Dartmouth Carnival

We were back at Stowe last weekend for the Dartmouth Carnival - no snow in Hanover. This was sad, since Oak Hill is a fun and challenging course (and is also a lot closer to home). On the other hand, Trapps is a great course as well, and there was plenty of snow, so we weren't too disappointed. In Friday's 5/10k skate race, the first-years were the big story. Kevin finished 31st, just one place away from his first ever NCAA points - it's rare for us to have a first-year in this position, so this is exciting stuff. Jackson continued his impressive season with another stellar race, finishing just 29 seconds from NCAA points. Lots of other good races - Kaitlynn and Maren were their usual consistent selves, and Erin once again pulled off a solid finish despite feeling completely depleted during her warmup.

The classic day was another "not quite klister, not quite hard wax" day. This could have been rough, but it wasn't - we certainly had to scramble, but we managed decent skis, thanks in large part to Wilson (sadly still injured), who served as our third wax tech. Spencer was also a true team player, jumping in at the last minute to help make an adjustment to Steph's skis. Spencer also had our best finish of the day - he skied in a train just off the lead pack, picking off several skiers in the final kilometers to finish 18th, his best classic result ever. However, Alec had the race of the day - The Perfect Race, in fact. He skied patiently and paced himself well, moving up throughout the race for a career-best 41st place finish. Last year, Alec showed a real aptitude for the long races, and I had a feeling that he was due for a good one - it was a thrill to see him discover his inner Magnar and break out for a huge race. On the women's side, Kaitlynn posted a solid 26th place finish. Kaitlynn has a remarkable ability to get kick from minimal wax, and in this race she ended up going on a colder klister applied super thin. She had OK kick, but not quite enough for her to really glide it out on the long climbs. Nonetheless, she kept herself in the race through determination and fast skis - an impressive effort. Hannah also skied very well, and Steph gritted out a competitive finish despite clearly not feeling her best. Last year, Steph had a pretty not-fun 15k classic race at Trapps - Saturday's race was a clear indicator of how far she's come since then.

The nice thing about the Dartmouth Carnival is that the weekend ends with the traditional Carni Crush (or Carnival Crush, as some of us oldsters call it). This is always a fun time, and everyone goes home happy regardless of how the races went. Here are a few of our team's more notable crushes: a dead lobster (Maren), a dead fish (Hannah), chocolate abs (Wilson), an elegant dinosaur drawing (Alec), a romantic vocal and guitar performance (Scott), a hilarious parody of a parody song (Jackson), and a Ben and Jerry's themed poem (complete with actual pints) from our women to the SLU men. Very impressive effort by all (except for a super lame men's team that shall not be named).

Once again, we were the fortunate guests of the Miller family, who hosted the women and made another delicious meal for the whole team. Thanks so much to Deborah and Hannah for opening their home to our team yet again! Thanks also to the many parents in attendance - your support was amazing. I've been lucky to receive a huge array of photos for the past two carnivals, courtesy of Greg Askins, Cathy Hoose, and Ron Aseltine, and I'm way overdue to post them - I promise I'll get these up shortly.

UVM/Eastern Cup Recap

Another eventful weekend, this time in Stowe for the combined UVM Carnival and Eastern Cup. Trapps got warm temps and heavy rains last week, but it snowed an inch or two on Friday night, making the waxing for Saturday's classic not so straightforward. We scrambled to come up with various klister and hard wax combinations and ended up with most people's skis working decently, if not perfectly. No showstopping results, but several good races, most notably Maren, Shelby, and Hannah, who had her second-best classic finish ever (32nd EISA). The women duplicated their team finish from last week almost exactly; they were just ahead of Williams, tied with Colby, and one point behind SLU - not a bad day. Unfortunately, we were missing some key skiers: Tyler tweaked his back at Jackson last week and is gradually easing back into training; Wilson, already slowed by a nagging back problem, reaggravated a shoulder injury during Friday's pre-race workout; and Spencer sat out in hopes of staving off an impending cold. The silver lining to this was that Wilson and Tyler were available to help with waxing - their efforts made a hectic waxing day much more manageable.

