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!
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