Rumford JOQ Classic Sprints

On a beautiful ski day with gorgeous snow and conditions for the first time in years at Rumford CSU had several qualifiers at the JOQ classic sprints today in Rumford. Hilary Rich qualified in the women's race and then in the quarter finals squeeked out a very narrow 2nd place to advance to the semi-finals. Hilary was in 3rd coming down the hill into the stadium and simply out double-poled the competition! In the semis Hilary finished in 3rd, putting her in the B final where she finished a strong 2nd, giving her 6th place overall. Jackson Rich qualified in the boy's J2 race and was fourth in his semi-final which put him into the B final, but that was cancelled because of the lateness of the day. He came in 7th on the day. Nadija Kern also qualified in the girl's J2 elimination round finishing 11th for the day.

Big news of the day was that Peter Rummel, now a freshman at Colby, finished 2nd in the qualifying race, an awesome performance in this crowd of fast skiiers! Matt Briggs qualified in 6th. Matt went on to the A final and finished in 2nd, while Peter made it into the B final and also finished 2nd in that race, putting him in 8th overall. In the photos above, Peter is on the left, leading the quarter-final while Matt is on the right, leading his quarter-final. Hilary can be seen in her quarter-final race.



Full results are now posted on the Chishom ski club site at:
http://www.chisholmskiclub.org/chisholm_results/2007-08/07-08_results_leftframe.htm

The Geschmossel - Bretton Woods

Rob swung by to pick Evan and I up before it was even bright this morning to head up to the Geschmossel 15km classic race at Bretton Woods. We watched the temperature drop slowly and then after Concord, precipitously, down to about -5F at one point. As we pulled into Bretton Woods, though, the sun and Mt. Washington were shining, which helped us think warm thoughts. It was about 5F and windy. Evan and I went out for a warmup and to test various waxes and it really wasn't too cold. The view of the mountain was awesome, the snow was plentiful and the tracks were hard and reasonably fast in the woods. It was going to be a good day!

After gearing up in warm race clothes, including balaclava for me, we decided Toko Mint had plenty of kick and wasn't at all draggy. Then we headed for the start area with Rob and Joe Bouscaren, hoping they would get things going right away before we got cold. But no, we were held up at the line for about 7 min. until their laptop got fired up and we got cold. However, once the race was underway all was fine. We rocketed out across the golf course at a rather frenzied pace, me chasing Rob and Joe and Evan following close behind. This was the old guys race, Evan was the only J1, but of course was filled with some of the cream of the masters crop, including Doug Armstrong, Charlie Gunn, Ron Newbury, Raul Siren, Bob Gray, Perry Bland and many others. The race was on! Lots of hammer double-pole and kick-DP until finally we reached the nice kick and glide climb up Sebosis. My wax was perfect and I closed in on Joe, who had to hop out of the track a couple times because he wasn't getting enough kick. Should have gone with Toko Joe! I chased Rob, but he slowly dropped me and although I'd passed Doug Armstrong, thinking I'd left him arrears, he re-passed me at the junction with Clinton. I lost focus in there somewhere and ended up in no-man's land, chasing phantom skiers in front and knowing that Joe and Evan were not far behind. We came bombing down Clinton and then I was surprised by a series of short, steep climbs we had to do. The work was not over yet.... I chased and chased to no avail all the way up and back down Clinton and through the biathlon area, closing in on the guy in front of me, but alas I came up short, finishing strong but gaining no more places.

After putting on our warmups Joe, Rob, Evan and I headed out for a mellow cooldown ski to enjoy the fabulous conditions and find out that, yes, we had skied hard and our arms were shot, then in for a hot shower and awards. A great day of skiing was had by all, even if it was a bit cool out there. (Photo from the Bretton Woods website)

Partial Results
MEN
1. Andrew Hunter 40:31
2. Phil Lawson 41:00
3. Charlie Gunn 42:00
4. Rob Bradlee 42:11
5. David Herr 42:18
6. Doug Armstrong 43:50.4
7. Steve Piotrow 43:50.9
8. Mike Innes 43:52
9. Larry Martell 44:19
10. Jamie Doucett 44:22
11. Steve Wright 44:59
12. Joe Bouscaren 45:16
13. Evan Doucett 45:41
14. Gordon Scannell 45:47
15. Ron Newbury 46:31
16. Dave Roberts 46:40
18. Perry Bland 47:58
20. Raul Siren 48:07
23. Bill Holland 49:54

WOMEN
1. Jenna Maddock 49:41
2. Kelsey Allan 50:24
3. Laura Gardner 51:21
4. Amy P. Gunn 52:35
8. Ellen Chandler 59:35

Massachusetts High School Qualifier Results

Results from Sunday's Mass HS qualifier freestyle race which took place at Weston can be seen at:

http://www.nensa.net/docs/EHS%20CCSU%20Sprint%20results.pdf

Massachusetts HS Qualifier Race and CSU Sprints

It was a great day of skiing at the at Weston Ski Track today with a rare double-header. First up was the Mass High School Freestyle Qualifier race, one of two races used to determine who qualifies for the J2 Championships (14-15 year olds) and the Eastern High School Championships. Weston put together an excellent race loop for this 5km event. I'll try to post the results when I get them, but the CSU Juniors did very well.

The second event was the CSU sprints, starting with a 5km qualifier race and followed by the sprint elimination tournament. There was some exciting racing on the men's side, pitting several high school kids against some recent college grads. Hilary Rich won the women's tournament and Chris Stock hung on to take home the gold over the hard-charging Nick Fogel.

Pictures of the day are now posted. Click on the photos link.

Hopkinton 5km

The Boston CSU boys Jon Peterson and Andy Milne invaded the Hopkinton 5km and stormed away with the silver and gold. Both of us were surprised to see that they had so much snow, and bad news for the natives, the course looks like Weston. Both Jon and I started on the far left while most racers took the right lanes. When the gun went off, we understood why. Our poles immediately went through the two feet of soft snow, while the others zoomed ahead - far
ahead. So there was work to be done navigating around slower skiers. Prior to our race they had numerous school buses and hundreds of excited folks cheering on the high school racers. The facilities are quite good, and the race organizers were wonderful. Best of all the drive is only an hour.

AndyMilne

Bogburn 2008

More later, but a great race put on by Bob Haydock today. I think he had the most BKSL kids ever. Good fun had by all and lots of bizarre waxing as the day got warmer and the tracks got weirder. Waxless skis weren't a bad choice.

I've posted BKSL pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jdoucett3/Bogburn2008BKSLRaces

I'll post more pictures later.

I've now posted the men's race at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jdoucett3/Bogburn2008MenSRace

And now I've gotten the J2/Women's race posted at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jdoucett3/Bogburn2008J2sAndWomen

Nationals Update - Classic Races

CSUers continued to do well at Nationals. The classic races were held today. In the men's 15km race Matt Briggs, now skiing for Colby, finished an excellent 38th out of 242.

In the women's 10km race Evelyn Dong finished 20th and is on track to make the U23 Worlds team. Alex Jospe finished 118th in a field of 177.

CSU at the Nationals

Former CSUer Evelyn Dong finished 12th in today's 5km women's freestyle at US Nationals while Alex Jospe came in 66th out of a field of 184. Link to the results: http://itiming.com/searchable/index.php?results=ussa_fs_2008

On the men's side, Matt Briggs finished an excellent 33rd in the 10km race out of 253 competitors.