SLU Carnival - Lake Placid
Mtn. Top Eastern Cup - Rutland
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Race Photos
Monday, January 21, 2013
SLU Carnival 2013
We're back from a weekend in Lake Placid for the first carnival of 2013 - what a great start to the season! Friday's race was a 15/20k individual start skate - a long grind made more challenging by the big climbs and very cold temps. The men got us off to a great start, with Kevin, James, and Jackson all scoring NCAA points! Despite a large number of racers skiing 4 laps each, Jackson somehow ended up skiing alone for most of the race, which was tough - still, he managed a big PR with a 33rd place finish (he scored an NCAA point because 3 of the skiers ahead of him were non-carnival team skiers). James and Kevin both were able to catch rides from fast skiers who'd started behind them, and both took advantage by hanging on for a long time. Kevin rode the draft for several kilometers before passing the other skier and cruising to the finish for an impressive PR of 21st. James was equally tenacious but a bit unlucky - with 3 or 4k to go, he tripped and broke a pole. He had to ski for a kilometer or two with one pole before getting a replacement from a fellow racer (a Middlebury skier was bonking, and when James passed him he thoughtfully offered James his pole - a very classy gesture). James still pulled off a strong 28th place finish - judging by the splits prior to his fall, we're pretty sure he would have finished right with Kevin had he not broken a pole. Still, a fantastic day for the men. The big highlight came in the women's race, though - 5th place for Kaitlynn! Absolutely shocking. She got off to a strong start, skiing powerfully and smoothly. Several kilometers in, she was passed by the skier who'd started one bib behind her - like Kevin and James, she caught a ride and hung on until close to the finish - an outstanding effort. Her finish ties the best result in Bowdoin Nordic history (a pair of 5ths by Walt Shepard in 2008). It was especially gratifying to see her come back so strongly after last season's challenges and frustrations - a really special moment. It was a great day for our team - everyone skied hard and left their best race on the course. We ended up 6th for combined men's and women's nordic - our best team result in a long time.
Saturday was originally supposed to be a classic sprint, but thin snow coverage made it impossible to set track or set up a suitable start finish area. Instead, we did a 3.2k skate "epilogue" - a short, fast, and fun race that was unlike anything we usually do on the EISA circuit. Results weren't quite as amazing as on Friday, but still solid. Hannah had the race of the day, finishing 32nd for EISA skiers - another big step forward in her impressive comeback from ACL surgery last year. Kaitlynn (15th EISA) led the team again, with James (39th) and Kevin (41st) as the top men. This performance seemed a bit anticlimactic after Friday's fireworks, but in fact it was pretty good - we would have been pretty thrilled with these results any other time. Overall, a fun carnival and an encouraging start to the season that has everyone feeling excited for the next few weeks.
I should also note that we had several parents who braved the cold to set up a tailgate for the skiers. Bowdoin Nordic has always been lucky to have an incredibly supportive group of team parents, and this year is no exception. Thanks to all of you!
Saturday was originally supposed to be a classic sprint, but thin snow coverage made it impossible to set track or set up a suitable start finish area. Instead, we did a 3.2k skate "epilogue" - a short, fast, and fun race that was unlike anything we usually do on the EISA circuit. Results weren't quite as amazing as on Friday, but still solid. Hannah had the race of the day, finishing 32nd for EISA skiers - another big step forward in her impressive comeback from ACL surgery last year. Kaitlynn (15th EISA) led the team again, with James (39th) and Kevin (41st) as the top men. This performance seemed a bit anticlimactic after Friday's fireworks, but in fact it was pretty good - we would have been pretty thrilled with these results any other time. Overall, a fun carnival and an encouraging start to the season that has everyone feeling excited for the next few weeks.
I should also note that we had several parents who braved the cold to set up a tailgate for the skiers. Bowdoin Nordic has always been lucky to have an incredibly supportive group of team parents, and this year is no exception. Thanks to all of you!
Monday, January 14, 2013
Rutland Adventures
Quite an eventful weekend in Rutland! The trip started out well enough - an uneventful drive and a nice pre-race ski on Thursday afternoon. Things took a turn for the worse when we rolled up to the Rodeway Inn after dropping the boys off at their motel - as I was checking us in, an unmarked van rolled up and several heavily armed men jumped out to apprehend a man staying in one of the rooms. I'm not exactly sure what was going on, but there was a VT state police car present, so I'm fairly certain that this was some sort of legitimate law enforcement action and not just some shady underworld doings. In any case, the women and Mike were sitting in the vans just a few feet away from all of this, which was fairly scary. Needless to say, we chose not to stay at the Rodeway Inn, and instead squeezed everyone into the shabby motel where the boys were staying. Hannah W and a few of the women ended up staying at the Wright house, which eased the crowding a bit (thanks Deb and Jim!).
