Great Day at the Broomhall!

The Broomhall Cup is always a fun event - it's great to get all of the Maine teams together to compete for a championship. This Sunday was no exception - a great day for a classic race, and one of our best days ever as a team. After finishing 3rd for the first four years of this race's existence, we managed a 2nd place finish this year, beating Bates and giving Colby a run for the win. Great skiing all around - I couldn't be more proud of the team. Huge thanks to Cookie Monster Tom Cook, who generously donated his Sunday to serve as our 3rd wax tech, and old friend Shem Dixon, who jumped in to bail us out with some last minute waxing before the start of the men's race - the day wouldn't have gone nearly so well without their help. Much thanks also to the parents, who were out in force to cheer, take photos, and set up a wonderful post-race spread.

Results here (scroll down on the sidebar).

Here are some photos courtesy of Greg Askins and Dyk Eusden:

Where is Dan's bib? It was right in the pile, #72...

Oh, there it is. On Spencer. Bib #12 still sitting sad and lonely next to the wax table. Fortunately for us, the Broomhall is a friendly event, and opposing coaches declined the opportunity to disqualify him (thanks guys!)

Wilson quick off the start line.

A 40-person race makes for a nice clean mass start.

Spencer and Wilson were locked together for the whole race - they took turns leading and worked together for a fantastic 2-3 finish (Wilson won the sprint).


Emma and Maren working the downhill.


Photos like this make you realize that Riley is really quite tall. Another great race for him - he finished in good company, right in the midst of some very good skiers.

On Saturday, we worked on creating a positive mental atmosphere in order to stay relaxed while racing. Rainer did a great job of this on Sunday and skied super smoothly.

I tend to think of Scott as a slow-twitcher because he's a skinny runner type, but this is false - he sprints quite well (did you know that he used to play football?) He didn't win this battle against John Dixon of Colby, one of the best classic sprinters in the East, but it was way closer than one might have expected.

Maren took my advice about smiling while racing to heart. This was easily her best race ever as a Bowdoin skier.

Kaitlynn skied with the lead pack for several kilometers, ending up 4th behind 3 of EISA's top classic skiers.

Very gritty effort by James on his way to a 7th place finish.

Hannah ended up leading this train and gradually dropping them to finish 5th - great to see her finding her form after a slow start to the season.

Grace skiing smoothly as always - looking quite casual in shades and Hattonwear.

Erin's double pole is starting to come back after a fall spent on the bike.

Very good race for Emma, who's coming back from a nagging bronchitis-type thing.

Chris's striding looked about as good as I've seen it on Sunday.

Alec is also coming back from illness - he missed several weeks but is getting stronger every week.


Steph at the finish - so good to be done.

Happy girls.

Which one of these is not like the other? (Hint: Rainer has his tights on backward).

A fine day for the Bowdoin Nordic team.

Skate Relay Photos

Some photos from Saturday's skate relay, courtesy of Greg Askins:

Colby Carnival

All kinds of excitement at the Colby Carnival this weekend. First, the 5k race loop was cut down to a 3.3k loop to eliminate some challenging turns that some coaches felt were too sketchy. Next, the races were shortened to 10/10k due to the shorter loops. Then, a huge storm rolled in on Friday morning, and it snowed heavily before and throughout the classic race. Lastly and most importantly, we had some very good performances both days. The big highlights were a 13th for Kaitlynn and an 18th for Wilson in the classic race. Wilson skied smoothly throughout the race and basically just crushed it, even though he was the last carnival starter and was skiing alone for most of the race. Kaitlynn got off to a slow start, but was able to jump in behind one of UVM's top skiers halfway through the race, and she hung on all the way to the finish - a nice display of tenacity. To my knowledge, this was the best-ever finish for a Bowdoin Nordic first-year woman. It was great to see things come together for these two - the whole team gets energized by results like these.

Today's skate relay also went well. Our women's A team ended up a respectable 18th with the A team men in 10th, which is one of our better relay finishes ever. The men beat Middlebury for the first time since 2007 and ended up 6th in the team scoring. Overall, a solid step forward from last weekend. Lots of people who were flat in Lake Placid are starting to come around. Not everyone has found their top form yet, and consequently we're not quite where we want to be as a team, but we're making progress - lots of reason for optimism. Best of all, there's tons of snow at Pineland, cold temps in the forecast, and no racing until next Sunday. We're looking forward to some great skiing and productive training this week.

