NCAA Chanpionships 2023

 Back to Lake Placid one more time for the NCAA Championships!  Placid has been a hot destination for us this winter - first Thanksgiving Camp, then an Eastern Cup for a few folks, then Regionals, and finally the big finish.  Our small but brave crew - Jori, Aggie, and coaches - left campus last Monday after classes for the long drive.  Next morning we awoke to new snow and great conditions across the entire trail network at Mt Van Hoevenberg.  Over the next couple days, we did a lot of wax testing and just enough skiing to stay sharp.  On Wednesday evening we continued our new tradition (started last year at Soldier Hollow) of a "banquet" - a nice dinner out to replace the championship banquet that was a casualty of the pandemic.  By the morning of the skate race, we were ready to go.  Conditions were perfect - mid 20s and snow that was not too fast and not too slow.  Jori had the honor of starting the race as bib 1 - everyone's favorite place to be!  She started out aggressively and was able to hold off a hard-chasing MSU skier to cross the line first - a nice personal victory.  A few bibs back, Aggie got off to a smooth start and hung on as the climbs took their toll.  In the end, we were a bit overmatched, and we had to settle for 38th (Jori) and 39th (Aggie).  Not the results we were looking for, but also not a shock since these two came in as the two lowest-ranked skiers in the field.  They both skied hard and gave what they had - not much else we could ask for!  We spent the next day resting and testing.  Aggie helped Jori study for her art history exam, which she then crushed (we think) - a true team effort.  Saturday morning started off cold, with perfect firm tracks and nice hard wax conditions.  Things got a bit tricky as it warmed, with the sun coming out intermittently to keep us on our toes.  The new NCAA fluoro testing procedure also made things interesting, since we had to deliver skis to the equipment control area well before the race, which limited our ability to make last-minute adjustments.  Fortunately, the skiers were pretty content with their skis after a couple rounds of testing, so we were able to finish our applications with minimal drama.  With that, it was time for history to be made - the first-ever women's 20k race at the NCAA Championships!  The race started out hot, as per usual for a college women's mass start, and the pack strung out fairly quickly.  Jori settled into a small group in the 30s - she was determined to hang on to some of the Eastern skiers she'd been competing with all season, and she did.  She stayed in the tracks on the climbs, took extra strokes going into the descents, and worked every transition to gain seconds wherever possible.  As the race wore on, she stayed strong and gained a few places, even threatening to break into the top 30 for a while.  In the end, she finished 33rd - a fantastic effort and an outstanding finish by the youngest skier in the field!  Meanwhile, Aggie was focused on skiing her own race and staying as smooth and efficient as possible.  She started at the back and tailed another skier for the first half before the gap gradually grew too big to allow her to maintain contact.  Even so, she kept competing hard - she did a beautiful job of staying in the tracks and working the wax, even when most of the skiers ahead of her were slipping and sometimes walking up the hills.  Most importantly in my mind, she kept pushing hard over the tops of the hills and working the downhills.  In the end, she wasn't able to catch the skiers she was chasing and ended up 40th, but this was a tremendous effort.  Aggie hasn't been on form for several weeks now, and we came into these championships knowing that she might not be at her best, so the big win for us on this day was to ski technically well, push hard the whole way, and never stop competing.  That's really hard to do when you're skiing all alone and you know you don't have your best stuff - it's easy to convince yourself that the little things don't matter and just shut it down and cruise to the end (or not finish at all).  Aggie never let this happen - she skied hard the whole way, and I'm incredibly proud of her for this - a huge win for her mental game even if the result wasn't what we wanted.  Overall, this was a great day of racing for us and a really fun way to close out the season.  I learned a lot at these championships, as always, and I'm super excited to talk things over with the team this spring and make plans for next year.  It's been a successful season, but I know we can be so much better.  Looking forward to getting started - but not just yet.  For now, it's time for all of us to enjoy Spring Break and get some rest!

