Colby Carnival

More history made at the Colby Carnival last weekend, both by Colby and by us.  For the first time ever, Colby hosted a carnival at their new ski venue, Quarry Road Recreational Area.  It's a great little trail system just a few minutes from their campus (I'm insanely jealous).  Like everywhere else in New England, Waterville got hit with a nasty thaw a couple weeks ago, so they were hurting for snow, but with a little snowmaking and a lot of hard work Colby was able to pull off the carnival.  They even got their president to forerun the race - outstanding!  It was fun to race at a new venue despite the limited snow, and I'm looking forward to bringing the team back to Quarry Road in future years.

The races were OK, too.  Saturday's 6/10k classic was held on a 2k loop with some short, hard climbs and a couple technical downhills.  The combination of coarse, transformed snow and aggressive manmade snow was super abrasive, a problem exacerbated by one particular sharp downhill turn - too much skidding around this turn, even just once, would trash your kick wax.  We put on a klister binder and various layers of hardwax in the hopes of keeping wax on the skis.  Things got off to a good start in the women's race, as Kaitlynn set a new team record with a 4th place finish - best ever result by a Bowdoin Nordic skier!  Hannah posted a career-best classic finish (28th for EISA skiers), with Shelby completing the scoring in 49th.  Emma had a fantastic race as well - she handled the downhills well and absolutely crushed the flats with her powerful double poling.  Unfortunately, she tripped and broke a pole mid-race, which cost her a good amount of time - even so, she posted a strong result in 64th.  The men had a couple extra laps and were more vulnerable to wax wear, and some of them ended up struggling with kick on the variable snow.  Still, they hung in there with decent results - James led the team in 39th, with Jackson in 46th and Henry in 47th, continuing his comeback from illness over Winter Break.  Jordan had perhaps the race of the day for the men - he slipped a bit early on, and was caught by the SLU skier one bib behind him.  However, he showed great determination, making the wax work and hanging on for a few laps before passing the other skier back in the last kilometer.  This race also doubled as the Maine State Championship (aka, the Chummy Broomhall Cup).  We finished 2nd behind Bates, tying our best ever finish from 2 years ago.  Kaitlynn claimed the title of State Champion, with Hannah (5th) earning First Team All-State honors.  Shelby (10th), James (7th), and Jackson (10th) all earned Second Team All-State status.

With no need for track-setting, the course was expanded to a 4.2k loop for Sunday's 15/20k skate.  This was good (fewer laps, less crowding) and bad (the added sections were a bit thin, with some rocky and icy patches).  Mass start races always have potential for chaos, and this one didn't disappoint - with the big field (around 100 skiers in each race) and the fast, technical downhills, there was some carnage - lots of crashes and pole mishaps.  Our team survived and posted some great results.  Kaitlynn jumped into the lead pack right away and skied with a group of 15 or so for several kilometers.  As the race went on, the pack dwindled, until eventually she was skiing at the back of a group of 5.  With 5k to go, a UVM skier made a move and strung things out just slightly.  Kaitlynn was able to move up into 4th on the last lap and finished just a few seconds behind the lead trio - an absolutely thrilling race that somehow didn't seem at all surprising (it's funny and very unfair how quickly we start to see amazing performances as routine).  Once again, the rest of the team came through with solid results.  Hannah lost a pole early and dropped back several places, but got a replacement and rallied to finish 29th for EISA, with Eva right behind in 32nd (scoring her first NCAA point, since a couple non-carnival team skiers were in front of her).  Shelby and Steph also both had what might have been their best collegiate races ever, finishing 41st and 58th, respectively.  The men's race had a nice clean start, but things got rough after that, with all sorts of mix-ups.  Our guys had their share of troubles - Kevin and Henry both got taken out in crashes, and James lost a ski when another skier stepped on it.  Nonetheless, they hung in there and did a great job of making up lost ground throughout the race.  Jackson skied a great race, moving up steadily to finish in 36th, with Kevin (40th) and James (46th) close behind.  Overall, a very successful weekend for our team.  We finished 8th for the nordic portion of the carnival, our best team finish in a while.  Also, after just 2 carnivals we now have 6 skiers with NCAA points - another team best.  A very exciting start to the season!

RESULTS

Thanks to all of the team parents who showed up to support the team and provide delicious lunches on another very cold weekend!  We also owe a special thanks to our three volunteer assistants.  Sierra showed up to cheer both days and took video of Saturday's classic race, and old friends Drew Gustafson and Scott Longwell were tireless wax techs.  Drew and Scott applied countless layers of klister binder on Saturday, and followed up with kick wax application as well.  Scott came back the next day to help us apply fluoros for the skate race.  We had 18 skiers racing this weekend, and we never could have gotten everyone's skis ready in time without their help - we had as much success as we did largely due to their help.  Thanks Scott, Drew, and Sierra!

Here are some photos from Saturday's classic race.  This one is from Steve Fuller of Flying Point Road:

These are courtesey of former Bowdoin Nordic skier Rainer Kenney: