Leah Hart on the road to the final 39

Sorry for the lack of a blog post last week, just getting tired toward the season end. We wrapped up the carnival season with an okay weekend at Bates. What an appropriate location for our seniors to finish out their collegiate career, Black Mountain in Rumford being the site of so many big and small time races in the skiing lives. We all know it probably to well. The drive over was thankfully broken up by a stay over in Burlington on Thursday night at the Terkos & Carpenters but we were met with a full on blizzard for second half of the trip which ended up taking around 6hours instead of 4. Anyway plenty of snow so can't complain for the end of the season. The best performances on the weekend were had by super senior (grad student) Zach who punched in a season best 11th in the 10K free which opened the possibility of qualification for NCAAs via a top 10 performance in the 20K. He certainly took a shot at it and skied from a late 40s start position in the mass start up to the mid teens before the effort began to take its tole and he dropped back to finish 21st, still nothing to be dissapointed in.

Leah was already solidly in for qualifying prior to the weekend so the goal was really to see if she could take some chances and have some big races and perhaps move up a spot or two on the rankings. Unfortunately we will have to wait until next week to see her best stuff as the freestyle went well but just out of the top 10 at 13th and taking some chances in the mass start led to tripping up and leaving the stadium in last place. It was very impressive to see her already back up in the top 20 by 5K in but she was only able to hold there for the rest of the race. Anyway I am pretty excited to see how she will fare at Nationals in Stowe after a little rest.

A big thank you to the parents for all their support again this season, the post race food has been excellent and as always a great help. To Steve, Sophie, Kyle, and Zach thanks for all your hard work positive attitudes.

Technical Difficulties

This past weekend started off fairly well with a tie for 5th on the mens side for the 10K free and a 6th place finish with another top 10 result for Leah on the womens side. I would say we were looking pretty good going into day two a 15K/20K classic mass start on one of the most challenging courses the east has to offer. It is unique in that is starts with a very fast downhill out of the mass start area which exciting to watch but rather nerve racking for some competitors, especially for a mass start where you are really at the mercy of those around you, no one ever falls alone on this start. For anyone that thinks cross country skiing is for the timid they should check out the video of the mens start that I posted below, sorry I did not get the womens.

Our womens team was out one of our regular top 3 as Caroline bowed out due to illness. Leah (14th) was feeling very confident however, as was Sophie (42). This course was real eye opener for our freshmen in terms of the downhills but I think Amy (54) and Amanda (44) faired well for their first weekend at Oak Hill. Kelsey (45) was coming off of being sick so hoping for some better results this coming weekend. I think our kick waxing was right on for this race but the snow just did not warm up and our glide was was a bit to warm, easy to see in a mass start as we tended to close on the uphills but dropped a lot of time on the downs.

The mens race was low lighted by a binding malfunction for Adam (left the stadium last and had to switch skis) and a crash and pole break on the first downhill for Zach. Both worked hard together throughout the race to get back into 32/33rd. Had they not had problems in the start I think we could have had 3 in the top 25. Steve had a career best 23rd place finish, just and awesome performance as he closed strong in the second 20K to move up from 28th, great to see. Looking forward to races at Middlebury this weekend, should be fun with the sprint relay on day two.

UVM recap

Our best weekend yet for this season for the Nordic team all around. Continued strong performances by Leah along with Caroline and Amanda who continue to improve placed the women 5th in the 15K classic and 7th in the 5K free. For the men Adam, Steve, and Zach are posting the team points. Zach "Brett Farve" Wetherell who after announcing his retirement this summer has been steadily improving after his return 3 weeks ago. He came up big for the team with 13th place result in the 10K freestyle on Saturday. Andrew stuck around with some of the younger members of the team for the Eastern Cup on Sunday. Some great results from that as well from freshmen Bridget Shea-Gander, Eric Lustgarten, and Bill Prescott.

This past weekend was also quite possibly the most pleasant weekend weather wise I have ever experienced for UVM carnival. I think all the coaches were waiting the for the wind and other foul weather to blow in but we were treated to real bluebird days for Friday and Saturday and some incredible snow conditions as the crew at Trapps did a great job getting the course in order after the big snowstorm on Tuesday/Wednesday.

Onward to Oak Hill for Dartmouth Carnival next.

UVM photogs

My parents made the trek over to Stowe this weekend, so we have some pictures of the races once again. Some of these are pretty epic. Besides being a great spectator course, I think Trapps is probably one of my favorite places to race (though Im still partial to Rumford). Last year conditions were almost perfect despite being a little thin. This year there wasn't even a hint of ice or dirt, as you will see.


Enjoy