Photos - Nationals Skate Race

Photos from the men's 15km and women's 10km skate races on Thursday. 

 Eli skiing strong

 Eli and Nathan

 Calvin getting up!

 Nathan

 Corey on lap 1

 Julia

 Cate on the come-back

 Olivia

 Hadley

Kayte

Report from race #2

This from Rob:

I hope you have been following the exploits at Sr Natls on the blog. Today was a particularly great day. Jamie, Alex, Jim Stock, and I prepped some rocket skis and the team athletes responded with some peak performances. Eli Hoenig went deep into the pain cave and in a back and forth battle with Paddy Caldwell and Cole Morgan emerged with a 17 second victory in a 32 minute race. What a race! Calvin definitely had one of his best races ever. Nathan Moreau also was flying.

For the girls race I was positioned on the dreaded High School Hill. The boys and done it 4 times and it left them panting on the ground at the race's end. The girls had to do it 3 times and they had to go hard. Corey was suffering the effects of her 4 sprint efforts 2 days ago, although she was still 6th junior. Olivia was in the zone riding on Issy Pelettier's tail (having gained 30 seconds on her). Cate is making a great comeback from her injury - she had her sleeves rolled up and was hammering. Hadley Moreau looked very strong and was one of the top J2s. Kaytie Innamorati was back from college for a strong ski too. Julia Kern had a blistering race, finishing just seconds behind Corey and one of the top juniors. It was a fantastic effort, and a great comeback after her fall in the sprint. Way to go!

Tomorrow we have the 10 and 5 K classic races in the afternoon. In the evening we will have the naming of the World Junior Junior team and the J1 Scando trip team. Then we'll be home and ready to ski again at Weston.

Report from day 1

Jamie took photos, and asked me to write some text, so here ya go!

After an eerily déjà vu experience of having the first race at nationals delayed by a day, Rumford pulled themselves together and presented a beautifully prepared course for the skate sprints. The CSU athletes toeing the line were Eli, Calvin, Nate, Kaytie (CSU alum), Zoe, Corey, Olivia, Cate, and Hadley. With six coaches and three parental support units, the ratio was pretty good!

The women raced first, around a 1.4km loop that they also use for Easterns, and I got the chance to watch them all go out. Jessie Diggins and Ida Sargent both looked particularly impressive, but the girls in blue (hehe) held their ground, looking very smooth, powerful, and quick. Looking at the results, it's becomes painfully apparent just how deep the nationals field really is - one second on the results list usually covered four to six skiers. Corey qualified for the senior heats in 17th, which was pretty exciting. Olivia missed the junior heats by two seconds, but looked great out there. The other girls had to battle some of the challenges of ski racing - Zoe overcame some last-minute stress when her skis never got delivered to the start, but raced on Julia's skis, and was racing with a smile on her face - nothing rattles her! Julia was so overcome by the speed of her skis that she took a tumble in the worst possible place - on a downhill leading into a flat, losing all her momentum. Cate had a minor asthma attack, of some sort, making the uphills a bit more of a challenge, but still skied pretty. Kaytie and Hadley both raced well, gaining some great race experience. All the girls were very positive and supportive after their races, a tribute to the great atmosphere we have on this team.

The boys raced second, and Eli had a fantastic race (I think), using his trademark high-tempo stride and combining it with some good power. He caught the Dartmouth skier who started in front of him, and went on to finish 49th, and the second J1. Nathan looked smooth and quick, with cool sunglasses. Calvin was skiing great too, sporting yet another different ski suit. The guy is just at the height of fashion. It was really cool to watch the top men skiing, they're just in a different league completely.

We also saw alums Chris Stock, Hilary Rich, and Chris Burnham speeding around the course.

After a wait, it was time for the senior heats. Corey skied super smart heats, and it quickly became apparent that this was a sprint course that relied on tactics. I was definitely nervous in her quarterfinal, as she was racing against #4, #7, and #12, who had clearly been faster in the qualifier. Luckily, Corey doesn't like letting people beat her, and despite a slight tactical error on the last downhill, she had a great finish sprint and took second in the quarters by a photo finish. You have to be top two to move on.

It was a long, stressful wait while they figured out the results, but Corey took it in stride. I won't talk about the nail-biting going on in the wax room. But they declared that Corey was in, and I don't think I've ever seen Jim Stock so excited! She cruised through the semi final; asking about her race after, the main word she used for the semis was "fun". It was another photo finish between 3rd and 4th, but they figured that one out a little bit sooner, and she was in to the A final!

The A final was crazy - with three CXC skiers off the front, it became a race for 4th, 5th, or 6th, but Corey skied smart and fast, and ended up 4th! We were all pretty excited.

