First year Friday

It's Friday the 13th, and that seems as good a time as any to discuss our first years. Providing commentary in italics this weak is Women's team captain Halie Lange (AKA Team Mom) that's not accurate she says. Anyways, without further ado, let's get down to business. Through a careful combination of email surveys, mandatory physical testing, and imagination, the follow bios have been assembled. Starting alphabetically:

Forest Hamilton, 18
Hometown: Shelburne, VT
Spirit Animal: Raccoon
40 Yard Dash Time: 4.58 seconds
Classic or Skate? Double Pole
Favorite Song: Anything by Boys Like Girls
Major: Physics maybe
Favorite Ski Memory: That time I was place buddies with a super cute girl from the Midwest
Dream Date: Going mudding in my new truck. I'm Driving. That's hot.

Forest likes fireworks, fast cars, falafels, and skate sprints. Hailing from GMVS, he brings a level of steez that has to date been missing from the team.




Kaelyn Woods, 19

Hometown: New Gloucester, ME
Spirit Animal: Puma
40 Yard Dash Time: 4.57 Seconds
Classic or Skate? I prefer when it was the same thing.
Favorite Song: "What is Love" by Haddaway
Major: Biology maybe
Favorite Ski Memory: The first time I skied with the Bates Ski Team, in 2003. Are you sure it wasn't earlier?
Dream Date: "I'm not allowed to date yet."

Kaelyn is a third generation member of Bates Nordic, but I'm fairly confident she does't get any more flouros than the rest of us.


Leo Lukens, 18

Hometown: Bend, OR
Spirit Animal: Wolf
40 Yard Dash Time: 27 seconds I'm not impressed
Classic or Skate? Classic
Favorite Song: "Good Times, Bad Times" by Led Zeppelin
Major: Politics
Favorite Ski Memory: Drinking hot chocolate on the ski trails as an eight year old. Ah, that's so cute
Dream Date: Wade Rosko

Leo wanted to be a pairs figure skater in his youth, but a tragic injury resulting in a broken pelvis left his partner out for life, and Leo in need of a new sport. With minutes left until the common app deadline, he applied to Bates and was accepted as a member of the ski team.

Is that Parker in the background of this picture???

Pippin Evarts, 19

Hometown: Landgrove, VT
Spirit Animal: Corgi
40 Yard Dash Time: 4.24 Seconds, quote: "Take that Chris Johnson"
Classic or Skate? Classical
Favorite Song: "Ultralight Beam" by Kanye West
Major: Politics maybe
Favorite Ski Memory: Spring skiing in Switzerland after a long flight.
Dream Date: A nice picnic somewhere pretty. Oh, me too!

Pippin is famous across campus for her finsta, which apparently means "fake instagram" how did you not know that? In between posts, she finds time to stack wood with efficiency, and in her own words, to "rise above."

Graham Houtsma, 19

Hometown: Aspen, CO
Spirit Animal: Red Panda Definitely agree with this one, I had to stop calling him Panda
40 Yard Dash Time: 6.71 seconds
Classic or Skate? Skate
Favorite Song: "Springsteen" by Eric Church
Major: Political Science
Favorite Ski Memory: Skiing pow in the Andes with his brother
Dream Date: Watching the sun rise on the top of a mountain followed by a picnic breakfast

Known as "Young Gun," Graham lives life on the edge. When not traveling to Montreal for mysterious reasons, he can be found analyzing world cup technique on the ski room couch. Young Gun? I thought we called him Panda?

Grace Smith, 18
Hometown: Williamstown, MA
Spirit Animal: Wolf/Husky hybrid
40 Yard Dash Time: 6.31 seconds
Classic or Skate? Skate
Favorite Song: "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift
Major: Undecided, leaning towards art or psychology
Favorite Ski Memory: Freezing in the rain during Rangeley Camp reading Cosmo with the girls, and later the OD hike on the same camp. Cosmo is like, my favorite book.
Dream Date: Exploring a new place together, like a new city or trail.

Grace is a loose cannon, you never know what she's going to be up too, whether it's a new nail color, or alphabetizing her class notes, she's a true rebel without a cause. Wait, that's not true, she's just like nice, basically a living American Girl doll. 


Annie Blakslee, 18

Hometown: Edwards, CO
Spirit Animal: Black Lab
40 Yard Dash Time: 6.57 seconds
Classic or Skate? Classic
Favorite Song: "Love Story" by Taylor Swift, of course.
Major: Undecided
Favorite Ski Memory: 10k Skate race in SoHo when my team had phenomenal skis and a super successful day.
Dream Date: Any date featured on the Bachelor/Bachelorette. As long as her parents approve.

Annie has a lot of emotions. Mostly anger. My locker shares a wall with hers, and she is nearly always politely saying "Max, could you please maybe move these dirty socks,"and, "Max, did you maybe use my towel, I mean I could just get a new one." The nerve. Max that's just not true, it's Laurel's towel you've been using.



As you can see, we have a stacked lineup entering this next year, and are super excited to see what they can do. Already many of our first years have stood out on the race course, and it'll be fun to see where they can go from here. I bet they all beat Max, It'll be hilarious. Also this was my favorite picture of Kaelyn until Becky sent me the other one:


Up next: An in depth review of the absolutely true results of this weekend's upcoming races.