Backflips

In a different vein from important ski races...

On one of our spring days at Higley (while Leah was out doing intervals in preparation for NCAAs) the guys team took a few runs on the top-secret jump at Higley. We've all seen Zach attempt backflips before, and after only one try Andrew got it down. Eric and I tried a bunch of times to get it right, with Eric actually nailing it after a few tries. With no big races and the season over, spring is a perfect time to have some fun with training. We only wound up with two broken skis and really sore bodies. To our surprise Ethan was actually watching, and even pulled out the video camera. We couldn't get him to try any this time, though...

Etown's report after NCAAs

It was quite a week a tremendous amount of time and effort was put into making these races really excellent. Trapp Family Lodge and UVM deserve a big thumbs up. No doubt all that rain on Friday sucked, I was shivering cold after Leah's race and actually somewhat glad we didn't have any guys skis to get ready.

The 5K free was one of Leah's best races of the season, finishing 17th overall. I really think her best event right now would be a long freestyle race. This was the best NCAA championship finish by a woman on the team since 2001.

For the 15K Classic I wouldn't really call the waxing tricky anymore than klister ever is. We certainly had options I was happy with. Adams rundown of the race is an excellent read but my thoughts are we like everyone were between zeros and a klister combo. The trouble with zeros is that they were really designed for falling snow near freezing. It was quite far from that and so it was suprising they felt so good. In the end it is more about how well the skis are matched and since Leah does not own her own pair specifically matched to her she just wasn't confident that they would work well the whole race. The skis she went on were a bit slow and we had been struggling with this most of the season. Either I am just not waxing them right or they just aren't a good match. From what I could tell it was a mix of zeros and klister skis out there so either choice was successful. Anyway, really proud she hung in there and made up time where she could. I have seen athletes often just check out in these cases but Leah didn't and that was great.

On the Alpine side Ashley-Kate Durham got the SLU flag on the podium with an awesome 3rd place finish in the Slalom race on Saturday. She was the top eastern finisher and moved up from 9th on the first run. http://www.eisaskiing.org/BART/Results11/ncaa11.htm

NCAAs (with video!)

It was windy and pouring rain on Friday when Kyle, Eric and I made the trip up to Stowe to yell our faces off at Leah and all the other skiers from the East at NCAAs. We came well prepared with the SLU Flag, the billowing Old Glory, and Eric's homemade tablecloth "BEN" flag for his brother. Despite the drenching rain, I've never seen so many loud and excited people at a ski race. The fans were into it. The mass start classic races were hectic, with teams struggling with the tough decision of zeros or klister right down to the wire.

Leah, Ethan and Andrew make the call on skis moments before the start

Leah went with klister and while it looked like her glide wasn't the fastest she was able to blow by a ton of girls on the climbs before the stadium. In the women's race the Eastern teams struggled. Lack of kick, too much kick, crashes, season burnout...I think there were many reasons galore for skiers not having their best days. I've never seen an NCAA race before, and it's definitely humbling to watch skiers like Caitlin Patterson and Rosie Brennan, who dominate carnival races all season, struggling and falling from the pace...Leah hung tough and was making passes each time we saw her, moving up throughout the race.

That's a big cheerin' crew, son!

We reasoned that, with the rain dying down a little and more time to work out wax combos, the men would have the kick dialed. Things still weren't perfect though, and again it looked like the Eastern teams were left struggling to keep up right from the get-go. Nils Koons made a huge effort to reel in the main pack, and moved up to 7th, and Chase Marston skied likewise. The big favorites had it rough, though. Tarling (who won the previous race) wasn't a factor in the main pack, and neither was freshman phenom Scott Patterson or reigning champ Franz Bernstein. Once again it's amazing to see these guys, who normally charge to podiums in carnival races, grit it out even when things aren't going their way.

It looked like Franz was struggling with cramps, holding his sides on the downhills, but that didn't keep him from pushing himself with flawless technique even when the chips were down. He never stopped hammering through the pain. That's class.

I took a lot of footage of the races as they happened, put them together in a video, and uploaded it to youtube for the world to criticize and post hateful comments on. Enjoy!

JO Update

Hey SLUSKI, just wanted to post an update on Ally and I at JO's. After arrving in Minneapolis late Saturday night, we went out to the race course to prep for monday's sprint the next day. It is interesting racing in a city, as we are staying downtown in a Marriot, with shuttles running constantly to the race site. There are also these glass skyways connecting all the buildings downtown to each other, which is sweet for not having togo outside to go to stores. The race courses are full of transitions, which makes smooth skiing necessary for success. The sprint course was deceptively hard because of this, and we were ready to rock it on Monday.

Monday's sprint race was ok for the both of us. I ended up 46th, missing te heats. I felt like I raced well, but not fast enough to advance. Ally ended up 32nd out of 33 OJ girls, but she was only about 1 second out of the heats. The heats were cool to watch, as the semi's and finals were held under the lights. It was a cool scene to watch, and New England destroyed everyone in most age groups.

After an easy course preview yesterday, we had the mass start classic race today. The girls raced 10 km and the guys 15 km. The distance course is also loaded with transitions, and some more challenging hills. The weather made for tricky waxing, as it was snowing and temperatures were right around freezing. The best skis today in the end were Zero's. I ended up finishing 41st on the day, and for the first time in a while I didn't blow up in a distance race. My Zero's were a little slow on the downhills, but I had great kick, and was catching kids at the end. I'm looking foward to Friday's skate race to have a strong race. Ally ended up 29th today, skiing against a small but competitive field including Jesse Diggins, fresh off the World Championships.

I'll post photos and another recap later. Also, congats to Leah on a good race today at NCAA's. We have a skate individual start on Friday, and a classic relay on Saturday. To get results and other info, go to the JO website (www.jo2011.com). They also have a live video feed to watch the races. That's all for now,

Bill