Eastern High School Championships (and a brief mention of JNs)

At EHS this year, we had five CSU coaches on the roster, and almost all of the athletes. I was head coach, and Maddy and Peter Nichol were also coaching. Doro and Gunther had been planning to come, but Gunther came down with a stomach bug the night before, so they scratched (rightfully so!). Super thanks to all the coaches (Jeff Campbell, Kiersten and Ryan Touponce, Mark Pollard, and team leader Susannah Wheelright) for managing the extra workload - we managed to get through all the tasks, but missed having the Kerns along! 

CSU sent a big contingent to EHS. I think everyone had at least one race that they can be proud of - look back at the goals you set for yourself last spring, and evaluate your races - did you meet your goals? What did you do well? What did you not do so well? Answering these questions can help you focus on what you'll improve for next year.

After a long bus ride, we made it up to Fort Kent on Thursday evening, in time for dinner at Rock's Diner, and then a team meeting and some dynamic movements in our hotel. Friday morning, we had a lot of time to kill, so started with a morning jog/walk before breakfast, a few hours of study hall, and finally time to head to the race course in the afternoon for the 5k skate race. 

All results can be found here: 

http://barttiming.com/XCski/Results19/ehsc2019.htm 

Peter Nichol took a ton of photos, that you can find here:
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPXnhtoRCoQvqiqzqtBs6hkg48q1Ybgq20Z-ynj5oSuYOog4T4D8DGUsu3yDpwK7w?key=RzdUMWdQenpLUnFxVDZRdnVnaVN3b0ZDSldGVmN3

Saturday

Conditions were very wet, but not too slushy, and our skiers zipped around the course. The CSU boys were led by Linden in 4th place, followed closely by Connor in 6th, Devin in 7th, Julian in 16th, Lucas in 18th, Ben in 36th, Dwight in 42nd, and Patrick in 73rd. Really great to see these guys skiing so well! The girls were next, and it was more great performances - Mica in 2nd, Francesca in 13th, Tali in 22nd, Ella in 25th, Eva in 30th, Phoebe in 42nd, Flora in 54th, and Serena in 78th. That's some solid skiing. 

Devin leading the classic race

Full Massachusetts Team

Sunday

It didn't get below freezing overnight, but the course was in amazingly good shape considering the lack of cooperative temperatures for Saturday morning's 7.5km classic race. It was a pure klister fest, and we definitely hit the wax, with Linden winning in commanding fashion! In an exciting turn of events, we had five in the top fifteen, with Devin on the podium in 3rd place, Ben in 5th (despite losing a pole!), Lucas in 6th, and Connor in 15th! Julian was 30th, and I just want to say that I remember working with Julian on his classic skiing when he first started at CSU, and I would not have pegged him at the time as a top-30 at EHS classic skier - proof that hard work really can make a difference! Dwight was 68th, and Patrick 77th, not quite the races they were looking for, but sometimes ski races go that way. 

The girls also had a great day, with Mica ending up in 3rd, Eva in 5th, and Francesca in 8th after leading the chase pack in 3rd for much of the race. Rounding out the top 10 was Ella in 9th! Tali was close behind in 12th. That is an impressive cluster of CSU skiers in the top 12! Flora used her great stride to ski to 40th, and Serena tried some different race tactics and ended up in 78th. Special shout-out to Eva, who has been almost 100% sidelined this winter with injury; coming back for a 4th place at a championship race is really impressive. Every CSU skier was a point-scorer for Team Massachusetts! 

After the classic race, we had a 1.1km skicross race. This was a super fun course, with two banked turns, a drop jump, some rollers, and a bicycle pump section. The entire course was in the stadium, which made a great spectating experience. In the boys' race, our friend from western MA, Jakin Miller, won the race, by three seconds - very impressive! Devin was the top CSUer, in 5th, followed by Linden in 16th, Connor in 20th, Dwight in 21st, Julian in 29th, Lucas in 32nd, Ben in 41st, and Patrick in 53rd. The girls had a bit more trouble on the course - at this point the slush was freezing into icy ruts, and the skiing got even more technical than it had been before. Mica took 4th, Eva was 20th, Tali 22nd, Elizabeth Anderson (skiing for CT) was 27th. We had some crashes in this race, so clearly need to spent more time making jumps and doing slalom at Weston! 

Sunday's Relay

Sunday at EHS is one of my favorite days of the year - the mixed-technique, mixed-gender relay! The weather had changed to cold and icy, with a wind, but everyone took that in stride (heh). 

The boys led off with a classic leg, and Linden and Devin skied to a clear lead, tagging off to Eva and Francesca in 1st and 2nd places. Ben was about 10 seconds back, tagging off in 7th (ish) to Phoebe, surrounded by Vermont suits, and Lucas was close behind them, tagging to Flora. Patrick was maybe 30 seconds behind Lucas, and tagged off to Serena. Good clean starts by all. 

