnival, just three points out of fourth.  Many thanks to Gillian's parents, Stephanie and Josh, for hosting our team for dinner, and also to alumni wax testers Carson and Zach!

Quarry Road Eastern Cup:  That same weekend, a few of our skiers raced the Eastern Cup at Quarry Road.  Grace posted a 9th place finish in the 10k skate, with Sawyer leading the men in 26th.  The next day was sunny and very cold - perfect for a 10k mass start classic!  Grace crushed it again, finishing 5th, with Francie right behind in 13th.  Ollie was our top men's finisher in 24th, continuing his comeback from a combination of injury, illness, and fatigue over the last few months.

Dartmouth Carnival:  We got a big storm on Thursday that snarled up our travel plans a bit - the team ended up taking a bus to our hotel that night, and the coaches drove the vehicles over either before or after, with a big assist from Bowdoin AD Tim Ryan.  The nice relaxing bus ride left our skiers full of energy for the 7.5k classic, and thanks to some timely wax testing help from alumni Mia, Carson, and Ingrid, we managed to get decent skis for them on the fresh snow.  Emma took another 2nd place finish, showing off her much-improved striding technique, and Jori followed it up in 9th with Gillian 18th to help the women to a second place finish!  Will led the men in 19th, with Lars setting a PR in 25th and Adam 28th.  Catcher also scored a huge personal best, finishing 33rd.  After a lovely dinner hosted by the Miller family and prepared by our three wax testing alumni, we came out ready to crush the 20k skate.  Emma, Jori, and Gillian all skied in the lead pack for most of the race - such a thrill to see our crew up with the leaders!  Somewhere in the second half of the race Emma decided to break it up - she went to the front and pushed the pace, stringing out the group and gradually dropping all but four other skiers.  Try as she might, she wasn't able to open up a gap, and although she was right with the group up the last hill she couldn't outsprint them, finishing 5th - not as exciting as some of her recent races, but still an outstanding finish!  Jori (15th) and Gillian (16th) completed the scoring for us, with Keira (27th) also in the top 30.  Kira and Grace also had really special efforts - Kira was clearly exhausted two laps into the race, but she kept fighting and held on for a really solid 37th place finish, while Grace had an unfortunate fall on the first downhill that left her at the back of the pack but was able to ski her way back to 54th.  Our top men followed the same playbook, with Adam and Will in the lead pack until the last few kilometers.  Adam scored his first ever top 10 finish, outsprinting a Dartmouth skier to finish 8th, and Will hung in there for his third straight top 20 finish in 19th.  Lars put in a solid 36th place finish, helping the men to a 6th place finish on the day.  It's been exciting to see the men emerge from a slow start , and Lars has been a major part of that.  As a team, we finished 4th - our best carnival showing of the season!  Huge thanks to the many people who helped make this carnival possible - the Millers, Tim Ryan, and of course our many alumni who showed up to test wax, cook dinner, and cheer.  This was a really special community effort, and we appreciate all of our supporters so much.

Meanwhile, Francie and Ollie ventured up to Orono to compete in the Great Caribou Bog Race.  They both won the 10k event, and received an interesting railbed based trophy that I have yet to see.  It takes a little extra motivation to get out the door for a humble local race halfway across the state - great work by Ollie and Francie to make it happen.  Very glad to see smaller events like this thriving!

Next up for us is a double classic weekend at the Middlebury Carnival.  Should be another interesting travel situation with another big storm coming - we'll get there one way or another.  Looking forward to a great weekend!