After the senior heats, Eli got ready to go out in the junior heats. As they had only taken 24 juniors into the heats, he had to be top 3 in his quarterfinal. It was another very tactical heat, and Eli slipped into 2nd place with a smooth move around the uphill corner. He got a bit pushed back on the climbs, but was in a great position going into the downhill, and slingshotted himself from sixth to fourth on the downhill. Unfortunately, as he moved around someone in the finish for a sprint to 3rd, he stumbled, twice, and then crashed across the finish line and broke his binding off his ski. What a finish! Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, and he was done for the day. But Eli stayed in 2nd place for J1s, and learned some great lessons in his heat, so in the end, it was a super positive experience!

I am super proud of all the CSU athletes here, and we had a really great dinner last night where we all talked about our highlights and lowlights of the day. Zoe's gone home for a few days of school, now, but she'll be back for Friday's race. Today we're off to the trails to preview the distance course, and tomorrow is the distance skate race!

Ooooh boy racing is fun =)

Skate Sprint - US Nationals

Some photos from the first day of racing at US Nationals in Rumford, the skate sprint.  Unfortunately I was not able to get out of the waxroom to watch the CSU girls in the prologue. 

Eli in the prologue

Nathan in the prologue

Calvin in the prologue

 Quarterfinals start.  Corey is in the thick of it

 Corey in the hunt

Homestretch before Corey fired the jets to qualify for finals

Women's finals start

Eli sprinting for home in his quarterfinal heat

Senior nationals

A crew of skiers headed down to Rumford after Mont Sainte Anne, to race at the USSA senior nationals. We have Calvin, Eli, Olivia, Zoe, Corey, Cate, and Julia here, and a slew of support staff/coaches/parents to help out. All the athletes and most of the "grownups" are in a cabin in Bethel, and it has a great view, but is a bit crowded.

The first race was delayed by a day, since it had rained all night, so the snow was too soggy to groom. To keep from going stir-crazy, the skiers went out on a ski-walk/hike during the day, and then another one before dinner. Tomorrow, it's on! Skate sprints. We'll report back!

The view down on the common room from the loft. The cabin unfortunately has some thin walls, but we're a good 24 hours into this game, and nobody's been kicked off the island yet!

Attempting to be studious.

Actually being studious.

The race course today. Some bare spots, and I can understand why they postponed it.

Smartphones are confusing pieces of technology.

Some more photos from MSA

I had some leftover shots from Mont Sainte Anne, from when the Ocelots, Tigers, and some Lions did speeds on Friday afternoon.

Calvin vs Cate. You'd think he'd be a gentleman and let her win... or not.

Chris Stock vs Eli.

Rebecca working on some herringbone.

Corey kick double poling.

Katrin!

Calvin

Warming up, on a beautiful day with great hard tracks.

MSA Time Trial Results

Here are the results of the pursuit time trial. Sorry about the lack of formatting. Classic leg first and then total time.

First Last Classic Finish


Eli Hoenig 12:48 0:24:50
Ian Moore 12:50 0:24:58
Calvin Wight 12:51 0:24:59
Jimmy Burnham 12:52 0:25:07
Koby Gordon 13:21 0:26:16
Greg Holdman 13:29 0:26:16
Frank Feist 13:20 0:26:22
Rion O'Grady 13:25 0:26:25
Andy Milne 13:23 0:26:38
Max LaChance 13:45 0:26:53
Jordan Richmond 13:36 0:27:31
Corey Stock 14:12 0:27:41
Olivia Meyerson 14:21 0:27:51
Chris Koziel 14:14 0:27:58
Halley Grossman 14:25 0:27:59
Rob Bradlee 14:11 0:28:00
Sean Skahen 14:50 0:28:08
Alex Jospe 14:22 0:28:32
\Jacob Meyerson 14:23 0:28:36
Nick Reitman 14:37 0:28:39
Zoe Snow 14:42 0:28:55
Bob Burnham 15:14 0:29:39
Cate Brams 14:59 0:30:02
Lewis Nottonson 15:48 0:30:18
John McDaniel 15:00 0:30:49
Rebecca Smith 15:20 0:31:43
Hank Yoder 16:07 0:31:48
Ryan Clemens 15:46 0:32:08
Leah Brams 16:00
Charlotte Cole 16:04 0:32:09
Jamie Doucett 16:15 0:32:45
Russell Boswell 16:19
Rosie Cobb 16:48 0:33:31
Julia Schiantarelli 17:09
Clara Cousins 17:15 0:34:01
Meg Yoder 17:16 0:34:11
Katrin O'Grady 17:48 0:34:18
Blake McCartney 17:18 0:36:04
Katie Cosman 19:19 0:37:29
Valentina 19:22
Mary Lagunowich 19:45 0:38:59
Carinna Wallach 21:27 0:39:41
Phoebe Seltzer 20:37 0:39:56
Izzy Cole 21:02
Claire Tefler 21:25 0:40:52