Saturday and Sunday were two busy days of back-to-back sprint action. Sprint days are long: from the morning qualifier to the last afternoon heat you’re talking about near-continuous testing, waxing, and racing. Add in klister for some bonus fun.
For us, this was the weekend to get the ball rolling. It seems like most years we start the season and hit the first Eastern Cup still “ramping up” to full speed. With this new event, it feels like we made the most out of the weekend and are going into the first Eastern Cup at full tilt. We gave New England a taste of what we’re made of!
For the men Eli was our lone competitor as many of the guys were either resting up or competing in the first HS race at Rikert. Side note: Brook won the men’s race and Ava and Rose went 1-2 in the women’s race over at Rikert!
In the women’s race a solid group took on possibly one of the toughest 20-person fields you could ask for. Everyone made the open heats, and the structure basically consisted of
-One World Cup skier
-One Middlebury, UVM, or Dartmouth skier
-One or two Pugs
-One or two other club skiers
A totally non-intimidating heat: Jenny, Meredith, NCAA Champion Katharine Ogden, and Swedish UVM Junior Evelina Sutro
Everyone held their own and we had a lot of 3rd- and 4th-place finishes in the 5-person heats. In the men’s race, Eli skied more smoothly than ever and continued a streak of really solid performances! Sammie was the top for the crew in 13th place, just missing out a spot in the semifinals to Laura Appleby by less than a second.
What was so awesome for me as a coach was watching everyone be so professional about the day. From warming up and tackling the course, to changing into dry clothes and snacking between races, everything was DIALED-IN and it may seem like that’s trivial, but it’s a lot of important factors at play. Not to mention it was icy klister tracks and everyone looked like they were skiing really well. Lots of hard work paying off.
Julia was victorious in an epic battle with DublinXC coach Kathy Maddock
Eli in the qualifier!
On Saturday the fields we much bigger, with many of our HS racers also coming out to tear it up. Full open heats, as well as consolation “Queens Court” heats were held, though all of the Juniors made it through to the opens! The big performance in the morning came from Aidan who took on the whole field with a 3rd place finish in the overall qualifier. Brook made it through in 16th and Eli in 22nd to make it three into the opens. For the girls Ava continued to turn heads with a 5th place finish just ahead of Quincy in 6th. Not bad for two U16 skiers!
Also stacking the open heats were Meredith (13th), Rose (15th), Julia (17th), Sammie (20th), Jenny (22nd), Hanna (23rd), Ali (25th) and Lily (29th)! Also, Rachel Porth had her first race against the tough older competition in 39th!
Time to head to the start!
Hanna bringing it home up the last hill in the qualifier
In the heats there were more close finishes, and from the quarters both Aidan and Ava moved onto the semifinals. 4th in his semi-final netted Aidan somewhere around 8th of 9th (we think) while Ava made it through to the FINAL and got to duke it out against Quincy, pro skier Heather Mooney, and 3 Middlebury ladies. Although Ava ran out of gas at the very end it was another incredible performance for her…keep in mind she is a freshman/first-year U16!
Not shabby for your first sprint race ever
With two great days in the bank it’s easy to keep getting excited to see where this season will take us. The next stop is…well, back to Craftsbury! The skate sprint on Saturday to open the Eastern Cup season is the same course, same format, so we’re going in with a great card to play having already been through it! It’s time to start the 2018/2019 season…
Thanks to the Wilbrahams for the photos!
Comments are closed.