Chummy Cup 2023

 This year's Chummy Broomhall Cup continued the recent tradition of weather-related chaos.  Like last year, we did a last minute relocation due to a big snowstorm, moving the race to Quarry Road.  Unlike last year, we moved the race one day earlier instead of later, holding it on Friday night.  As usual, Quarry Road delivered with a nice 2.5k loop under the lights - first time in my memory we've ever had a college race at night!  The snow was fast and the course was fun, with some challenging turns and a couple of big bumps, terrain park style.  The women's race got off to a hot start, with a group of six quickly breaking away.  Emma, Aggie, and Jori were in this pack, and they jockeyed back and forth with three Colby skiers right up until the end.  Jori sprinted it out with Gretta Scholz of Colby for the win - it was too close to call, so we declared it a tie.  Emma and Aggie were right behind in 3rd and 4th, and Morgan (7th), Grace M (8th), and Ingrid (9th) earned All-State honors as well.  This gave us a slight lead heading into the men's race.  The guys started out a bit slower, with a big lead pack and a lot of back and forth.  The race came down to the wire, but sadly the Colby guys proved too tactically clever for us - they slipped their top 3 in front of ours, and we had to settle for 4th (Zach), 5th (Carson), and 6th (James).  Adam, who had challenged for the lead before being thwarted by a broken pole, skied remarkably well to stay close to the leaders and finished 7th.  Although our crew skied well and honestly looked great, we couldn't overcome the podium sweep, losing the cup to Colby by a narrow margin.  Not the glorious finish we wanted, but a super fun event nonetheless, and a great learning experience for our skiers - some good things for us to work on this off-season!  It was so great to get together with Bates and Colby one last time - fitting that we'd end a long, hard carnival season with the same friends who joined us for all of our pre-season races.  So nice to have Maine college skiing going strong - looking forward to getting back after it next year!

That's the end for most of our skiers, but championship season rolls on with NCAAs this week and JNs next week.  Aggie and Jori have qualified for NCAAs in Lake Placid, and Emma and Grace M will be representing New England at JNs in Fairbanks.  Stay tuned!

Regionals & More

Dramatic weather swings these last couple weeks have made for some interesting racing!  The continued warm weather leading up to the Williams Carnival had us worried, but somehow Prospect was able to pull off a full 5k loop.  On Day 1 it rained steadily, and the course was riddled with dirt patches and puddles.  One of the messiest races I've been part of for a while.  It wasn't pretty, but the snow held up and the race happened!  Our skiers gave it a brave fight and managed respectable finishes - Carson 22, Adam 25 (a personal best!) and Zach 26 for men, and Emma 19, Jori 22, and Aggie 28.  It was a real grind, but the skiers had great attitudes - afterward they all said they'd had fun out there skiing through the rain and fog.  Definitely a different experience - not the kind of thing you'd want to do every race, but also a cool thing to have been part of.  Day 2 was strikingly different - it froze up overnight, and somehow they managed to groom the remaining snow into a beautiful fast (slightly icy) surface that made for great skate racing.  Times for both races were super fast and super tight.  Carson skied brilliantly and was on his way to a top 10 finish before falling on the final downhill and breaking a binding - he was able to get a replacement quickly, but the damage was done and he ended up in 21st.  A top 10 finish would have put him in a really secure place for NCAA qualifying, but instead he ended up getting passed on the points list by another skier - just a heartbreaking reversal of fortune.  Zach (26) and Adam (30) were solid to complete the scoring.  The women finished in a tight little cluster - Jori 25, Emma 26, and Aggie 27.  We had 7 women in this race, and all of them finished in the top 43 - a great display of depth.  As a team we were 6th in the nordic scoring.

While all this was happening, our non-carnival crew went over to the Eastern Cup Finals at Dublin.  In the Day 1 skate sprint, Mia qualified for the open heats in 17th and skied a strong quarterfinal to move up to 15th in the final standings.  Francie and Grace E ended up in the U18/U20 bracket and advanced to the finals, finishing 4th and 5th, respectively.  I joined them on my way home from Prospect, and we all stayed at Francie's house for the night - huge thanks to Melissa and Steve Trafton for hosting and taking such good care of our group!  The Day 2 classic was a beautiful sunny day featuring yet more klister.  Michael got us started with his best classic race of the year, a solid 54th place finish.  He's worked hard and has learned a ton this year, and it was fun to see him skiing competitively in the middle of a strong junior field.  On the women's side, Emma provided the big fireworks by taking the win!  First ever Eastern Cup win by a Bowdoin skier, so that was exciting.  Grace (17) and Francie (22) skied strong races as well, both holding their technique together nicely - so good to see the progress they've made since we first got on snow at Thanksgiving!  Overall a fun day to close out a busy weekend.

