Racing... Brought to you by rom coms.

It was very windy...

Last weekend – yes, I’m finally going to get back on time with the blog - some of us chose to use the off carnival weekend to race the Supertour/Eastern Cup/Mid-A JNQ in Lake Placid. We had a great time, and honestly, some people had their best races yet! First off, Kate raced on Friday and crushed :) The rest of us had class or just didn't feel like it, though, so she had to represent for all of us.

The rest of us left around 6:30 Saturday morning. Very early and Ian sort of missed the memo on that (also Jordi and I may have been a little late too, but we beat Ian!)... But after Jordi gave Ian a phone call wake up, we were all in the van only a couple minutes behind schedule. We made it to Van Ho in plenty of time. The first day, only Ian, Jordi, and Steph raced the classic sprint (Jackie and I cheered). They represented us well, though! Ian had one of his best races of the year, Jordi worked on sprinting although its not her favorite, and Steph worked her way through the heats to be 4^th in the junior final! She did an awesome job running up the hill, which amazed me, because I didn’t even know this course had a hill! For those who remember the SLU Carnival a couple years ago... the sprint course now ACTUALLY goes all the way up the hill.

Stephiii in the mass start!

That night Steph, Jordi, and I all stayed at my house to avoid the extra driving. We had some good soup, cheesecake (dessert is a must in the Hochschartner household), and watched a rom com. Rom coms are excellent pre race preparation – don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Steph and I got to start in the same track :)

The next day we were greeted to LOTS of wind and snow. It was an old-fashioned ski race for sure. It reminded me of way-back-when videos from the Olympics with old guys winding their way through one little track in the woods with ice all over their beards. The times were really slow, but let’s say it was character building. Emily and Jackie joined us in the race, though both had some injury/health issues (fine now). Steph and Jordi both had some of their best races, though! So, I’m going to attribute it all to the cheesecake and rom com. Some of the boys – GH, Matt M., and Ben came to race as well. They all did a good job, but were left wanting more. Honestly, the idea of racing 15k on Ladies 5 in those conditions (or any?) sort of makes me want to cry, so its impressive they did it at all. Graham, Kate, Erin, and Jordan T (who used to be on the team) also all came to cheer, so that was amazing! Thanks so much. And keep an eye out for another post soon about our races at Stowe/UVM tomorrow and Saturday! I’ll try to not be so late!

All results for your inner results stalker

UNH Rundown - and Running from Winter Storm Harper

Last weekend was the UNH Carnival in Jackson, NH. The race venue has a reputation for being really, really windy, and the forecast promised wind chill in the single digits. Luckily for us, it wasn’t nearly that windy, and we even saw the sun a few times!

Friday was the classic 15/20k mass start, and the first college mass start for our freshmen. On the men’s side, Brian got his first classic top-30 with a 27^th place finish, and Matt Y. and Nathaniel rounded out the scoring 3.

The women’s race was fortunate(?) enough to have APU skier Rosie Frankowski join us. For the entire first lap, I could only think one thing: This is going out a lot faster than I planned on… It turned out that I wasn’t the only one who felt that way, but we got through it. Both Steph and Jordan had their best EISA finishes ever, with Steph getting her first top-50 and Jordan just behind her!

The next day, we had a skate sprint on tap. We knew we were under a time crunch – the goal is usually just to ski as fast as possible, but due to Winter Storm Harper rolling east, the goal Saturday was to ski as fast as possible, and then to get on the road as fast as possible. We had two people qualify for heats - Lucy qualified in 22^nd, and Brian qualified in 25^th. The rest of us packed up as best as we could, and then headed out to cheer. Lucy finished the day in 24^th, and Brian ended up in 19^th, his first top-20! Steph and Graham both finished 40^th in the qualifier for their best finishes ever too!

It started snowing an hour or so into our drive back, but we made it back to SLU safely.

-Jackie

Sorry for the lack of photos! We were racing to get everything packed up, and the stadium is very cold - Lucy

Op-ed on life by Ben, Other Nationals News, and a Home Carnival!

Over winter break I decided that it would be a good idea to race my first 30k race during US Nationals at Craftsbury. Why I decided to compete in this race still baffles me, as I have raced a 20k on the same course and thought to myself, “never again”. But lo and behold, I found myself sitting at the start line more or less content with the suffering I was about to put myself through. This race contained some of the best skiers in the country, from top collegiate athletes to people looking to make the US Ski Team. I knew beforehand that I was going to be way out of my league entering this race, but I still had my goals. My first goal was to finish the race, which doesn’t sound like too much, but this course has roughly 500 ft of elevation gain every lap, which comes to a grand total of 3000 ft total. My second goal was to not get cutoff for time, as there was a certain time I had to finish the race in. While similar to my first goal, it still presents its own challenge of not just going easy the entire time to ensure I finish. My last goal was to not get lapped in the race.