Results

MvW Underway

With several inches of snow falling yesterday, the roads were messy enough that we decided to minimize driving by training at Mt. Ararat. Mt. Ararat HS coach Ed Mendes grooms a nice little set of trails around the fields and through the woods behind the school, including a pretty decent hill. We started off with a sprint relay, the first of the Maine vs. World events. World pulled off a comeback win in a race filled with crashes. More crashes were in store in our next MvW event - we combined hill repeats with a series of downhill races. Maine evened the score thanks to a heroic effort by the Eusdens and Grace's upset win over previously undefeated Kaitlynn. Many impressive body prints were left in the trailside powder, mine included - one of my best crashes in a while, thanks to a slow-witted Alaskan standing in the middle of the turn. Overall, not a bad workout for a sloppy conditions day, and it was fun to check out a new training venue.

Today we started things off with Round 3 of MvW - the baking/dessert contest. The judging proved to be absolutely painful, as both entries were fantastic. Maine's truffles were technically dazzling and near professional quality, but World's apple tart had that down-homey quality that has made America what it is today (ie, really overweight). 3-2, World - could have just as easily gone the other way.

With our blood sugar running high, we headed to Pineland for some sprints. More sloppy skiing due to yesterday's snow and the classic coastal Maine "wintery mix," but we managed another productive workout. First, Maine narrowly edged World in the agility course relay to even things up at 3-3. Next, we combined our sprints with more downhill work, racing in small groups around the hairpin turn just off the teaching field. More spectacular crashes - I think Rainer and Sanville were having some sort of contest to see who could auger in most deeply. Toward the end of the session, Riley pulled of this impressive maneuver:

Fortunately, everyone survived, and I think they even sharpened their turning skills. I was actually pretty pleased with how things came around. I've heard that this weekend's course at Bond Brook has some nice technical turns - looking forward to seeing how our skiers handle them!

SLU Skate

Saturday's skate race was another great day for racing - nice and cold temps, with a little fresh snow. The course was gently rolling, with lots of turns and a few short, steep climbs. It ended up being deceptively hard - with so many racers, the hills got chopped up and fairly sloppy, and most people who went out fast faded hard. It wasn't a great day for our team - several people are feeling tired right now, while others just haven't found their race legs yet. There were some bright spots, though, most notably Wilson's 29th place finish - his first ever NCAA points! It's great to see him getting off to such a strong start after two up and down seasons.

Some race photos, courtesy of the Kenney family:

SLU Carnival Day 1

5/10k classic at the SLU Carnival today. The event is doubling as a SuperTour, so there was a good crowd of fast skiers on hand. Due to low snow at Mt. Van Hovenburg, the race was held on a 2k loop at the ski jumps - a very challenging loop with lots of climbing. We had a decent opening to the carnival season - results weren't amazing, but people looked solid. Wilson and James led the men - 37 & 38 for EISA skiers, separated by a few tenths - while Kaitlynn was our top woman (39th EISA). Riley had the race of the day, though - he skied smoothly and looked fantastic through the whole race, ending up in 44th, just a few seconds behind Spencer. A great start to his college career - hopefully there's more where that came from! It'll take a little more racing before most of our skiers are ready to put up the results that I know we're capable of, but today was a good start. Another highlight of the day was Walt's work on the wax bench - he's joined us as a volunteer assistant this season. We've never had a 3rd wax tech before - it makes a huge difference! Quicker waxing and more productive testing helped us get the wax dialed in pretty well today. We'll have better skis every race thanks to his efforts. Thanks also to the Kenneys and Longwells for braving the cold to help feed the team post-race - much appreciated after a long, tough day!

Back Together & Lots of Snow

Almost everyone returned to campus on Monday, leaving us with a great training group these last couple days. Yesterday we did a very productive threshold workout at Pineland. Oak Hill has been holding up well, thanks to the usual stellar work by the Pineland crew - lots of shoveling and moving snow around gave us a surprisingly good 6k loop. Last night the snow started hammering, leaving the roads too treacherous for driving this afternoon. Instead, we skied on campus - a bit sloppy, but good to get out and get moving. I'd guess that at least 10 inches have fallen so far, with a couple more forecast before it's over. Hopefully this will set us up for good training these next few weeks.

Ironically, we're about to leave town for a much less snowy venue, Lake Placid, where we'll start the carnival season. Everyone's fired up to get things underway - just crossing our fingers for good roads and half-decent snow. We'll know soon enough.