In just a few short days, it was time to pack up for Regionals in Lake Placid.  We were able to get permission to leave a day early to beat the storm coming in on Wednesday night, which was a real blessing - it's a long drive to Placid, and it was really nice to be safe and sound when the snow really started falling.  The skiing at Mt. Van Hoevenberg was fantastic, and we were all suitably impressed by the new course - might be the hilliest course I've ever seen.  That was great news for Morgan - she absolutely crushed the skate race, finishing 14th (just 15 seconds from 4th!).  Emma in 22nd, Kira 26th, and Jori 28th gave us four women in the top 30 - another great display of our depth.  For the men, Carson finished 25th, Adam 29th, and Ayden 30th - his first time ever scoring for the team!  The next day's 20k classic was a long, cold slog - single digit temps and a lot of time grinding up and down those huge hills.  Skis were hit or miss for the women - Morgan (24) and Jori (25) really battled out there, and Kira was her usual consistent self in 35th to complete the scoring.  The men came out with good fire - Zach skied a wonderfully relaxed and focused race to finish 20th.  Carson started out strong, faded in the middle of the race, and then rallied to gain a bunch of places to end in 25th - a nice display of perseverance.  James was the star of the day, though - he settled in right around the top 30 and skied incredibly smoothly to hold his position.  On the final lap a group of guys were chasing hard, but he outlasted them to lock up his first ever 30th place finish - what a race!  James has been close to the top 30 several times this year, and it was so special to see him finally get it on the final day of the carnival season - a well-earned accomplishment.  We were 7th for the weekend, just one point behind Harvard.  Big thanks to Luke, who supported the team as a wax tech and student coach these last couple carnivals - he did a brilliant job of testing and waxing, and made a real difference in our ability to get competitive skis for our racers.  It was so nice to have him with us for the final carnivals of his college career - just a great person and a true team player.

And just like that, the carnival season is over - always such an abrupt ending after several frantic weeks!  It's been a great season for our team - an impressive start for our newcomers, steady improvements by our veterans, and an overall sense that this group really skied as well as we possibly could have hoped when the year started.  The future is bright!

One last fun note for the weekend - while most of the team was doing an easy recovery ski on Sunday, a few folks raced the Nonstop Nordic relay at Pineland.  Team M&M (Mia and Michael) won a hotly contested race in the mixed category, while Yee Haw?? (Francie and Grace E) were narrowly edged out by Erin Hatton '12 and her sister Dana in the women's race.  Super fun stuff and a great way to get sharp for the most important race of the year - the Chummy Broomhall Cup on Saturday!

Harvard Carnival & Flying Moose

All klister, all the time last weekend - three classic days in a row!  We made up for our double skate at Bates with a double classic at the Harvard Carnival in Dublin, NH.  Warm weather and a little rain left us with spring conditions on Friday - a great chance to break out all the foul runny klisters gathering dust at the bottom of the box.  Aggie popped a great race on her home course, finishing 18th - a personal best for classic.  Morgan was 27th, and Carson (24) and Zach (29) led the men.  Respectable, but not our best day - the crew was pretty tired.  This time of year is always a bit tough for us - school is piling up, and it's hard to predict what we'll get on race day.  Nonetheless, a good effort by everyone, and spirits were high for relay day (and Carni Crush) on Saturday.  An overnight freeze stabilized the tracks and made for nice fast skiing.  The problem with speed is that you can have too much of it, and that was basically the story of our relay day - lots of crashes on technical downhills!  All four of our teams had at least one fall on the opening leg, so we were basically chasing hard all day instead of skiing in the pack.  One or two more crashes in subsequent legs left us a bit further back than we should have been - our women were 9th and 10th, and the men were 9th and 18th.  The good news was that everyone skied really well when they were upright!  In particular, Adam and Zach had excellent legs for the men, and Emma's split was one of the fastest of the third leg.  I was really proud of the team for rallying after a tough week and a low energy race on Friday.  For the overall nordic scoring, we finished tied with Williams for 6th - a pretty good showing for an off weekend!  The skiers capped off a fun race with some Carni Crush antics - something to do with pink cowboy hats and lariats - and a good time was had by all.  Many thanks to Holly and Sean Macy for hosting the women's team and making dinner for the whole team both nights - this was an amazing gift to our team!  Holly and fellow Dublin XC coach Kathy Maddock also helped us with wax testing, with John working on applications both days.  This was the least stressful klister weekend I've ever had, and Saturday's skis in particular were some of the best we've had in a long while - all thanks to our first rate wax team!

We kept the klister train rolling on Sunday, with several skiers heading up to the Flying Moose Classic 25k in Bethel.  It was a beautiful sunny morning, and a big crowd turned out for the race.  Our skiers put on a good show - Ingrid, Francie, and Mia swept the podium, with Michael 4th and Luke 5th for men.   We ran into all sorts of Maine skiing friends at the race, including men's winner Tyler DeAngelis '15 and 6th place finisher Jackson Bloch '15.  A really fun event to close out a busy weekend.  Looking forward to the Williams Carnival and the Dublin Eastern Cup next!

