Janurary Recap

Lewiston, ME- It dawns on me that I've been remiss updating the blog, so this post will cover not only last weekend's UNH Carnival in Jackson, NH, but the SLU Carnival in Lake Placid, NY. So rewinding the clock ten days (I think), brings us to Friday's Classic Sprint.

The sprint took place on a course that, while supposedly FIS legal, can only be described as "track-like," in that it featured only two significant turns (both to the right) and a gradual profile that led to all the men and just about all the women double poling the entire thing. What this meant in practice terms was the the coaches didn't need to worry too much about waxing for kick, and could focus on putting us on fast skis. They were successful, and six bobcats qualified for the heats (top 30 in the qualifying round). All three senior women qualified, with Sadie James in 22nd,  Laurel Fiddler in 23rd, and Haile Lange in 24th. Squeezing into the top 30 was first-year Kaelyn Woods, in 29th. On the men's side Forrest Hamilton had a ripper of a qualifier and finished 8th, while Wade Rosko skied to 28th. The day continued with Forrest making it out of the quarterfinals and into the semis, where he skied to an incredible 8th place in his EISA debut! All in all, it was a good day to be a bobcat.

Day two of the SLU Carnival was a 5/10k skate interval start on the tough Olympic Women's loop. Conditions were warm with a side of humidity, and the snow was a grease/dirt mixture that I'm sure took years off the lives of my race skis. I don't know what we waxed with, but I'm sure it was both toxic and labeled in a mix of Norwegian and Russian. The women had another solid day, with a standout 14th place from Laurel. Rounding out our scoring crew was Sadie in 29th, and Kaelyn in 36th. Parker McDonald, Max Millslagle, and first-year Graham Houtsma all scored for the men, in 20th, 28th, and 51st places respectively.

The next week found us battling dwindling snow levels and training venue closures, and so we ended up doing intervals on some spin bikes we found. I have a newfound respect for those who frequent spin classes, because my legs hurt after that.

The highlight of spinning was when U of Michigan retweeted this photo

Fortunately, our trials were shortlived, because on Thursday we were off to Jackson for the UNH carnival, which consisted of a 5/10k classic interval start and a 15/20k skate mass start. The University of Utah brought several athletes to the carnival to preview it before NCAAs in March. Needless to say, they skied rather fast. Both days were warm, with the classic race consisting of klister waxed skis for a rather hilly course. Friday was a rather rough one for the guys, with our first finisher Parker in 35th for the collegiate results, followed by Forrest and Graham in 40th and 45th respectively. The women continued their trend of solid results, with Laurel skiing to 16th, Kaelyn to 26th, and Haile to 27th.

Day two of UNH had us racing longer distance mass starts, one of the more interesting collegiate race formats we do. There's nothing quite like being one of a hundred starters all gunning for the same space of course to get the blood pumping. Steve Fuller was in attendance, and so we have a bunch of pictures, more of which can be found at flyingpointroad.com

Parker and Graham at the start, Parker finished 18th and Graham 42nd

Graham leading a pack with fellow Bobcat Max (19th) in the back

Forrest charging at the front of a group of skiers

Connor Gray lapping through the stadium

Bobcat super-fan Maddy Ekey cheering/ giving feeds

Coach Upham juicing skis

Laurel Fiddler on her way to 11th. When asked about her recent success, she attributed it to eating her food ripped into tiny pieces.

Haile Lange skiing into 30th place

Kaelyn Woods showing off her bobtat en route to a 35th place

First-year Annie, fresh off a cruising classic day (54th), crushing the mass start

That's all from the last few weeks, this weekend we brave freezing temperatures to travel to Stowe, VT and race the UVM carnival!

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.

Back to Bates, back to blog

It's been many long months since this blog was last updated. The blame for this lack of communication could be attributed to any combination of laziness on the part of blogmaster Max, thesis writing, internet problems, and simple forgetfulness. But instead of dwelling on my mistakes, I'll try to give an idea of what the Bates Ski Team has been up to in the 125 days since the beginning of school.

September:
In September, the captains led a series of awesome practices which were well received not only by the team, but by anyone who happened to be lucky enough to watch us work out. Highlights include an absurd amount of laps around the rollerski loops near campus, and a failed attempt to organize a trip to New Hampshire to bag some peaks. In addition, we got to know our new first-years (there are seven of them last I checked).
October:
In October, the coaches took over and the season really began. Practice slipped into a fun routine, and we enjoyed our annual camp in Rangeley, ME, where I got to sleep in a bed larger than my room. Also, two of our teammates celebrated their 21st birthdays with seltzer water and rollerski intervals.
November:
In November, we got a real taste of a Maine fall, as in addition to rollerskiing in increasingly wet and cold conditions, we got to go to the Milliken's house on Mt. Desert Island. This trip was, as usual, awesome. The Milliken's spoiled us, we ate lobster on the beach, saunaed (is that a verb?), and got to hang out with Lucas. We also went up to Quebec for Thanksgiving camp, where the mens team rocked little black dresses so we could be cute and classy.

The boyz in Acadia (photo by Newt)

Focusing on lobster (also by Newt)

Seniors in black dresses. Sorry mom (can't remember who took this one)

December:
To be honest, the first half of December is a little bit of a blur highlighted by too much thesis. What sticks out is wet and cold intervals in between snow storms that never really dropped enough snow to ski on. In short, it was yet another experience of how New England makes you tough. The second half of December we all returned to our respective homes to celebrate the holidays with family.
Now:
In the last few weeks, a significant portion of the team came together in Colorado for a brief altitude training camp before going to Senior Nationals in Soldier Hollow, UT. Special thanks to the McDonalds and Blakslees for their hospitality and kindness.

In Utah, we raced a distance skate and sprint classic on back to back days. The distance race was a 15k for the men and 10k for the women, and took place on a rather difficult course. The men were led by Parker McDonald in 83rd place and first-year Graham Houtsma in 103rd place. Laurel Fiddler put up an awesome 53rd for the women, followed by Halie Lange in 102nd. The field was a little stacked.

The second day was a classic sprint in wet and sloppy conditions that had many of us using our zeroes on the course. No one made heats, which was a bummer, but I think that coach James Upham might have been glad not to have to find a kick wax that works for 37 degrees and a rain/hail/snow mix.

Halie crushing it (photo by Sandy Gray)

The last starter for the men (S. Gray)

P$ looking real athletic (S. Gray)

(for more photos go to Sandy Gray's Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/146561453@N07/page1)

After those races, we all headed back to Bates to begin a whole new semester and race season. We will be racing the Eastern Cup at Quarry Road this upcoming weekend, so keep an eye out for a blog post on that, as well as the first installment of first-year introductions.