The mass start was like any other mass start, everyone going as hard as they can to try and get a good position, all while avoiding the pile ups and keeping their poles in one piece. I was able to secure myself a pretty good spot off the start and had a smooth ride all the way to about 2.5k in, where the hardest climb began. This is when I started to realize that I might be in trouble, as everyone around me started rocketing up the hill as if they hadn’t just hauled booty up until that point. I watched as people started to disappear into the woods ahead and the group I was with slowly started to dwindle down. By the end of the first lap I was all by myself with 25k more skiing to go. Luckily for me, I had team of awesome cheerers and my very own feed team (Special thanks to Emily and GH) that supported me every kilometer of the way.

While I was able to achieve my first two goals, I was not able to hold off the lead group until my last lap and ended up getting lapped at the 15k marker. Although, I was able to get a nice photo of me in front of Brian Gregg and some comments on how impressed they were to see a SLU skier out in front (they just didn’t know I was being lapped). Despite getting lapped so quickly, I was still able to achieve my first two goals, and even ended up not getting last place!

Men's 30k Photos

-Ben

We also had quite the crew for all the other races at Senior Nationals. We are incredibly indebted to the Townsend’s and their neighbor for hosting us and making amazing food! We had some strong performances in each race powered by muffins, cookies, and great dinners J Also, some extreme off day sledding. For a speedy quick recap – the first race was a 10/15k classic in very soft new snow (read: a mid-race grooming could have been nice haha). The second race was a classic sprint with great conditions. Congrats to Brian for qualifying for junior heats! An injury sidelined him for the actual heats, but hey, USSA points are off the qualifier. Then, we had distance skate races of 7.5k for the junior women, 11.25k for the junior men, 20k for the senior women, and 30k for the senior men (YAY Ben!). The last day was a skate sprint. Congrats to Jackie, Graham, and Brian for making heats! They all went on to race the heats and made SLUSKI proud. After this, we left Craftsbury to head to Lake Placid for a short camp to reunite as a whole team before our carnival. It was chilly! Thanks to Dave Priganc for all of the great photos of the week and our carnival.

Women's 10k classic photos

Men's 15k classic photos

Women's 20k skate photos

Junior women's 7.5k skate photos

Junior men's skate distance photos

-Lucy

Note: Results were on Bullitt Timing, which now seems to not be working... Classic Nordic ski race problems. You can still try this link, though, in case it comes back online.

The whole team got back together in Lake Placid on January 8^th. We were all excited to get back into training and prepare for our home carnival that coming weekend. On Wednesday, we got out onto the Mt. Van Hoevenberg ski trails for a classic interval session.

           

That night the snow began to fall and temperatures started to drop. When we awoke on Thursday morning there was almost half a foot of fresh powder to ski, and it was still falling. Conditions at Mt. Van Ho made for a fun ski through the powder and past the freshly covered trees. Friday morning, we awoke to shockingly cold temperatures but a bluebird day. We delayed skiing and waited until the temperature rose above the negatives before we ventured to Van Ho for a course preview and other final preparations for the race weekend to come. Friday night the team headed over to the Crowne Plaza hotel for an Alpine and Nordic team dinner generously hosted by alumna. After, we attended the Laurentian Reception where we had the pleasure of meeting many St. Lawrence alumni and supporters. Following a short and sweet speech from our fearless coach about the prospects for our racing tomorrow, we headed home.

Saturday’s events were the 5k and 10k skate individual starts. Unfortunately, racing was delayed by one hour due to freezing temperatures. The women went first and men second. Jackie had the top result of the weekend, and of her career by placing 6^th overall and only 4 seconds off the podium! Steph and Jordi competed in their first carnival races of their college career. On the men’s side Brian skied into the top 30 with a 27^th place. Brian, Graham, Ian, and Lauchie also all completed their first carnival race of their college career.

Women’s Day 1 Results

Men’s Day 1 Results

Sunday’s events were both 10k classic individual starts. The women’s team had strong races all around with Lucy placing in the top 30 with a 21^st place. On the men’s side Brian was our top finisher in 37^th place. Once racing was over we packed up and were able to be home before the sun had even set, a very rare occurrence considering how far away the majority of our races are.

Women’s Day 2 Results

Men’s Day 2 Results

All in all, the first carnival was a solid start to the season that we are all excited to build from. Next we headed to the Jackson for the UNH Carnival (look out for that update soon). Thank you to all of the parents, fans, and other supporters that came out to watch despite the extreme cold. With only one home carnival every two years, it makes it all the sweeter to race at home with friendly faces all around!

Classic Race photos

- GH

Team Score Results - when both men/women, both days, and alpine/nordic were taken into account SLU was 6th! That's the best place I can remember and shows that SLUSKI is becoming well-rounded and awesome! Though, of course we've always been awesome - Lucy