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!