Another week, another relocated carnival. This time it was the Williams Carnival - moved from Prospect to Lake Placid. What a crazy winter this has been! I remember a time when Prospect was the backup for other venues because they always had more snow than anyone else. Fortunately, the jumping complex in Lake Placid had a nice 2.5k loop of artificial snow, so we made the long drive to NY after Thursday classes. The early vans were able to stop at Rikert for an evening ski on our way through VT, and we followed this up with a great dinner at the Groves household - many thanks to Laurie and Meg for breaking up the drive with their great hospitality!
The next morning was pretty relaxed - due to other events at the jumps, our races (10/10k skate) didn't start until the middle of the day. The course was in good shape - fast, transformed snow, with some long climbs and long descents. Unfortunately for us, most of the women were a bit under the weather, but they hung in there, with H. Miller in 36th and Ellie 41st. Lucy did a great job of working the climbs and finished 52nd, her best race of the season. Jake found a new gear and finally broke into the top 30, finishing 28th to claim his first-ever NCAA points. Sam also had a notable race - he was really energetic and had put himself in position for a big PR before a crash on an icy hairpin turn dropped him back several spots. We finished up the day with a nice dinner in a private room in Lake Placid's finest pub, followed by a rousing song identification challenge - the whole team was quite good at this game, and the Minnesota boys (Sam, Marshal, and Sean) in particular proved to be unstoppable.
Saturday's 5/5k classic was a pursuit - the first time EISA has done a pursuit since I don't know when. The weather was challenging - a little snow overnight, followed by a tiny bit of rain, followed by gusting winds and sun appearing and disappearing throughout the morning. We played around with different klisters all morning - just as we would find something that worked well, the conditions would change just enough to render it obsolete. Some of our skiers ended up on zeroes, and some on klister, with variable results - serviceable but draggy for the women, and decent for the men. Sadly, the nagging sickness and fatigue continued - only Lucy, Emma, and H. Marshall made it to the start line, and Hannah was clearly just toughing it out. Lucy again led the women with a very solid effort, finishing in 48th overall. On the men's side, Sean moved up several places to finish 32nd, with Jake right behind in 34th. Overall, it was not our best carnival, but I felt like people skied well given the challenges we were up against, and I think we're in good position to finish strongly at Regionals this weekend if we can just get everyone healthy! Thanks to the parents, who really outdid themselves this weekend with a tasty and healthful post-race spread both days - you guys are the best!
Here are some photos from Everett Marshall:
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