Roy Varney Memorial Eastern Cup and More

No carnival last weekend, so let's catch up on some of the other exciting stuff happening in the past few weeks:

World University Games:  Renae Anderson '21 represented the US at World University Games in Lake Placid - she teamed up with Finn Sweet of UVM to win a silver medal in the classic sprint relay!

Para World Championships:  Jake Adicoff '18 won two gold and two silver medals at the Para World Championships, guided by former Mt. Ararat HS skier Sam Wood of Harpswell.  After a brief post-college retirement, Jake has been a force on the Para racing scene for the last couple years - so proud to see him getting better with age!

Girls and Women in Sports Day:  Bowdoin Nordic has never been able to participate in this fantastic event - we've always had conflicts with racing and training.  With no carnival this past weekend and the Eastern Cup events postponed, six of our skiers were able to introduce the next generation to the erg, ski imitation, power poses, and of course glitter.  Thanks to Jori, Kira, Grace M, Ingrid, Mia, and Emma for representing our team, and big thanks to Taylor Stevens (assistant Bowdoin volleyball coach) for organizing a great event!

Roy Varney Memorial Eastern Cup:  Lastly, several of our skiers raced the Eastern Cup at Quarry Road yesterday.  This race was held in honor of Roy Varney, a Maine high school skier from Turner who passed away in 2019.  Due to cold and windy weather, Saturday's classic race was postponed and we had a double race day on Sunday - 7.5k classic mass start in the morning, 7.5k skate mass start in the afternoon.  Ingrid, Mia, Grace M, Grace E, Emma, Francie, and Michael all tacked this challenge and represented our team brilliantly.  Some highlights:  Emma skied with the lead pack in both races, right behind recently retired Olympian Caitlin Patterson, to earn a pair of 3rd place finishes - wow!  Grace M finished 10th in the classic, her only race of the day, and Ingrid took 12th in the skate.  In particular, it was so fun to see our younger skiers mixing it up with fellow juniors after a month of competing at the college level - a nice indicator of how much they've improved this year!  I'm really proud of this whole crew - it was a long, hard day, and they rose to the occasion wonderfully.  Looking forward to seeing what the rest of the season brings for our team!

UNH Carnival 2023

 Back to Jackson for the second time this month for the UNH Carnival!  Jackson is always a lovely venue - nice winding trails with some fun descents, very spectator friendly, and surrounded by beautiful mountains.  And it's even better when you're staying right across the street at a nice old school hotel, the Eagle Mountain House.  A couple days before the races, New England got a big snowstorm followed by some rain, so the course was covered with saturated snow when we arrived on Thursday.  It froze up overnight and groomed out nicely for Friday's 5k skate race - super fast and fun skiing, and the race was over in a flash.  Zach led the men in 19th, with Carson in 25th, Adam scoring a nice PR in 28th, and Ayden skiing a fantastic race to finish 35th.  The women put 5 in the top 30 - Aggie 16th, Jori 19th, Emma 20th, Morgan 24th, Kira 27th - with Ingrid in 34th and Grace M in 37th for emphasis.  Really impressive display of depth!

Things got interesting the next day for the 20k classic - a little flurry shortly before the race put us right on the edge between klister and hard wax.  We were pretty committed to klister by this point, so we kept plowing ahead and did what we could to keep the skis free.  After as much testing as we could manage, we scrambled to get the skis out on time for the men.  The lead pack broke up more quickly than last weekend, but Carson was able to hang on to a small chase group and finish 11th - only a stumble in the final sprint kept him from another top 10 finish.  Zach was a bit under the weather but managed a respectable 34th, and James came back from sickness for a gritty 39th place finish.  We tweaked the women's skis a bit and sent them off, hoping they'd be able to make them kick as the sun hit the course.  Jori skied an almost identical race to last weekend, jumping in with the lead group and hanging tough once things strung out to finish 11th.  The rest of our crew did an outstanding job of moving through the crowd - Emma scrapped up from a middle seed to work her way into 14th, with Morgan close behind in 19th.  Aggie kept calm and skied smoothly throughout the race for a personal best classic finish of 21st.  Kira got caught up in traffic in the first few kilometers, but showed impressive perseverance to work her way back to a great PR of 23rd.  Grace M was once again close to the elusive top 30 in 36th - another strong race in a remarkably consistent season so far.  Grace E was not far behind in 40th - a fearless performance from a tough young skier.  Just a crazy, chaotic, exhausting, and super fun day of racing.  Big thanks to volunteer assistant John Eldredge, who drove up to help us out with waxing - we never could have gotten all those skis ready in time without him!  Overall a really solid carnival that left us feeling confident and eager to get back after it.  We've got a bit of a break this week with no carnival - several of our skiers will be doing the Quarry Road Eastern Cup, but no overnight travel.  Should be a fun weekend!

