Bates!

The Bates Carnival was one of our best this year, and in that sense it was an awesome note for many to end their regular-season on. Finishing strong gives motivation to work hard in the coming months, and it gives confidence in the plan we have been following all year. 

It's quite obvious if you look at the results that we got faster as the season went on. In fact, this was maybe a bit TOO obvious...we did quite a bit of soul-searching after the opening weekends at SLU and Colby, when we knew we weren't performing up to our potential. 

Our youth on this circuit is notable: with Eric sidelined with injury, our entire team other than Kelsey is either sophomores or freshmen. As Jared Supple of Colby put it to me at Craftsbury, "you guys are skiing way above where your teams age would suggest." That was right after he posed a less-serious but also relevant question: "What are you guys feeding Austin Meng???"

With such a young squad I got the vibe (from other teams, from our athletic department, from myself even) that this would be a year to refocus and build up..."wait until some of those guys are Juniors," they said. "Wait until that girls team gets another year under them," they said. The general expectation seemed to be that we would step up to the plate and get a few fly-balls, a few base hits, and maybe strike out enough that we'd be pretty amped to change next year.  

Instead, I 'd say we struck out very few times. It was rarely due to wax (phew!), in cases due to uncontrollable physical issues (Eric), but never for lack of effort. And we did get a few line drives; Gramps' consistent scoring races, Will taking the big next step of cutting his results places in half, and numerous first-year top-30s from Cassidy and Sienna, plus the heart-breaking but motivational 31st-place finishes earned by Erin and Kyle

What really turned heads was those moments when we really hit it out of the park, most notable Meng's breakout weekend at UVM and Kelsey's battle to claim an NCAA spot...which I think even she is still trying to wrap her head around. Those performances really helped push the team forward. I won't hesitate to mention again that Meng went from having a personal-best skate finish of 42nd last year to getting 11th and 12th in his two best skate races this year. If that's not motivation for anyone, I don't know what is. 

As for this weekend...

Friday's classic races were warm and sunny. We had a klister combo going that was about on par with everything else out there, meaning it was definitely still slick. In re-testing the entire course I skied a lap during the girls race and was relieved to see EVERYONE slipping out there; UVM, Dartmouth, Colby, Bowdoin, SLU, etc...

Etown adds a little secret sauce for me to test out

Kelsey led the way in 23rd, followed by Cass in 35th. Props go to Sienna, however, for not coming back for more kick and instead realizing the reality of the klistery situation. Her comment to Ethan and I? "Umm...these don't have much glide."

Meng led the men in 19th, with Will picking up another top-30 in 27th. I was happy to see Will get another top-30, and it's now clear that he is a pretty complete classic skier, having picked up NCAA points in every conceivable type of classic condition this year: solid ice at Colby, blinding snowstorm at Dartmouth, transforming conditions at Middlebury, and spring slush at Bates. Reed also skied to his best collegiate finish in 45th, a clear step-up from where he had been earlier this year. 

Will (top) and Reed (bottom) in the classic race

Saturday was Kelsey's last shot at NCAAs. She would've had to pull out a 13th, and ended the day in 19th after fighting strong the whole time. Ending her career on her second-best finish was still great to see. Cass again took 35th, and Sienna took 40th to help the girls to their best team score of the season in 7th.

The men's race got a bit warmer and, thanks to a last-minute topcoat suggestion by Etown, we finally accomplished a goal I'd had all season: give our team skis that made everyone else go "what the $&%* did SLU put on there today?!" 

Eric and I stood atop High School Hill, and each time the pack went by we'd radio in to Bob and Ethan where people were. From the top of the hill it is all downhill to the stadium, and each time Meng picked off at least one place, and usually 2. Lap 1? 16th to 14th. Lap 2? 14th to 12th. Final lap? 12th to 11th, apparently whizzing by David Sinclair in the stadium like he was standing still. 

Will fought to his best skate finish in 25th, and Gramps ended up 31st...so close to that coveted top-30...I was happy to see that, rather than being pissed and angry at the finish (as he can sometimes be) Kyle was in fact proud of the way he'd skied the race. Who wouldn't be? The kid has "pain tolerance up the wazoo," as somebody said. He went for it so hard on High School Hill (he was in 29th) that he could not physically move his legs to outsprint a few charging kids around him. The guys finished 6th, just 1 tiny point out of 5th! 