The actual racing part of the trip went pretty well. Almost everyone had a good race in Saturday's skate sprint. Shelby and Tyler rocked the qualifier, finishing 16th and 23rd, respectively, to move on to the open heats, while Eva and Kevin qualified for the junior heats. James and Hannah W. just missed the open heats as well, with Jackson narrowly outside the junior heats. In the quarterfinals, Shelby made a fantastic move coming off of a downhill to slingshot from forth to first by a wide margin - she cruised up the last hill and into the semifinals easily. The look of astonished delight on her face after the heat was priceless - this is why I'm a ski coach. Tyler stayed right with the pack in his quarterfinal and put on an impressive surge up the last hill, but he had to weave through a couple of other skiers, which cost him some time and left him just a ski length from advancing. His final place for the day was 15th - an outstanding effort and by far his best Eastern Cup result ever. Shelby's semifinal didn't go so well - she got tangled up early and lost contact with the pack. She came back strong in the B final, though, battling to 3rd in the heat and 9th overall - her best ever EC performance as well. In the junior heats, Kevin cruised to the win in his semifinal and then battled to a 3rd place finish in the A final. Eva skied strongly for most of her semifinal before fading on the final climb, but she came back to make a strong push and finish 3rd in the B final. Overall, a great day that left our team feeling proud and excited. The only blemish on the day was when one of our vans got stuck in the muddy slope disguised as a parking lot. We had to get towed out by a tractor, with half the racers and spectators looking on - a humiliating walk of shame.
Sprint Results
Sunday's classic race had some highs and lows. It got incredibly hot in a hurry, and the snow quickly turned to slush streaked with mud. Mike and I got to break out our super warm klisters, which was kind of fun. Kaitlynn provided our biggest highlight by finishing third in a field full of college skiers and top juniors. Third! This was a pretty great way to start the day. Several of our other women also had strong races, most notably Lucy, who almost didn't race because of a nagging cough. The men's race was somewhat less successful - the guys looked decent, but all of them felt a bit flat. Still, a solid day with a huge milestone for us to get excited about.
Classic Results
Now that we're back on campus, we're just trying to get through this heat wave. It's been warm for a week now, and today was the worst - just a massive thaw. Like everyone else in New England, we're losing snow in a hurry - just hoping that we can hang on until it gets cold again....
The actual racing part of the trip went pretty well. Almost everyone had a good race in Saturday's skate sprint. Shelby and Tyler rocked the qualifier, finishing 16th and 23rd, respectively, to move on to the open heats, while Eva and Kevin qualified for the junior heats. James and Hannah W. just missed the open heats as well, with Jackson narrowly outside the junior heats. In the quarterfinals, Shelby made a fantastic move coming off of a downhill to slingshot from forth to first by a wide margin - she cruised up the last hill and into the semifinals easily. The look of astonished delight on her face after the heat was priceless - this is why I'm a ski coach. Tyler stayed right with the pack in his quarterfinal and put on an impressive surge up the last hill, but he had to weave through a couple of other skiers, which cost him some time and left him just a ski length from advancing. His final place for the day was 15th - an outstanding effort and by far his best Eastern Cup result ever. Shelby's semifinal didn't go so well - she got tangled up early and lost contact with the pack. She came back strong in the B final, though, battling to 3rd in the heat and 9th overall - her best ever EC performance as well. In the junior heats, Kevin cruised to the win in his semifinal and then battled to a 3rd place finish in the A final. Eva skied strongly for most of her semifinal before fading on the final climb, but she came back to make a strong push and finish 3rd in the B final. Overall, a great day that left our team feeling proud and excited. The only blemish on the day was when one of our vans got stuck in the muddy slope disguised as a parking lot. We had to get towed out by a tractor, with half the racers and spectators looking on - a humiliating walk of shame.
Sprint Results
Sunday's classic race had some highs and lows. It got incredibly hot in a hurry, and the snow quickly turned to slush streaked with mud. Mike and I got to break out our super warm klisters, which was kind of fun. Kaitlynn provided our biggest highlight by finishing third in a field full of college skiers and top juniors. Third! This was a pretty great way to start the day. Several of our other women also had strong races, most notably Lucy, who almost didn't race because of a nagging cough. The men's race was somewhat less successful - the guys looked decent, but all of them felt a bit flat. Still, a solid day with a huge milestone for us to get excited about.