The first leg of the classic girls race, Francesca roared up to the lead, and held it even with a tricky corner where our skis proved to be too fast and she took a tumble. Eva was right on her heels, in a mix with a few VT teams. Phoebe skied a great leg, really strong in her stride. Flora had a great final race of her highschool career, moving up a few places, and Serena skied past a few teams as well. 

The next leg was skate, and Connor had another really good skate leg, closing a little on the VT team ahead of him. Ayden came back from the dead, having been sidelined with a fever on Thursday/Friday, and had a solid skate leg, and Julian was just behind, on the team with Lucas and Flora. Dwight skied well, moving his team up a few places. 

The final leg was exciting, and Mica skied really well, but not quite enough to hold off Abby Streinz from Maine. Tali had a solid last leg, as did Ella, skiing the 11th fastest time. 

Elizabeth teamed up with another guest skier from Canada, and they both skied both legs, skate and classic. She had a solid race, moving them up a lot of places each time, and I personally enjoyed seeing the CSU suit out there :)

Too many teams out there to list off all the results, but I was proud of all the skiing that I saw out there today - lots of hard work, glitter, and guts! 

In the end, team MA didn't quite have the depth to match our second place from last year, but the CSU contingent were strong scorers for the team and in the overall - in the individual results, we did pretty well: 

1. Linden

2. Devin

8. Connor

11. Lucas

18. Julian

20. Ben

39. Dwight

65. Patrick

2. Mica

16. Eva

17. Tali

19. Francesca

29. Ella

44. Phoebe

50. Flora

73. Serena

A huge shout-out to John Buchheit, Terry Wong, Sheila Niedeck, Hannah Parker, and Ann Kitch for all they did to support the team - John and Terry probably put in about 48 hours of waxing and driving this weekend, with nary a complaint. WOW! 

A huge thank you to NENSA for putting on this event - the U16s and EHS relays are my favorite two days of the year. 

JN quickie report

Not being in Anchorage, I can't tell you stories, so you'll have to ask the individual athletes who made the trip. Here is a link to the results: https://my4.raceresult.com/118880/

If you take a look at the Alaska Cup standings (which is what the various regions are vying for), you'll see that New England won the cup by 227 points - this confirms what I've been saying all year - that New England is THE fastest region out there right now, and making it to those top 6 in your age group is an incredibly difficult task, involving not just a lot of hard work, but a hefty dosage of luck. 

You can all check out the results online, but here they are summarized - 

U16 girls: 

Sofia (2nd skate, 31st classic sprint, 8th classic 5k)

Evie (26th skate, 6th classic sprint, 44th classic 5k)

U18 girls 

Shea (6th skate, 4th classic sprint, 18th classic 10k, anchoring a relay with Lilly and Schuyler that finished 7th)

Amelia (18th skate, 38th classic sprint, 50th classic 10k, anchored the relay that finished 9th)

Laura (30th skate, 10th classic sprint, 43rd classic 10k, scrambled for the relay that finished 11th, tagging to Madeline)

Madeline (57th skate, 21st classic sprint, 27th classic 10k, 11th place relay)

U20 girls:

Emily Nottonson (16th skate 5k, 20th classic sprint, 11th classic 10k, scrambled for the relay team finishing 9th)

U18 boys: 

Henry (24th skate, 55th sprint, 47th classic 15k, anchored the relay finishing 9th)

Alex (43rd skate, 48th sprint, 67th classic 15k, middle leg on a U20 relay that finished 16th)

U20 boys: 

Jacob (19th skate, 15th sprint, 24th classic 15k, and scrambled for the relay team finishing 9th)

Extra big applause for Sofia, Evie, Shea, and Laura for earning all-American honors! 

Hugs and high fives,

Coach Alex

Fort Kent Eastern Cup report

The first EC of the season kicked off up in the way far north, pretty much Canada, at the Fort Kent Outdoor Center. They received a nice dump of snow midweek, followed by some days of chilly temperatures, so the conditions were pretty much perfect. Saturday was a skate sprint, which means everyone did a qualification race, and the results of that race seeded people into heats.

The bossman and his sidekick testing wax on a bright sunny Friday afternoon, basking in the warmth. Or something like that. Was certainly a shock to my system to ski at below-zero temperatures!

The women raced first, and Laura, DXCer Lily, and Coach Alex slid into the open heats. After the top 30 open racers, the next fastest 12 U18/U20s get pulled out for semifinals/finals, which included Madeline and Kate. Then the next 12 fastest U16s go into heats, where we had Shea, Eva, and DXCer Aggie. Francesca, Amelia, Phoebe, and Elizabeth didn’t go quite fast enough to qualify for the heats in this competitive field. They got the advantage of resting up for the next day, and started the mental preparation for it.

