Bates Nordic Skiing: 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.