Classic Results
Now that we're back on campus, we're just trying to get through this heat wave. It's been warm for a week now, and today was the worst - just a massive thaw. Like everyone else in New England, we're losing snow in a hurry - just hoping that we can hang on until it gets cold again....
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Maine vs. World 2013
Maine vs World 2013 has begun (for the purpose of this year's competition, New Hampshire is considered a colony of Maine). Three events are in the books so far - World 2, Maine 1. Here's a recap:
Skate agility course - Team World uses their innate fearlessness and superior cornering skills to dominate the agility event, despite an early crash by the only converted alpine racer on the team.
Classic sprint relay - Once again, Team World steadily pulls away, despite the head-first lunging heroics of Maine's leadoff skier. Team Maine is left shaking its collective head and wondering if they belong in the same competition as Team World.
Water polo - This event, on the schedule against the better judgement of the organizer, yields a spirited contest. Maine's normally inferior colony to the west proves its worth, as the three NH residents delight and amaze their teammates with the grace and power of their fish-like swimming. At last, a win for Team Maine. Is this a turning point, or merely a speed bump in the path of the World juggernaut? Only time will tell. Stay tuned.
PS - We're also doing some ski racing. Off to Rutland for the Eastern Cups this weekend.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Nationals 2013
We've had a small crew out in Utah for Nationals these past couple weeks: James, Tyler, and Riley. They've been living the dream - enjoying great skiing every day and also hanging out with various alumni (Spencer, Maren, Wilson, Scott, Chris, and Nick Crawford '09). Unfortunately, they passed around a nasty cold last week, which curtailed the racing quite a bit. Henry also was able to make it down from Wyoming to do the skate sprint yesterday, finally healthy after weeks of illness and fatigue - he posted a remarkably solid result in his first hard effort in over a month. Despite the various health troubles, everyone's pretty fired up about the Nationals experience - eager to get the season started, and already looking ahead to next year at Soldier Hollow.
Here's a video by Riley and some photos from Tyler:
Monday, January 7, 2013
Jackson Jaunt & Harry Eldridge Race
We took a quick trip to Jackson over the weekend. We did a classic OD ski on Saturday - it was great to explore some new trails. Hannah and Emma even ran into Marty Hall, who accused them of doing an OT (over-talking) instead of an OD - classic Marty.
The next day we headed up to the Eagle Mountain House for the Jackson Jaunt, a 5/10k mass start skate race. There was a good crowd of college skiers, juniors, and masters on hand - a very competitive field for both races, basically a mini-carnival. Our skiers survived the chaos at the start and acquitted themselves well. From where I was standing, it looked like a pretty fun race - lots of twists and turns and transitions, and plenty of people to battle with. I was pretty happy with how everyone skied - it seems like we're a bit ahead of where we usually are at this time of year. A good start.
Men's Results
Women's Results
Shelby and Tess did a road trip of their own - they headed over to Lake Placid for the Harry Eldridge Memorial skate race. They both skied solid races, especially considering the challenging circumstances - a 7 hour drive the day before, and no coach to help with fluoro testing or other logisitics.
Results
The next day we headed up to the Eagle Mountain House for the Jackson Jaunt, a 5/10k mass start skate race. There was a good crowd of college skiers, juniors, and masters on hand - a very competitive field for both races, basically a mini-carnival. Our skiers survived the chaos at the start and acquitted themselves well. From where I was standing, it looked like a pretty fun race - lots of twists and turns and transitions, and plenty of people to battle with. I was pretty happy with how everyone skied - it seems like we're a bit ahead of where we usually are at this time of year. A good start.
Men's Results
Women's Results
Shelby and Tess did a road trip of their own - they headed over to Lake Placid for the Harry Eldridge Memorial skate race. They both skied solid races, especially considering the challenging circumstances - a 7 hour drive the day before, and no coach to help with fluoro testing or other logisitics.
Results
Friday, January 4, 2013
Back to Work, and Thanksgiving Video
Bowdoin Nordic is back in session. We started up practices a couple days ago - about half the team is back on campus, with the rest trickling in gradually. Pineland got a couple good storms over break - everything's open and the skiing is excellent. We're going to be busy over the next few weeks - all sorts of comings and goings, with race trips every weekend. Should be fun.
For now, here's Shelby's video from Thanksgiving Camp. I finally figured out how to post it - I discovered this great new website called "YouTube" where you can post videos and stuff. Enjoy!
For now, here's Shelby's video from Thanksgiving Camp. I finally figured out how to post it - I discovered this great new website called "YouTube" where you can post videos and stuff. Enjoy!
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