In the open heats, both Laura and Alex ended up third in their heats, with bib numbers not low enough to make it into the semis as lucky losers, and Lily finished just behind Alex. In the U18 heats, Madeline skied a really smart semifinal, tucking in behind a gal from GMVS and cruising through in 2^nd, and then blitzing the final for the win! Kate did her first skate sprint heats, and ended up in the B final, where she skied a smart race and ended up 3^rd in the heat, learning a lot along the way. For the U16s, Eva and Aggie got bumped to the B final after a brave semifinal, and then skied a smart race, with Aggie winning the race and Eva ending up third in the heat. Shea absolutely crushed her semifinal, and then ended up in third place! Awesome work, ladies.

 

Madeline on the top step of the U18 podium, and Shea in the bronze medal position for the U16s. 

The men had a great day too. We qualified three for the open heats: Oliver and Jackson qualified in 15^th and 16^th, and James landed in 22^nd. The next 12 U18/20s were tight, but Alex B landed in that group, with Jacob just missing the heats by 1 second! So close. Linden and DXCer Quinn qualified for the U16 heats comfortably. Coach Rob had a blistering time in the qualifier, winning the master’s field. Ben and Henry didn’t qualify for heats in this tough field.

In the heats, Jackson and Oliver were in the same quarterfinal. Oliver led it out hot from the start, but tangled with a competitor and crashed. Jackson came up the wax-cabin hill in a comfortable 2^nd place, but didn’t quite have the finish he wanted, ending up in 3^rd place. His bib wasn’t a low enough number to make it through as lucky loser. James was in the next heat, and he was in third place coming through the rolling hills behind the stadium. Then he used great skis and a finish kick to out-lunge eventual winner Daniel Streinz at the line, getting into the semi-finals. He landed in the B final, where he had a good finish for 4^th, and 10^th overall. 

In the U18 heats, Alex got bumped to the B final, and then duked it out for 5^th place in the heat. In the U16 heats, Linden also got bumped to the B final, where in an exciting race, he was fighting for the lead coming over the camels humps, and the three leaders lunged across the line in an all-out sprint. Unfortunately for Linden, his split wasn’t quite good enough, and he was third in the heat, which was still a great result. Quinn fought hard for a fifth place finish (I need to check on this – right now the results aren’t up for the U16 men).

The fun thing about sprints is that anything can happen. Sometimes, that anything works in your favor, and sometimes, it works against you.

Proof that teenagers now only communicate via pictures.

Sunday dawned chilly, but sunny, with really great conditions. The waxing was straightforward, and nearly everyone had great skis. The course was fun, starting with some long hills and then coming back down to the stadium with a couple little kickers along the way. Mass start races for everyone, 5k for U16s and the women, and 10k for the men.

The U16 men went first, and our boys had great races. Linden ended up fifth (fourth American), and Ben 10^th (and sixth American). Our DXC buddy Quinn had a breakout race, in 12^th. Great skiing gentlemen! The U16 women were next, and Shea and Eva both had really good races, with Shea in fourth (third American) and Eva in 6^th! Just behind them were Aggie and Francesca, skiing really nicely in 10^th and 11^th, and Amelia just behind in 13^th. Elizabeth had a really nice race for not getting on snow much yet, in 26^th and right in the mix with a pack of other girls.

Next off was the open women’s 5k mass start, which was, as one coach predicted, completely chaos. There was some aggressive skiing in the start, and a crash shortly thereafter that definitely affected the outcome of the race, as half the field was caught behind it. Laura skied a great race despite coming from the middle of the early crash, and ended up in 13^th as the sixth U18. Kudos! Just behind was Coach Kathy, in 16^th. Next was Madeline, with a solid race, in 21^st race, followed by coach Alex in 23^rd, and Lily in 30^th. Pretty good showing for the top 30! Schuyler (from DXC) had a great race, skiing really smart to get around lots of other racers to end up in 39^th, followed closely by Phoebe in 45^th with an excellent race. Kate had a rough day out there, which are the only days you can really learn from.

The men’s 10k was next. James and Oliver led our baby blue pack, coming in for 11^th and 12^th, with Oliver right on James’ tails. Not far behind them was Jacob, showing his classic specialist colors, in 26^th place. Jackson had a solid race, putting some classic distance demons behind him, ending up in 37th. Henry had a little trouble with his skis, ending up in 60^th, and Alex had a good first lap but then faded a little in the second lap, ending up in 71^st. Connor had a rough day, breaking his binding off of his ski, but he managed to get the binding back on the ski and still finished!

New Wax Team leader John Buchheit absolutely crushed it this weekend. Skis were fast, classic skis kicked like a dream, and there was zero panicking. His faithful followers were solid and dependable, churning out fast skis all day long. Kudos!

Great work to all the racers. This is an incredibly deep field that we’re racing against, so it’s hard to sometimes get the results you want. But it’s important to remember that every race is a practice for the next one, and the smart racers are the ones who are learning from each race and each mistake, figuring out what they can do better next time, and celebrating the small process successes (for example – I remembered to bring boot covers, and my feet were warm!). Fantastic weekend up in the County. Thanks to all who made it so fun!

Kathy and Alex took Rob to an Asian fusion restaurant for dinner on our way back south. Rob is skeptical, and claims to prefer the potato-based food from the County.