It’s been an interesting weekend.  We got up yesterday to blue skies and temps in the low 20’s.  Post banquet in the evening it was 48 degrees and pouring rain.  This morning we got up to temps in the low teens and everything was hard as a rock.  The fast icy conditions made a few course changes necessary for safety so what was already a long race got longer.  The women got us off to a good start with Caitlin, Jennie, and Johanna skiing in the lead group for most of the first 10k.  It was a tight course and there was a fair amount of contact.  Unfortunately Caitlin got a pole stomped off on the last climb and had to ski about a kilometer before she was able to pick up another.  It was a bad break on a day she was feeling great.  She fought hard to finish 5th.  Jennie secured a trip to NCAA’s with her 12th place finish and Johanna rounded out the scoring with an 18th place finish.

The women’s race was a little contentious but the guy’s 24k was even more aggressive.  There were a lot broken and lost poles and more then a few hard crashes.  Our guys were able to mostly avoid trouble out there with Juergen, Alex, and Franz hanging in the front group for much of the race.  Franz did lose a pole and he couldn’t re-establish contact with the lead group in the last 8k and had to setlle for 7th.  It was so fast out there that you couldn’t afford to miss a move or make a mistake if you wanted to come to the line with the leaders.  It was still a good day for the guys as Alex had a season best 8th place finish and Juergen was 11th.

We had 5 seniors (Chris, Ryan, Juergen, Mary, and Kat) close out their EISA careers today and we’ll miss them next year.  Congratulations to them and all the other seniors that raced today.

Thanks to the Benders and Howes for filling our bellies post-race again this weekend.  It was a fun weekend despite the weather!  NCAA’s are coming in two weeks so stay tuned….

…the race for the guys with who didn’t use zeros.

The sad state of our tent just about sums up the race for our guys today, a big gust of wind destroyed it!

My posting has been a little sparse the last couple of weeks, my apologies.  Apparently my last post was waaaaaay too boring because even my Dad wrote to tell me how boring it was, my bad…

Franz and Juergen skiing away from Glenn at the finish on Friday at Middlebury Carnival…

Sorry we were off the grid this past week.  We got back in action today at the Middlebury Carnival but we also race last weekend so let me hit those high points first….

Juergen and Franz went 2, 3 in the 10k and Alex was 23rd to pace the men to a second place finish.  Katrina, Jennie, and Mary paced the women.  On Saturday in the mass start Franz was second and Juergen managed an eigth place after his ski came off while he was sprinting for 3rd.  Alex scored again with a 13th as the men place third.  Johanna lead the women with her best finish of the season with Kat and Ellery finishing close behind.  On Sunday Laura and Kelly went 1, 2 in the Ichabod’s Revenge at Sleepy Hollow and brought home some sweet prizes.

Now for today’s results… I wish I had some photos as it was an exciting day!

Franz and Juergen out-dueled Glenn Randall from Dartmouth for 1, 2 finish in the men’s 10k Classic mass start.  It was an exciting race with Franz and Juergen battling it out at the front with Alex, Chris, Ryan, and Eric fighting it out not to far back.  In the end Alex hung on for 15th which was good enough for a one point victory over Dartmouth in the event.

On the women’s side, Caitlin lead the group home in 4th place.  Mary followed up with a stellar 12th place finish and Jennie rounded out the scoring in 18th which was good enough for third place on the day for the women.  All things considered it was a good day.  Caitlin didn’t show too much rust after a week off last weekend and Jennie is almost back after a lot of bad luck with illness.

The alpine team was strong as well today and we are only 5 points back of Dartmouth with freestyle relays and the GS tomorrow.  Watch for pictures on eisaskiing.org and hb3.smugmug.com

Caitlin, Juergen, and the women’s podium (that check is not for Caitlin), photos courtesy of nensa.net

Mother nature threw everything she had at us today and the Catamounts weathered  the storm admirably.  The day started off with a light drizzle with temps in the 40’s but by the time the women were warming up there was thunder and a white out blizzard.  The ladies took it all in stride and skied to some great results.  Caitlin picked up where she left off yesterday winning a tightly contested race in the last couple of kilometers.  Not to be outdone Mary came through with her best result yet in a carnival skiing to 10th place!  Johanna and Kat followed close behind in 15th and 16th to close out another strong result for the women.  Ellery was just outside the top 20 again and Mae skied to her strongest result so far in a classic race.  They finished second on the day and more importantly their strong result pushed us from third overall in the carnival to second overall.

During the women’s race the weather made another dramatic swing as the wind blew away the clouds and we were left witha sunny windy day for the men.  The temperature continued to drop and what was a somewhat soft and wet course became hard and icy.  With the weather changing quickly we just barely started working on the men’s race skis till 20 minutes before the first starter.  We managed to get them all out to the start on time (not every team did) and Patrick and I were left standing in the stadium wondering if what we got on was going to be enough.  As the guys started to come around for the first of 3 laps of the punishing Trapp’s 5k we were relieved to see that everyone was skiing well.  Juergen, Franz, and Chris were all in the top 5 and everyone else looked solid.  Juergen slowly pulled away from the field for  the victory and Franz and Chris hung tough for 5th and 8th place finishes, leading the men to their first team win of the season!  All the men skied well with Alex and Ryan finishing just inside the top 20 and Cole skiing to his best classic result of the season.  The men’s finished cemented second place for the Catamounts on the weekend.

Almost everyone on the men’s and women’s teams skied to season’s bests in classic today.  We are getting stronger at the right time and we are looking forward to the Dartmouth Carnival next weekend.

Thank you to all the parents that were out there today and yesterday.  Despite some bizaar weather today everyone had a great time.  I don’t have any photos but would be happy to post any that are sent my way.  There will be pictures from the race here before too long: http://www.hb3.smugmug.com/

We also owe a big thank you to all the folks up at Trapp Family Lodge, the Stowe Nordic Club, NENSA, and everyone else who helped to make the first UVM Carnival/TD Banknorth Eastern Cup/Supertour event a smashing success!

After a couple of near misses Caitlin managed her first carnival win today on Trapp Family Lodge’s unforgiving new 5k course.  She battled it out with Rosie Brennan from Dartmouth throughout the course as they were seperated by only a handful of seconds at each split station.  In the end Caitlin’s final charge up the last climb proved to be the difference as she won by less then 2 seconds.  Her effort lead another strong showing by the Lady Cats.  Kat was eigth and Johanna, Mae, Mary, and Ellery were not far behind in 20th, 21st, 23rd, and 25th.  The depth of this group is great and we expect another great outing tomorrow.

The men struggled a little today with several people at less then a hundred percent.  Freshmen Cole Talbot paced the men with 16th place finish and Juergen and Alex weren’t far behind to close out the scoring.  Most of the guys feel a little more comfortable with classic right now so we should bounce back tomorrow.

All in all it was a good day.  There were 400 plus racers out there and tons of spectators to cheer everyone on.  Also no Catamouts went hungry as we had an army of parents bring tons of food.  Check back for pictures and more tomorrow….