Sunday was a perfect day for a skate race - it was cold and sunny, and the firm, slightly transformed snow was nice and fast. With our new and improved waxing staff, we were able to get the wax dialed in nicely, and we ended up with fast skis. The women were solid, led by Kaitlynn with one of the best skate races I've seen from her - she finished as the 32nd EISA skier. On the men's side, Spencer finished 33rd - a valiant effort from someone who was clearly still under the weather. Kevin had a breakout race to finish just 4 seconds behind in 36th. He's been working hard to tweak his form over the last few weeks, and it paid off on Sunday - a very encouraging sign for the rest of the season. Several other skiers took a big jump forward on Sunday with their best races of the season: Sierra, Drew, Scott, and Alec. However, I was most excited about Dan's race - he was on fire (in a quiet, understated, Polasky sort of way). He looked super smooth and relaxed the whole time, V2ing up almost every hill and getting tremendous glide with each push. For the last 3 years, he's been training hard and working incredibly diligently on his technique, and he's seen big improvements in both his fitness and his form, but his last 2 seasons have been sabotaged by injuries and mono. This year, he's finally in full health, and on Sunday, we finally got the payoff - a great race that was 3 years in the making. May there be several more before the season's over.

We had a lot going on besides racing this weekend. The women's team stayed at the Miller household, and Kaitlynn's mom Deborah and sister Hannah hosted all of us for a huge pasta dinner on Friday night, featuring several loaves of Hannah's delicious homemade bread. On Saturday, we were guests once again, this time as part of an alumni potluck dinner organized by Andy Shepard and Chris Badger '93. It was great to see a handful of alums (including Martha Ryan '84, captain of Bowdoin's first varsity women's ski team), and also catch up with the Shepards. Also, this week we had a even bigger than usual group of parents at the races, providing the team with all sorts of delicious post-race food. Thanks to all of you for making this such a great weekend!

Lots of photos to follow when I have a bit more time.

UNH Photos

Photos from last weekend's UNH Carnival - Greg Askins did heroic work to get shots of every Bowdoin skier.

UNH Skate

Day 2 of the UNH Carnival couldn't have been more different than Day 1 - nothing but sunshine. We had a respectable day - no fireworks, but some solid results. Spencer led the way in 23rd (for EISA), with Kaitlynn in 37th. Riley had one of his best college races ever, and Jackson was an absolute hero - despite having the second to last start position, he skied aggressively, passing dozens of skiers. By the end of the race, he'd worked his way up to mid-pack, finishing sandwiched between two of the league's better skiers - a big step forward for him. Steph and Sierra also had good races - both battled to strong finishes in spite of crashes. Speaking of crashes, there were a LOT of those. On a fast snow day (like Saturday), lots of racers are challenged by the rollers and sharp turns on this course, and in a mass start, when one person goes down, others are sure to follow. There were some fantastic blowouts - almost NASCAR-esque. Every team had their share of falls, and ours was no exception. Among other incidents, Nate broke a pole in a bottleneck out of the start, Scott lost some skin in a crash, and Chris spent some quality time in the woods. Between the carnage and the inherent toughness of a 15/20k mass start race, there were lots of entertaining war stories when all was said and done. A nice OD ski yesterday and a rest day today should have the team feeling recovered and ready for a some good training before we head to Stowe on Friday.

Thanks to all the parents who came out to cheer and tailgate on Saturday! Once again, Greg Askins took some great race photos - I'll post these soon.

UNH Classic Sprint

Great day for our team here at the races in Jackson. The forecast was scary, calling for snow, ice pellets, and rain - turns out that this was exactly what we got. Somehow, though, the waxing didn't end up being as messy as the weather - it was a bit tricky, with the conditions steadily changing throughout the morning, but we were able to nail down a klister combination that worked pretty well for most people (a few ended up going on zeroes, which also worked reasonably well). Kaitlynn and Spencer led the way, qualifying in 19th and 29th, respectively. Several others had solid races as well - Nate was just a couple seconds from qualifying, and Shelby, Hannah, and Maren were not far off on the women's side. Maren had her best collegiate finish ever (47th for EISA), beating some really strong skiers.