But the season is not over and results are still not all in. Sienna will head to Fairbanks as a member of the New England team for Junior Nationals, while Etown, Meng and I will get to chill in Middlebury for a week for NCAAs. There are a number of spring races on the way as well, so we are far from done!

Dartmouth Carnival

Snow everywhere for this one! Unfortunately one of my favorite race venues, Oak Hill, did not have the snow to host the Dartmouth Carnival. This isn't exactly a new problem (the carnival was only held there two out of my four years here) but it's a sad one because those courses are sa-weeeeet.

But racing is racing, and snow is snow, and racing fast in lots of snow is just as sweet. The heavy snow made the going slow and arduous...Meng continued his impressive roll in the 10k classic, taking 12th place for his 3rd top-12 in a row. The big performances didn't stop there, however, as Will and Kyle also took home the best races of their seasons thus far. While skiing and discussing the course beforehand I brought up a specific point (the "Coach's Corner" hill at 9k) where I said that everyone should be blacking out from pushing so hard. Will and Kyle certainly took this to heart: on his second lap I watched Will switch into a stride from the herringbone section and stop for a brief second...it looked like he was about to fall over right there and actually pass out, but instead he kept hammering. 22nd place, 5 second from the top 20! Here's a shot of Will at that exact black-out spot, 4k and 9k into the race. I think you'll see what I mean...

This is what racing is all about! You can ski smooth and smart for a time, but eventually when the time comes to make it hurt you've gotta do whatever it takes

Kyle "Gramps" Curry skied a similar race, turning himself inside out to grab 36th place. Races like these remind me of our mountain running TT at St. Regis...when the conditions are slow and thick, it takes a different kind of 'speed' to do well. Meng, Will and Kyle went 1-2-3 at St. Regis this year, and it's no surprise to see them doing well in a "pain race" like this 10k was. 

The men's team finished 6th in the team standings, the best result so far this year!

The girls team faced a different kind of struggle, as a sickness was rapidly spreading through the group. Despite their best efforts I think all were racing a bit under the weather. Sienna still continued to show solid consistency in her first year, notching another top-40 in 38th place. Kelsey was questioning racing at all but jumped in last minute and decided to start slow and see how it went. The sickness may have held her back but she still finished competitively within the field, so her top shape is still impressive. 

Here's a shot of Kate in the classic race. Kate must have a lot of fans because this picture has more 'likes' than any other photo on the team Facebook page, so I figured it deserved a spot here as well! 

Saturday's relay was another great day for the men's team. Meng skied scramble leg and tagged off in 6th place out of 20 teams . Will and Kyle then skied with the Williams and Bates teams for the majority of the race, in a 3-way battle for spots 4-6 in the team score. They ended in 6th for the second straight day to cap a strong weekend. Meng (18th) Gramps (24th) and Will (30th) all had splits within the top 30 of all racers!

The women's team was feeling the sickness even more, as Kelsey and Cassidy opted to sit out the day. Erin skied a really strong anchor leg, hanging with the lead pack for her whole leg and tagging off in 11th out of 20 women's teams (34th fastest split!). Sienna and Kate skied strong legs as well to bring the team home in 13th. 

Sienna in the women's relay Saturday

We were greeted back in Canton by tons of snow, even more than Craftsbury got! Because of the SLUBonic Plague crippling the women's team our OD on Sunday featured a small crew, but everyone had a blast classic skiing in the soft powder at Higley! 

Snow galore at Higley Flow!

We have so much snow I had to drive the campus snowmobile around without any groomer attached, just to pack the stuff down enough to set a skate lane. I'm usually not a fan of snowmobilers, but I have to say that ripping around the open fields in 3 feet of fluffy powder at sunset wasn't a bad way to spend my Sunday evening...

For those into the social-networking game, be sure to 'like' the team facebook page HERE. You'll find more photos and much more up-to-date info on the latest SLUSKI happenings!

Answers

Well, that was awesome.

After last weekend's racing in Waterville, it seemed like we were in a bit of a purgatory situation. We'd had personal-bests and left and right, young skiers in the points and older skiers racing consistently.

