CSU Extreme XC Running Race!

The question of the day on Sunday was, “who is CSU X?” With our new CSU X tank tops, CSU X athletes plus family members and coaches competed in the 2k/5k/10k Holdenwood Cross Country Race! We met up in the morning and did a joint course tour led by Coach Alex, just like we do on snow, however, we had to focus our minds on running tactics instead of skiing tactics (no tucking down hills, sadly). The weather was beautiful and quite warm for a late September weekend. The course had a lot of varying terrain, including uphills, downhills, flats, and of course CSU’s favorite, transitions. Since we had such a large group, there was always a CSU’er near by, pushing you to go faster. No wonder we had such great results! Racing with a team of 23 CSU’ers in addition to Dorothee (who took the photos and cheered us on) and other parents, there was a CSU’er around every corner. Nice work everyone! Here are all the results and photos!

5k

Corey Stock (20:45) Overall Female Winner

James Kitch (20:48) 3^rd in Age Group

Connor Giersch (21:04)

C.P. Giersch (21:12) 2^nd in Age Group

Alex Jospe (21:21) 2^nd Overall Female and Age Group Winner

Jackson Hardin (22:00)

Kathy Maddock (22:06) Age Group Winner

Barry Kicth (22:27) 3^rd in Age Group

Julia Kern (22:43) Age Group Winner

Gunther Kern (22:49) Age Group Winner

Talia Seltzer (23:23) 2^nd in Age Group

Allie Skahen (24:56) 3^rd in Age Group

Clara Cousins (25:02)

Kevin Tefler (25:17)

Brian Tefler (26:55) 2^nd in Age Group

Izzy Cole (27:10) 2^nd in Age Group

Lydia Yoder (29:02)

Ella Redmond (31:00)

Katherine Decker (31:30)

10k

Sue Lachance (46:25) 2^nd Overall Female and Age Group Winner

Jamie Doucett (56:53) 2^nd in Age Group

Jody Newton (1:02) Age Group Winner

2K

Lucas Giersch (8:04) Overall Winner

The whole CSU crew!

Ready, Set….Go!

James

Alex and Jackson

Julia

Talia

Corey

Alex looking quite excited!

Allie giving the thumbs up!

Kevin

Brain and Jamie

Izzy

Jody

Gunther

Barry

Connor

Clara

Lydia

Littleton!

On my way to a board meeting I had to go to I stopped by to catch a few of my favorite people at Littleton on a perfect fall day. 

Rosie and Liza

CSU alums Rosie and Liza met up at St. Olaf after Rosie (Macalaster) ran an xc race yesterday. 

CSU-X(treme) takes on the Orchard House 5k

CSU showed up to the Louisa May Alcott Orchard House 5k race on Sunday, and in the wise words of Meg Yoder, we're the folks who ruin fun runs for everyone else.  The field wasn't super deep, but we added some quality, with Jackson taking home top honors and winning the whole race!

Excellent work by all the skiers!  It is so important to get out there and test your limits in races, because that's how you figure out what those limits are when the important races roll around.

Full results
(My GPS measured the course a smidge on the long side, but it's close enough to 5k, maybe 20 sec off).

CSU results:
Jackson - 19:54
Coach Alex - 20:12
Talia - 22:05
Rebecca - 23:09
Meg - 23:32
Izzy - 23:57
Lydia - 25:55
Violet - 26:09
Ella - 30:25

Coach Frank - 42:21 (in the 10k)

Nice work team!

Climb to the Castle Adventure Weekend 2014

On Friday I rented a mini-van and drove Lewis, Leah, Clara, Jackson, and Talia to Lake Placid, NY for the Climb to the Castle rollerski race that goes up the auto-road up Whiteface Mountain.  It climbs for five miles.

Most arrived on time for the rendezvous

Made it to the summit of the mountain.  Go team!

Andy Newell and Erika Flowers.  Skiers are ugly.

Julia Kern was at a USST camp all week with her pal Katherine Ogden.  K.O. took 3rd overall.  Julia won the U-18 category.

Julia on the podium with Leah in second place.

Lewis won the U18 for the boys.

After such a fine effort, Lewis refueled at The Breakfast Club

On Sunday we hiked Hurricane Mountain on our route home.

Everyone had too much fun during the weekend and no one but the driver could stay awake on the ride home.

Congrats to the fine skiing displayed by all the CSU skiers.  I was so proud to introduce  you all to the U.S. Ski Team coaches and be able to say these were the CSU athletes.

Orienteering!

In a long-awaited post, here are the results from the orienteering session two weeks ago!  Sorry for such a delay.  But now you can know the winner!  

Keeping in mind the penalty (10 points for every minute overtime), the results are as follows: 

1. Allie and Izzy 56:03 (180 points)

2. Tyler and Jordan 1:04:52 (210 - 50 = 160 points)

3. Alex's friend Dean 56:47 (120 points)

4. Claire 56:03 (110 points)

5. Violet and Lydia 1:03:32 (150 - 40 = 110 points)

6. Natalie and Ella 1:04:53 (80 - 50 = 30 points)

7. Kate and Andrea 1:24:00 (140 - 200 = -60, but, this was organizer error, when the organizer picked up the controls early and they lost 20 minutes searching for a control that was no longer there. So, Kate and Andrea will be reinserted without the 20min penalty, and thus end up with 140 points, in 3rd place).

Apologies to anyone who was affected by my shoddy organization skills - hopefully next time I can recruit a helper to make this sort of event run even more smoothly!