The day got better in the heats. Spencer skied a strong quarterfinal, finishing a close 4th and improving his placing to 23rd (22nd EISA). Kaitlynn got off to a quick start in her quarterfinal, and pulled away from the pack with one other skier to advance comfortably. She drew a really strong heat in the semis and ended up 5th, leaving her in the B final. Once again, she got off to a quick start - a couple of other skiers broke away on the one big climb, but Kaitlynn led the rest of the group back into the stadium and held off a pair of hard-charging UNH skiers to lock up 3rd in the heat and 9th place overall. A fantastic day of racing - first top 10 by a Bowdoin woman since 2001! Remarkably, she was the top skier not from Dartmouth or UVM, which left us in good position in the team scoring. The women ended up tying Colby for 7th and finishing just ahead of Williams, which hasn't happened in years - at least not during my tenure at Bowdoin. So, a very good day for our team. Hopefully we'll carry some momentum into tomorrow, which should be a FUN day - a 15/20k mass start skate on a winding rollercoaster course. I almost wish I were racing tomorrow. Almost.

We capped off a good day with a great dinner courtesy of Ben and Anne Niles, who are hosting several of our boys for the weekend. Ben and Anne, along with Greg and Joanna Askins, also took great care of the team at the races, providing warm food and drinks on a wet and chilly day. Thanks to all of you for helping make today great!

Bates Photos

As usual, Greg Askins was all over the course taking photos at Rumford last weekend - here are a few:

Bates Carnival

Carnival season is underway at last. Several inches of snow fell on Thursday night, giving us a clean, soft course for the weekend. Friday's 5/10k skate was a so-so day. The skiers pushed hard, but the results weren't there - we still don't quite have the edge that we need to race fast, and most of our competitors do. Still, most of our skiers felt strong, if not fast - the fitness is there, and the results will come. This race also happened to be the 6th Annual Broomhall Cup, Maine's collegiate state championship. We ended up in 3rd behind Bates and Colby, with Spencer finishing 4th for Maine skiers and earning First Team All-State honors.

Today's 10/10k classic was a step forward. The cold temps and fresh snow made the waxing straightforward, and we were able to get the skis dialed in pretty well, thanks in no small part to Walt Shepard '10, who took some time away from his high-powered consulting job to provide expert wax tech assistance. In the men's race, Spencer got off to a strong start before crashing twice on the first lap - with over 100 skiers clustered close together in the early kilometers, he lost a lot of places and had to burn a ton of energy passing people. Riley took over as our top skier, and for a while it looked like he'd win the battle of the Eusdens, but Spencer rallied to pass dozens of skiers in the second half of the race and earn our top finish in 52nd, with Riley close behind - still an outstanding day for him. We also got some strong performances from the first-years - Kevin and Jackson were right in the mix. I should also note that Wilson commented that his skis (waxed by Walt) were the best he'd ever had - that's why we like to keep Walt around. The women had a very solid day - every single one of them bettered their skate finishes. Kaitlynn got off to a good start and moved up throughout the race, ending up in 35th - she's been feeling better bit by bit, and today was definitely a sign of good progress. Hannah also looked like she was starting to find her race gears after spending the fall in Argentina. Erin had a particularly impressive effort - before the race she was worn out just walking around, and she was dead last going up the first hill out of the stadium. She kept after it and eased into the race, passing a ton of people and beating some very good skiers. Overall, a very encouraging day for the women, and a respectable day for the team as a whole. Although I wish we'd been able to get our season off to a faster start, I have a lot of confidence in our skiers - I'm positive that we'll keep getting better as the season goes on, just like we do every year.

We had great support this weekend from a lot of team parents, who spent a long time huddled in a cold parking lot to give our skiers hot soup and snacks after the races - thanks to all of you! Thanks also to Andy Shepard for keeping the Broomhall Cup event going strong. This has always been a fun event for our team, and it's become a major goal for us to strive toward - we'll keep chipping away in anticipation of winning the Cup someday soon!