13 MAR 2010: Franz Bernstein (2) of the University of Vermont celebrates at the finish in the Men’s Cross Country Freestyle during the Division I Men’s and Women’s Skiing Championship held at Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs, CO. Bernstein finished first to win the national title. Brett Wilhelm/NCAA Photos
© ©Brett Wilhelm/NCAA Photos

After several days of sun the skies opened up the last 24 hours beginning with a squall during the 2nd run of the men’s GS and continuing through this mornings races up at Howelsen Hill. The snow made for tricky conditions but the athletes handled things well. A few of the highlights….

2 podiums (Franz 2nd today, and David Donaldson 3rd yesterday)

5 All-Americans(Meg Ryley, David, Colpitts, Patterson, Franz)

2nd place team finish in the Men’s GS.

Franz had a pretty good day placing 8th for teams and beating three schools with 3 athletes.

More to come with the night slalom tomorrow.

This picture needs no caption.  ‘09 alum Jürgen continues to dominate when it comes to classic ski races.  Skiing alum Anders Osthus was sixth in the classic and Cycling alum Jake Hollenbach was 40th in the skate.

It was another interesting day at Breadloaf today. Yesterday’s unpredictability was replaced by sun, sun, and more sun. The women got things started off right with Jennie leading the way home in fourth. Caitlin and Ellery fought through some early misfortune to battle back inside the top 20 and senior Mary Stewart ended her collegiate career with a classy 23rd.

In the men’s race Franz got out clean and found out early that it was going to be his day. A combination of good skis and good form allowed him to ski away from the field early and hold a gap till the end.  He had enough time to grab a Catamount flag and carry it across the line in style.  The sun was high and the course warmed rapidly leaving the men to slog through slushy wet snow in places.  Alex skied to 17th and Paul and Fritz battled to finish just outside the top 30 and help the Alpine men win the Dartmouth Cup which is awarded to the men’s team that scores the most points at the Eastern Championships.

Jesse had pretty much the opposite experience of Franz in his last collegiate race.  A crash in the first 400m left him with one ski and a long way to go to catch up to the pack. He didn’t give up and slowly worked his way back to the pack and then through them to finish a respectable 35th.

Congrats to Franz for picking up both the classic and skate leader bibs for the season and Franz, Caitlin P, and Jennie for picking up All-East Honors.

Radio Silence was in the cue yesterday but didn’t make it up for some reason so two in one day!!!

Today we saw a little bit of everything with temps hovering around 0 Celsius and rapid changes between sunshine and blizzard like conditions.  With the weather changing so rapidly we were really rolling the dice with wax.  The men started in a snow squall and finished in sunshine.  The women started under a mix of sun and clouds and finished in a blizzard.

Most people opted for zero’s with 5 of our 6 scorers ending up without wax.  Kudos to Mary leading the women home with an 8th place finish, a career best for her!  Franz continues to dominate the classical events cruising home to a 40 second win despite slippery skis in the last 5k.

Photos from today thanks to Caitlin Patterson who is a little under the weather…

Fred under the umbrella doing his thing…

Mary was moving so fast this was the only shot we could get…

Ellery had great skis till the storm rolled in…

Jennie in the heart of the storm…

Senior Jesse Kosiba heading to the finish…

Franz en route to the win…

I blame it on racing, travel, and most importantly the Olympics, but like Patrick always says, there are no excuses, just reasons.  Hopefully you’ve been able to follow along with Lincoln’s updates on http://eisaskiing.org/index.html

Alex and Newt at UVM in the mass start.  Photo courtesy of Dennis Curran

Caitlin, Jennie, and Caitlin en route to a second place team finish.  Photo courtesy of Dennis Curran

We’ve all been inspired the last two weeks by the great racing at the Olympics, including former Catamounts Kris Freeman, Lowell Bailey, and the Nystad twins who are working with the Swiss and Norwegian National teams.  Alpine Assistant Johnny Davidson took a 24 hour trip to Vancouver to watch the Men’s GS and ran into Trond and Knut at a bar celebrating Claudia Nystad’s Gold medal in the Team Sprint.

The last few weeks have been a blur with great performances from the Catamounts including numerous wins by Caitlin P and Franz, top tens from Jo, Jennie, Caitlin C, and Alex, and near misses from Janey, Fritz, and Ellery.  In the near miss category I would also include two tight finishes at the UVM and Williams carnivals where we lost by 8 and 2 points respectively.  We are getting closer and after a one day delay we are headed to Breadloaf to get the  Green monkey off our back and win one before we leave for NCAA’s!

Hope to see you out there!

What is it about Sprint racing that brings out the grimace? Photos Courtesy of Dennis Curran

After months of preparation the carnival season has finally begun.  Starting in Lake Placid and continuing with a “home” carnival hosted by St. Mike’s at Sleepy Hollow a week ago the season has brought a mixture of highs and lows.  We had some solid individual performances in Lake Placid but the weekend left most of us hungry for better results.  St. Michael’s carnival saw a return to form for many people including a breakthrough performance from Sophomore Alex Howe who came within 11 seconds of the win.  While the results were better our best days are still in front of us.  This past weekend we did a Time Trial with St. Mike’s and Middlebury to test out the classic course at Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe.  The conditions are good and we are excited to be a part of hosting the EISA and NENSA Eastern Cup races this Saturday and Sunday!

As always you can find pictures and sometimes live results at http://www.eisaskiing.org/

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