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Strafford Nordic Relays Recap

By Rosemary Shea-Cobb on 19 February, 2017 in BKL Jackrabbits, BKL Race Blog

Eight Mansfield Nordic BKL skiers and two Coaches teamed up to ski in the Strafford Nordic Relays on Sunday in warm temps under a sunny blue ski. The Nordic Center is located at the home of the Strafford Organic Creamery. They have a small, barn-like touring center and most of the trails run through farm fields. The Strafford folks built quite a course for this event featuring a couple of jumps, a few bumps to ski over, hairpin turns and an uneven bump section. We all skied one or two legs of the skate race in the morning and then klistered up and skied the classic relay in the afternoon.

Kate Carlson and Ryley Morigeau made for a very fast 1/2 girls team, sporting their Jessie Diggins socks and skiing faster than many of the 3/4 teams. Watch out for this relay team at the BKL Festival in March! Next we had a slew of teams in the 5/6 category: Brady Morigeau & Taylor Carlson, Cole & Jordon Shullenberger, Julia Thurston & Virginia Cobb. These guys all skied two laps.

Watching from my vantage point by the biggest jump, I am happy to report that all these kids fearlessly took the jump and most of them “got air”. Brady impressed everyone watching by getting the lots of air, doing a little knee bend trick while aloft and landing it! I think we should hook this kid up with Billy Demong- he could have a future in Nordic Combined!

Coaches Jen and Rosemary teamed up to race in the open category, but unfortunately, missed their start (the race time was moved up!). However, they jumped right in and due to the improved structure of their skis (they missed the start because they went back to structure their skis), they weren’t last! Their classic race was a lot better!

After a morning of racing, the kids all had lunch while Coaches Eden, Jen and Rosemary tested the wax, structured and klistered ten pairs of skis in thirty-five minutes! All that klister we’ve applied in practices has paid off! We have this klister thing down now!

We all had good wax, skied our classic legs and then, were treated to Strafford Organic Creamery ice cream cones in lieu of prizes. Yum! What a fun race! Below are some photos:

Sun and smiles! Spring skiing with lots of snow is always a nice treat

Can you say “dynamic V1”?

Klister skiing at its finest

Pack skiing, repping a non-skiing sport during the race!

Relay socks for the WIN!

Cannot beat some post-race ice cream!

BKL Festival Information

By Rosemary Shea-Cobb on 15 February, 2017 in BKL Jackrabbits, BKL Race Blog

This year’s Festival is March 4 & 5 at Gould Academy in Bethel, ME. The theme is “Protect Our Winters”- Superheroes! Saturday will be a Skate Relay (1 or 2 km) and Sunday will be the Individual Classic Races (traditional age group distances). Coach Rosemary is also the Northwest VT Regional Coordinator and will set relay partners (you may e-mail her and make a request).

To Register: SKI REG

Festival Website (Schedule, Directions, Lodging & more): 2017 BKL Fest

Team Lunch Sign-up: Festival Lunches It’s a potluck and makes it fun and festive for all of us!

MNC Plans:

Friday: Meet Coach Rosemary at 2 PM at the Field house to ski and preview the course (we can move this back an hour if needed).

Possible Friday Team Dinner: Rooster’s Roadhouse- 1 mile from Bethel, casual, lots of variety & a children’s menu.

Dinner Saturday: Buy tickets to the Festival Dinner. It’s very affordable, kid friendly, the food should be good and there are not many other dining options in Bethel. We will all be scheduled for the same seating, so we can sit together. There is usually a raffle to peruse at the dinner as well.

Waxing: During the week before, Rosemary will send out a wax recommendation (probably on Wed). Those kids that can’t glide wax at home can do so at the end of practice at the Range on Thursday, March 2 and get help from the coaches. Everyone needs to clean their classic skis of all kick wax (we can do this on Thursday as well), in addition to hot waxing.

