Rumford JOQ - Classic Sprints

CSU had quite a day today up in Rumford in the classic sprint races.  24 CSUers toed the line in the qualifying round and 8 moved on to the elimination rounds! The day dawned clear and when the sun popped over the horizon it started to warm up enough that we had to break out the klister for the first time this season.  After much testing and experimentation we settled on some new klister covered with hard wax combination that worked well for most of the kids.  During the waxing frenzy a huge gust of wind whipped down off the mountain and picked up the Ford Sayre tent, aiming it squarely at the CSU tent.  Fortunately I raised the alarm and we all grabbed the CSU tent before it lifted off and the Ford Sayre tent then sailed over us and into the trees!  So much for my life flashing before my eyes, back to waxing.  Qualifiers included Alex Jospe and Corey Stock in the women's race, Cate Brams and Olivia Meyerson in the girls J2 race, Chris Stock and Jackson Rich in the men's race and Eli Hoenig and Hamish McEwen in the boys J2 race. 

The snow continued to soften up for the afternoon elimination rounds, so the coaches stripped off the morning klister and came up with a new setup, including rilling and Jetstream.  It became clear that we had nailed it as the CSUers rose to the occasion and skied really good races all afternoon.  In the women's race Corey led the whole race but got out-doubled poled at the line to take a very close 2nd.  Alex was in the B final, finishing 5th for 11th overall.  In the girls J2 Cate skied to 5th in the A final and Olivia hammered up the hill, coming from behind to garner 2nd and 8th place overall.  In the men's race Chris took 5th in the A final while Jackson finished 2nd in the B final for 8th overall.  In the boys J2 Eli had a great race, coming home in 2nd while Hamish followed closely behind for 4th in the A final. Not a bad day for CSU at all!!

The men's qualifying race had some very weird results so there were a couple of protests.  We are still not sure of whether those results are good, but they went on with the show anyway. 

This was probably the biggest showing by CSU at a JOQ and tomorrow we will have 25 on the line in the skate mass start races.  Stay tuned!!