Movember Recap

         Rabbit Rabbit. Lo, its finally December and only two long weeks stand before us and academic freedom. In the weeks following, members of our team will race at the first Eastern Cup weekend in Craftsbury, Vermont followed by a short Christmas break before U.S Nationals and then finally Carnival Season. However, instead of contemplating and planning for the future as Cross Country Skiing demands, I'd like to dedicate this post instead to November. 

          November was the month for the Bobcats. November saw Bobcat victories at the Lobster Roll 15km, relaxing in Acadia, much hill bounding at Lost Valley, being reunited with on snow skiing and then being torn away, Paula Dean style Thanksgiving dinner and mustaches. Yes, mustaches.

                                              A very cleanly executed mustache by Nate Fuller.

           November is not only a month following October and subsequent slaughter of American Turkey populations, however a month for both men and women to come together to embrace the breathtaking beauty and power of a good moustache. Moustache + November = Movember. In actuality, Movember is a month where men dedicate their upper lips to raise money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Forming a team headlined by former Batesie and current U.S Ski team member Sylvan Ellefson, and to the dismay of the female team, the Bobcat men celebrated Movember. 

Our fearless Movember team Captain, Sylvan Ellefson 

              With all that being said, Movember was a lot fun for all those involved, except perhaps the female team who reluctantly gave us the support we needed to preen and grow our crumb catcher's. 

                                   Sophomore Nick Michaud casually sports his Parisian inspired moustache

                                                    Senior Kevin Daniel Kuzio and his impressive 'stache.

                                                           Me (Peter Cowan) and my precious Mo.

                                         Bates Nordic's biggest fan Brendan Johnson ('14) and his well groomed moustache.

                                                                                   We even got some skiing in!

                       There you have it. November at its finest. The past week for the Bobcats has been a rather quiet one with a low hour recovery week, however a good opportunity to view all that video from Craftsbury. As November winds down and the Bobcats look towards December and the months to come, we can truly say this was a great month of training and individual competition. 

                                                          We salute you November.

         More photos to come I'm sure from the small crew that headed back to Craftsbury this weekend.

                                                                                                               -Peter Cowan '14

                  

First Race!

On Saturday, Craftsbury did a wonderful job hosting the first race of the season. It was a short one: women did four laps and men did six laps on a slightly more than one kilometer man manmade loop. But the loop packed it all in with uphill’s, downhill’s, corners, and even a flat to the finish.

We may have just finished a big week of on-snow training, but looking at the results, no one would ever know. The women had five skiers in the top eleven and the men had six in the top eighteen! It was an impressive day, and makes us very excited for what lays ahead this season.

Margaret started the day off very nicely for the Bobcat women with a fifth place finish. As you can see, Craftsbury was having fun with their excess snow pile and had us start atop a little bump!

Gretchen and Sam.

Helen.

Gracie. Check out Craftsbury’s solar panels in the background!

Sally and Gracie

Caroline. 

Britta and Hallie. These two got to ski the whole race together. The great things about being on a great team!

Happy and matching- nice work girls!

The snow started to come down a bit harder during the boys race…

Nick

Jordan.

Lucas

Pete. First race in a longg time- nice work!

Filly

Danny

There weren’t any pictures of Sean skiing, but we wouldn’t want him to feel left out!

Boys after a race well done!

Sorry Corky-  we didn't forgot about you, you were just too speedy for the camera!

Many thanks to Becky and Wilson for awesome skis and to Gabby, Lauren, Andrea, and Connor for awesome cheering!

And Kaelyn, Becky’s daughter, raced in her first J2 today! Congrats!

Two of our favorite things: Great Food and Great Skiing

The last few days of Thanksgiving camp where just a great as the beginning.  The whole team came even closer for thanksgiving dinner as each person contributed their own special dish to the table. Before digging into the deliciously prepared meal we took a minute to recognize all that we are thankful for. Although there was an array of thanks, a common theme was how much we appreciated our teammates, our coach and the ability to be on snow for a week of great skiing.

            The next day we had a beautiful classic ski; giving our new West coast skiers more opportunities to practice kilister application. After a great ski we took some down time in our respective houses before heading out in the afternoon for a bit of skate ski technique work where coach Dippo lead the ladies through some helpful drills. The boys entered beast mode after the ski, immaculately cleaning the Chandler house before heading over to Becky’s to wax our skis and finish off a stir fry dinner.  Before heading to bed we contemplated our upcoming race and our goals. For many of us it was the first time we were able sport the Bates colors. This is a moment that every Bobcat remembers throughout their skiing carrier. It was clear the whole team was stoked to get out and unleash all the potential we had been building this season.

Post dinner serenading 

Men

Women

Boys skiing