Stoweaways

Carnival Weekend 3: the first of our 3-in-a-row race weekends in Vermont. 

Friday morning we made the drive to last year's home-away-from-home, Stowe. The Saturday-Sunday Carnival races also doubled as Eastern Cups, making this one of the biggest weekends of racing in New England - there were almost 500 skiers out on course, and we brought the entire squad of Bobcats out to race.

It was great having the full crew out - as our boy Jerry Lynch says (and Becky quotes): "The strength of the wolf [read: bobcat] is the pack, and the strength of the pack is the wolf."

In fact, the only thing not familiar about this weekend in Stowe was the course: the standard loop was, shall we say, a little snow deficient. The organizers did a great job, though, and were still able to pull off a full 5k loop using parts of the standard 5k as well as the 7.5k loops. Luckily for us, the major climb (affectionately referred to by the Bobcats as "The Financial District") was still there - just in the middle of the course rather than the end.

Becky making fast skis

Saturday was a 5/10k skate. Hallie led the ladies in 20th on a course that was crowded (15-second start intervals), twisty and icy, with lots of racers struggling to stay on their feet - and on some corners, stay on the course itself. Gretch finished 28th and Margaret 33rd to put our girls in 6th. Worth mentioning: Grace, Janey and Gabby all finished within one second of each other.

Of Note: Jordan in 3rd is still taller than Patterson in 1st

Corks charging

Jordan led the men on a stellar day in the 10k with his first ever podium in an NCAA event, leaving with a big bronze medal (and a bottle of Trapps maple syrup!). Not to be outdone, Lucas entered beast mode to place 10th in his first ever top-10 carnival finish and Corky skied to 28th, breaking into the top 30 for the first time of his career. Their efforts put the guys in 3rd overall for the second time this season - can we even eat this much cake?

That's one proud Coach!

Who's a bobcat?

Sunday was a 10k CL for both men and women. Like Saturday, it was a long day: with J2s racing early and fields that not only included carnival skiers but nearly the whole New England ski racing community, the men's races didn't even start until 12:45.

The ladies kicked things off again. Jane put together a strong race to lead the girls in 27th on a tough day; Gretch and Hallie were 31st and 32nd, respectively.

Jordan continued a strong weekend with a PR classic result in 12th; it was definitely a "strength of the pack" sort of day for the rest of the boys, with Alex, Sean, Lucas and Corky finishing 32nd, 34th, 35th and 36th respectively, all within 10 seconds.

Tron Woods: half machine, half alllll natural

Lucas

Britta receiving some sort of deep wisdom

This guy....

More photos forthcoming shortly! (particularly of the girls)

PROTECT THIS HOUSE

Weekend #2 was the Colby Carnival and also, perhaps more importantly, the Chummy Broomhall Cup (AKA the Maine State Championship). As the defending champions of the Cup, we showed up to Colby's new Quarry Road courses prepared to PROTECT THIS HOUSE (as inspired by this video).

Day one was a 5/10k Classic interval start, as well as the Chummy Cup. Due to the lack of snow, it ended up being 2 laps for the ladies' 5k and 5 for the men's 10k, which meant a whole lot of skiers out on the course all at once.

For the girls, Hallie led with a strong 10th place finish, followed by Jane in 19th and Gretchen in 23rd to round out the scoring for a 4th place finish on the day. Big Jordan finished 13th, followed by Alex in 27th and Lucas in 32nd to put the men in 6th.

(All photos are from Steve Fuller and flyingpointroad.com - there are lots more to check out and order from there!)

Jay

Filly

Hallie

Danny

Nick

Andrea, just having a good time out there (?)

Gracie

Marge

The Bates results were strong enough for both the women and men to score decisive victories in the Chummy Cup, and we stacked the Maine State second- and first-teams with Bobcats.

A VERY happy Becky

What winners look like

The next day was a 15/20k Freestyle mass start. A fast, windy, crazy course led to a serious amount of carnage on both the men's and women's sides.

The girls kicked the morning off, and Hallie and Margaret worked together in the lead pack for nearly the entire race - Hallie finished 12th and Margaret 15th after an unfortunate broken pole on the last lap. Gretch rounded out the scoring for the Bobkittens with a season-best 21st, putting the girls in 5th.

The 5-lap men's race was wild and crazy from the start, but the boys skied relaxed and worked together. Jordan led in 19th, Seanie followed with a PR 24th, followed by Lucas in 25th. Corky and Filly worked together and were close behind in 30th and 32nd.

Janey

Strength of the Pack

And there were fans!

Condor

Corky

Captain Lucas

Rollin'

Our first weekend was the SLU Carnival so we headed west to take on the EISA circuit in Lake Placid and had a great weekend to spite the chilly temperatures!   Mt. Van Hovenberg along with NYSEF and SLU did an amazing job putting the trail system back together after the first of a few January thaws….  The course was challenging and inspired some solid Bobcat performances.

We missed our fearless leader Lucas – who was out with a minor concussion after going down in a time trial the weekend before.   He was, however, in rare form cheering on the team.  Also – in charge of feeds and such on course – good stuff.

In the 18km skate Jordan rolled through in 11^th, followed by Sean in 29^th(PR) and Corky and Filly close together in 41^st and 42^nd.  They finished the day in 5^th!

The women also started strong in the 14km skate with Hallie leading the way in 8^th (PR).  Jane and Margaret started their carnival careers with awesome grace and power in 20^th and 21^st respectively.  A newcomer to Bates but not to the circuit, Gabby had a career best in 32^nd!  Good enough together to finish 4^th on the day. 

Day 2 saw a new race added to the circuit.  A 3km freestyle prologue was put together instead of the scheduled sprint due to lack of snow depth in the stadium.  It was a BLAST!

Just coming off a 10^th place finish at the US Nationals freestyle sprint in SoHo, Jordan  skied himself into 2^nd place with a gutsy performance.   He worked hard and even had Coach a little worried when he took his time getting off the ground after the race…  but it was worth the effort!   His first collegiate podium!  The guys followed his lead with big efforts by Nick in 22^nd and Sean in 29^th good enough for 3^rd place overall.  Let the baking begin – the first cake of the season was ordered – choice is the ever popular carrot cake!

The women were not to be outdone and also whipped around the course to a team finish of 4^th  with Hallie in 8^th, Margaret in 14^th and Jane in 19^th.  Andrea was just out of scoring range but close in 27^th!  

Overall a great start to the season.  We survived two trips on the ferry and long van rides, although the Westerners on the team have no complaints about a short 7 hour van ride - whoop whoop!