We'd also come short of some big goals two carnivals into the season. I can't lie: There was certainly some head-scratching and nervous pondering going on in the Nordic coaching offices. A search for answers and a thousand different strategies to try and find them. How could we take the next step? How could we turn an auspicious start into a banner season?

By ushering in the Meng Dynasty. You had to sense it coming over the first few weekends. Meng's attitude, work ethic and confidence (read: not cockiness) were going to pay off in a big way sometime real soon. The kid TURNED IT ON this weekend. It's worth noting that Meng struggled with skating all last year, with the exception of Junior Nationals in March. Meng was never in the top-40 in any freestyle Carnival race last season.

In Friday's skate race he was 12th, and in Sunday's classic race he was 10th for our first male top-ten since 2010. What was almost more impressive was the way Meng skied those races: On Friday he stuck right with Ben Lustgarten, who started 15 seconds behind, only letting Ben sneak a bit ahead in the last 2k (Ben ultimately finished 6th). On Saturday, Meng was the final carnival starter, and right behind him was Youth Olympic medalist Paddy Caldwell. Paddy caught Meng quickly and passed him, and Austin skied the first 5k right behind him. Meng's split was 18th among EISA skiers for that first 5k lap.

And then something happened that rarely ever occurs in individual-start racing: Meng passed Paddy back, and began to put time on him. "I could sense the exact moment he started to get tired," Meng told me after, "and so I went for it."

Meng put fourteen seconds back into Paddy in the last few kilometers. The end result put Meng one second behind Paddy in the overall, and moved him from 18th to 10th in the space of less than a lap. Meng moved up more spots on his second lap than any other racer in the top 20, and definitely left a few coaches who had been timing their own athletes scratching their spandex over the kid who somehow passed 8 other racers in those last few kilometers.

Also worth mentioning, it was awesome that Meng's parents were here to watch him race so well. For most of us, having our parents at a ski race is nothing new, but the Mengs traveled all the way from California to be at Stowe this weekend, and they certainly picked a good time to come across the country for a visit!

And Meng's weren't even the only notable races of the weekend. Despite the return of no less than 5 girls who had been racing in international competitions, Kelsey still snagged 21st place yet again this season. Through this kind of consistency she is not far off from sneaking into NCAAs, and she is on the verge of a breakthrough of her own one of these weekends.

Cassidy collected her second career top-30 in the classic race, and now has one scoring race to her credit in each discipline. Sienna also had a solid weekend despite claiming she never races well at Trapps...that's a mentality that's gonna have to change!

Cass in the midst of the 10k classic...(Photo: Bob Townsend)

...And Cass psyched after the race (and psyched with my sunglasses!) (Photo: Barbara Beall)

Kyle "Gramps" Curry had a great skate race to pick up his first top-40, and is an outside threat for the top-30 in any skate race in my opinion.


Will didn't get his first top-30 until this year, but the level of his skiing has risen such that he is disappointed with a 31st place finish. After a very solid fall of training that put him nearly even with Meng on any level, Will should know that he is just as capable of popping that big race, and that's another great day I'm confident we'll see before this year is over.

 

Evan striding it out and lookin' good in the 10k classic

Gramps in the classic race. Keep your eye on this kid: nobody knows how to bury themselves in the pain cave like Kyle does. (Photos: Barbara Beall)

The only aspect of this weekend that wasn't good was news of Eric's health. After struggling to find form and not feeling well for the past few weeks, Eric sat out Friday's race with stomach trouble. A trip to the doctor confirmed appendicitis, and before we ate dinner that night he was laying on an operating table.

Unfortunately this doesn't bode well for the rest of his racing season, which will probably be a wash. What IS positive is the fact that his issues with racing were not solely based in training or physical shape: in searching for ideas over the past week we'd looked over training, diet, sleep, school, and anything that could've been playing a factor. Eric was in fantastic shape all fall, so it's tough to have this happen, but it is also reassuring to at least have a concrete answer to issues regarding a tough season.

It's likely that Eric will continue to join the team and support us throughout the season, and his leadership will still certainly be a big part of the team.

Not many pictures from racing (too busy with waxing and splits!) but if you haven't stopped in and checked it out yet...

Here is the inside of the SLU-Haul. Insulation, heat, generator, four benches, LED lights...this thing is amazing!