BKL Mini-Marathon Re-cap

By Rosemary Shea-Cobb on 15 February, 2017 in BKL Jackrabbits, BKL Race Blog, BKL Training Schedule

With all the fresh snow and perfect temps, Tuesday was a great day for the Classic BKL Mini-marathon. “How far can you ski in an hour?” was the question of the day and these BKLers proved that they can put in a lot of k’s! It’s impressive that kids 12 and under can go out and ski this much. We coaches skied a lap with some of them here and there, but the kids were mostly skiing on their own! We had 34 kids ski the marathon and 12 of them skied 10km or more. Virginia Cobb skied a whopping 16km with Jordon Shullenberger coming in close behind at 15 km. Wow! Great job to ALL the kids!

A big thanks to Beth Dezon-Gaillard who served as Head Lap Counter and snack monitor. Thanks also to Marcia Waite who also helped with snacks and clean-up. If you see either of these ladies, be sure to thank them!

Kilometer Totals:

Name	K’s
Astrid	4
Hector	4
Carl	4
Matteo	5
Ginny	5
Lena	5
Lily	5
Tessa	6
Mia	6
Lila	6
Asa	7
Weston	7
Angus	8
Cole	8
Ryley	8
Adleigh	8
Rye	8
Pippa	8
Crosby	9
Lev	9
Maisey	9
Liam	9
Julia	10
Adrien	10
Ailsa	10
Brady	11
Kate	11
Ethan	11
Taylor	11
Miles	11
Gretta	13
Carly	13
Jordon	15
Virginia	16

BKL Practice 2/14-2/19

By Rosemary Shea-Cobb on 10 February, 2017 in BKL Jackrabbits, BKL Race Blog, BKL Training Schedule

Tues/Thurs BKL Groups

Tuesday: Classic: It’s the BKL Mini-Marathon! Bring: a water bottle labelled with your name on it. Bring: snacks– we will set up a table outside half way through. Volunteers needed: A couple of parents to help set-up and monitor the snacks (e-mail Rosemary: sheacobb19@gmail.com if you can help!). We will see how many laps we can each do in an hour!

Thursday: Skate: Relay Day!

3-Day Kids & Open to All: Sunday: Strafford Nordic Relays! At the Strafford Nordic Center, about 1-1:30 hours away. Find a relay partner to sign up with and ski the skate race in the morning and a classic race in the afternoon! This looks like a lot of fun!

Info here: Strafford Nordic Relays

To register: SKI REG

If you need help finding a relay partner, e-mail Rosemary

Friday Foxes

With a ton of fresh snow, practice this week will be 3:45 and back at Under Hill Central School. Watch your e-mail and the blog after in case this weeks weather doesn’t turn out as forecast. Contact Eden (eden_shullenberg@hotmail.com) with questions.

Mt. Top Paintball BKL Race

By Rosemary Shea-Cobb on 5 February, 2017 in BKL Jackrabbits, BKL Race Blog

Twelve MNC skiers and their faithful parents made the trip down to Chittenden for this year’s Mt. Top Paintball Race. This is a kid’s biathlon race where skiers ski a loop, then come into a range and shoot five shots at a target with a paintball rifle. SPLAT! The older you are, the more loops you get to ski and the more times you get to visit the range and shoot. In this event, you get 10 seconds deducted from your time for every shot you hit! FUN!

Brady in the Range. Brady hit 4 targets and skied very fast, but another kid skied fast and hit 5 shots and when the times computed, Brady had missed first place by one tenth of a second! THAT’s Biathlon for you!

These three speedy gals swept the 1/2 podium! (Don’t you love the socks?!)

Crosby Waite and his sister Lilly both pulled a double on their first weekend of racing and skied the Range Ramble and Paintball! These two are fast AND tough!

The 5/6 girls did remarkably well with Virginia leading the crew, placing first with ten hits!

Carl Priganc and Taylor Carlson skied the boys 5/6 race and shot really well, both hitting ten shots and finishing well in a very competitive field. Biathlon could be in their futures!

More photos and results to be posted soon!