Jan Camp 2023

 A slow start to winter made for an extra busy Jan Camp this year - lots of trips to Quarry Road!  After our first few practices of the new year, we headed to Jackson for our traditional training/racing weekend.  A little snow just in time left us with surprisingly good skiing after weeks of warm temps.  We were able to do a great mini-carnival with UNH and skiers from several other EISA teams - a fun 8.8k skate race on a little stash of snow high in the hills outside of town.  Really nice showing by our skiers - Emma 3rd for women, and the men put 3 in the top 5, with Carson 2nd, James 4th, and Ayden tied for 5th.  After a nice long adventure ski with some glade skiing and creek crossings, we headed back home.  Big thanks to Jackson XC for putting together amazing skiing in such tough conditions!

After a few more days of the Quarry Road grind, it was carnival time!  Bates Carnival got things started at Black Mountain, where they had just enough snow to put together a nice race loop.  Once again, some timely snow helped us out considerably, but not enough to allow for tracks, so we ended up with a double skate weekend.  Day 1 was a warm, wet and sloppy 7.5k skate.  Aggie led the way in 11th, with Carson in 17th.  Things cooled off and firmed up for the next day's 10k.  The women's team really hit their stride in this one, with Aggie scoring her first top-10 finish in 9th, Morgan setting a new personal best in 13th, and Jori finishing 15th.  Carson and Zach led the men in 25th and 26th, respectively.  Kira (31), James (33), and Grace M (34) nearly scored their first NCAA points.  The women were 3rd on the day, and the team finished 6th overall for nordic - a respectable start to the season for this young team.

Even by mid-January, snow was still scarce across the East, so it was back to Quarry Road for a few more sessions - although of course we'd rather be training at Pineland, we're so lucky to have this great facility right up the road!  Soon enough it was time to head to Vermont for the St. Mike's Carnival, which had been relocated to Rikert.  Rikert has always been a great venue for our team, and this carnival was no exception.  Friday's skate sprint saw 5 of our skiers qualify for the heats:  Aggie (15) and Jori (18) for women, and Carson (24), Adam (27) and Zach (30) for men.  The heats were super fun to watch - Aggie finished a strong 3rd in her heat to end the day in 14th, and Carson and Adam were right in the mix before settling for 5th and 6th, respectively, to end up in 24th and 29th.  Jori advanced by nearly winning her quarterfinal, and then fought hard in the semis before running out of gas to finish 6th and end her day with a remarkable 12th place finish.  Meanwhile, Zach fearlessly challenged USST skier Ben Ogden (just back from an outstanding finish in the Tour de Ski) in his quarterfinal - although he didn't win that battle, his tenacious skiing earned him a trip to the semis.  He was equally aggressive in the next round, and just missed advancing with a lucky loser spot.  He ended up with a career-best 7th place finish - the best sprint finish ever by a Bowdoin man.  Amazingly, the next day's 15k classic was even better.  Jori got out to a hot start and stayed close to the lead pack the whole race, earning an impressive 10th place finish.  Morgan finished 16th despite skiing the whole race alone, and Aggie (26) and Emma (27) earned top 30 finishes as well.  In the men's race, Zach and Carson went out hot, got in with the lead pack, and managed to stay close for the whole race to finish 8th and 9th, respectively.  This was one of the best displays of confident, courageous racing I've ever seen - neither of these guys had any reason besides self-belief to think they could hang with the lead group for even a small part of this race, but they went for it anyway and got richly rewarded.  I couldn't be more proud.  Adam completed our scoring with a determined effort, moving up from last place leaving the stadium to 30th.  As a team, we were 5th for the weekend, just 1 point behind Dartmouth in 4th.  A great way to close out Jan Camp and send us into the heart of the season with momentum.

Just like that, we're a third of the way through the carnival season!  The semester is underway, and things will get busy very soon, but for at least a few more days we're in a semi-calm period.  Hoping to take advantage of it to crush the UNH Carnival in Jackson!