NCAA 20K freestyle

Their goal was to mix it up with the big boys. They sure did. It was a very exciting race (4laps of a 5K course). After 5K Eric and Ben where about 8th and 12th and Zach was in the mid 20s. All doing well and going for it, I couldn't ask for more. At 10K Eric had moved into 5th with Ben right behind 6th or 7th. Zach was still fighting for mid 20s and holding well. However this proved to be a little to much to early as by 15K Eric had dropped back to 20th and Zach to 30th. Ben was still skiing strong and holding in the top ten with a pack that was 8-13th. Ben stayed with this group with a top ten in his grasp with about 200 meters to go. Around the last hard corner going into the stadium he tripped up on his pole and the 3 he was with got buy him putting him in 13th, a great finish but hard to be really happy with since All-American was certainly possible at that point. Eric dropped back to 28th and Zach finished in 36th. I think it was good day, certainly it looked like it was going to be outstanding day for little while but I am really proud of how well these guys came back after the 10K classic to prove they could race with the best.
The guys finished 8th as team, the top finish for schools that give athletic scholarships.

Classic 10K, glad thats over

Well assuming you have looked at results, not an impressive day for us. Probably one of the most challenging wax days of the season and all coaches struggled with decision of using klister and covering or hardwax on a binder. I think we just waited to long to prep the klister option for the guys to try and between that and a first race at altitude it just was not a good day. I think it is behind us now, maybe even a little pressure is off for tomorrows 20K free. Should be some really fast skiing not that we have been through a thaw freeze cycle twice.

klister klister klister

got pretty sticky today I think we tried just about everything we had and liked quite a bit of it. Harder to decide what was best. However now that it has been snowing a bit we could see some very different conditions for tomorrows classic race. We have klister, hardwax, and zeros all waxed and ready to go. I will try to send a twitter message shortly after the race for those that follow. Live time should also be available, check out the eisaskiing page.

NCAAs Steamboat, getting ready

Our trip out was relatively uneventful. All equipment arrived unharmed on Saturday, we stayed overnight in Denver. On Sunday after a 3hour drive through some very stunning scenery we arrived in Steamboat at noon. When we got here it was sunny and about 60F, t-shirt weather. After a lengthy check in at NCAA registration and getting unloaded at the hotel we got on the course by around 3:30pm by which time the clouds had rolled in the and it started a light rainy pellet snow, not pleasant but whatever everyone was glad to be out skiing finally. The conditions were okay but the course had not been groomed for a couple days so not nearly as good as it could have been.

Monday morning was still overcast but fairly warm, probably around 34F when we got on the trails after getting the klister on. The photos are from Monday, the boys did some classic ski intervals. They are pretty pumped about the course which we all agree is good one for them. Some solid climbing but no real walls to go up. It is good to be settled in and have time to ski the course a bunch before races start on Thursday but there is also a lot of downtime so it can get a bit boring. We had a great dinner last night with the Knowles family who came out for the week and rented a condo just down the road. Some easy skate today. A little light snow this morning but we are mostly on refrozen old snow.

Regional Champions!

The mens Nordic team won both days of the regional championships at Middlebury this past weekend. It is going to be hard to top such a historic finish but I don't think Eric, Ben, and Zach are quite through with shaking things up yet. On to NCAA championships in Steamboat, I will try to keep you posted.

The overall combined team score with alpine of 5th was also our best of the season and probably the best since the mid 90s.

http://fasterskier.com/2010/03/slu-men-and-dartmouth-women-top-team-scores-bernstein-and-sargent-top-points-leaders-at-eisa-regionals/

http://www.eisaskiing.org/BART/Results10/mc2010tm.htm

Middlebury Photos

Here are photos from the classic race at Middlebury. Great work this season everyone, it was a fun one.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=Marvinney&target=ALBUM&id=5443430324708764481&authkey=Gv1sRgCNW-6qjdw8qaQw&feat=email

enjoy!