WILLIAMS NORDIC

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Eastern Cup Opener at Trapp's

This past weekend, nine ski teamers raced in the opening Eastern Cups at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, VT. The weekend provided a great opportunity to rub elbows with our rivals, and get some races under our belts.

Notable Results: On Saturday, Alice lead the way with a 6th place finish in the classic sprint. Evan might have finished in a similar position were it not for a crash in his quarterfinal heat. On Sunday, Alice and Holly skied strongly through blizzard conditions to finish 15th and 22nd, respectively, in the 5km skate race.

Overall, the weekend was a success. For all of us, the races provided two great workouts, and, more importantly, exposed weaknesses that will be corrected during our upcoming camp at Mont Sainte Anne.

And now, without further ado, some pictures:

Robby (above and below) showed excellent form in the classic sprint on Saturday.



Evan, who managed to survive November, in the thick of his quarterfinal heat.


Caleb's dad, Nat, was a stellar waxer for some of the Williams boys, and skied fast in both races.



Alice charged to a sixth place finish on Saturday.

On the 27th, we head for Mont Sainte Anne.

Yankee Swap at Bud and Barb's House

Before moving full steam ahead into finals week, the team gathered at Bud and Barb's house for the annual holiday party, featuring the yankee swap--a tradition started many years ago by a ski team alum Loryn Kipp '99. Lots of lasagna, a men's team specialty salad, brownies and sundaes from the ladies team, and amazing swap presents were in abundance.   Below are a few pictures of some epic exchanges.

Exams and final papers run through Monday, Dec. 15th and while schedules are busy, the team is making time to find the snow and get workouts in while keeping on top of the the workload.  Alaska Besh Cups, NENSA Eastern Cups, various local races, and hopefully lots of snow will await the team as we return home for break.  The majority of the team will reconvene on December 27 to travel to Mont Sainte Anne, Quebec for our annual December training camp where we'll get a full week on snow, thanks to a lengthy break this year, a New Year's Day time trial, lots of sleep, reading, movies, massages, delicious meals, and the chance to dominate Bates in The Snowball Fight.  Those not with the team in Quebec will be ripping it up and rocking the cow at US Nationals in Anchorage, Alaska!  Winter study starts up on January 5th, where a reduced course load for the month of January will be a welcome complement to the beginning of the carnival season.      

Above: Aubrey, Bud, and Barb were delightful hosts!  Bud is sporting his Yankee swap acquisition, a "Santa's Little Helper" baseball hat.  

Holly Whitney with her twin sister, Nina!  

Hannah goes home with a flashy Rossi jacket and rainbow-colored boa.

After many years and countless appearances at ski team events, Emily parts with the wrestling suit and Milka hat.  Lucky recipient Robby models his new outfit.  

"Rawwr!" 

A new decoration for Caleb and David's room? 

A-Tay prepares to open his gift.  

Suspense.  

Keith gets after it ("I use my fingernails") with his lottery tickets from Nick.  Total earnings: $0  

Also on Friday night, sophomore sculptors Robby Cuthbert (top) and Dave Hansen (bottom) show off their final projects at the sculpture show in Spencer. 

End Of Camp, Tri-Team Bowl-Off

The last two days of Thanksgiving Camp at Salmon Hills were filled with lots of skiing, eating, and a little bowling madness. Sunday morning's long classic ski was deemed by most to be the nicest ski, with fresh powder, hard tracks and purple kick wax. Though it was sad to leave the gorgeous snow and tracks, I think the team was very content with the large volume of quality, on-snow hours that we logged.
Saturday night was highlighted by a bowl-off with the whole UVM team and several Middlebury athletes. We reserved the whole Pulaski Bowling Center and played 2 hours of black-light, disco-ball, music-pumping bowling.
Back home now, and no snow in town so we are glad to have had such a great week of snow training under our belts.

At the "lookout point" by the lake.

Robby and Dmitri demonstrate skate technique.

45 athletes and coaches on 8 lanes under the swirling lights of the disco ball!

Kirsten is not too excited by her bowling scores, as she learns that fitness has no impact on pin numbers . . . . Evan refreshes his basic algebra skills trying to add up his three-strike start.

Our favorite place to eat was Stefanos, an Italian restaurant right down the street from our hotel. We quickly discovered that the Calzones were the best deal on the menu. Tasty!

Liz, Maddy, Alice, Holly stop for a drink break.

Cold Powder for Time Trial

More and more snow keeps falling at Salmon Hills, and we sure aren't complaining. Especially since it did get colder last night, and this morning's ski on 5 inches of fresh cold powder under clear sunshine skies felt fantastic!
We did a relay time trial with UVM and Middlebury this morning. Each team consisted of 3 men or women, and each person on the team raced 7.5km before tagging off to the next teammate. No times were taken, the purpose for this "race" was for the athletes to get their race legs under them and their motors going, and just to give a real hard effort. Mission Accomplished!

The start of the race: Atay in the cow tights takes it out, with Evan just to the left of him in the red suit, follows.

Sarah and Maddy, who started together, raced the whole 7.5 km together and then sprinted neck and neck to the finish line.

Evan, Keith, Dmitri, Robby.

Alice and Coach Fisher soak up sun

No complaints about this day

A pic and video from yesterday afternoon:


A Most Impressive Effort award goes to Eric Anderson who hurt his shoulder two weeks ago (we won't embarrass him by saying how, but it involved rain, a bike, and a cell phone) and has been skiing the full 3.5 hours a day, every day, with no poles or one pole.

At the end of the classic ski yesterday the tracks started glazing and the kicking was tough. The girls decided to do some double pole speeds. Evan, with his infinite wisdom, decided to do several no wax, no pole, striding sprints.

Thanksgiving Camp on Snow!!

We arrived at Salmon Hill ski area in Redfield, New York yesterday in the midst of a Winter Wonderland. We were all smiles for our first on-snow ski of the season as we ironed out the kinks in our glide. The trails have a good thick blanket of lake effect snow, and we are making tracks on our race skis. It was a bit warm today and the classic skiing was tricky but doable this morning, and with colder temps forecasted for the rest of the week the skiing should only get better!
A two hour ski in the morning followed by lunch, homework, and a quick nap, is followed by another 1.5 hr ski in the late afternoon, hot showers, a hearty dinner, and movies til bedtime. Life is good!!
We are joined here on Tug Hill Plateau by the Middlebury and UVM teams, as well several other clubs who are excited to leave the highway rollers behind for the holiday break.
We are thankful for so many things.

Liz and Holly at the front porch of Salmon Hills Lodge. Even the snowman is psyched about the skiing.

Evan against a backdrop of nordic paradise.

The boys get cozy as they crowd around a laptop screening between ski sessions.

Atay closes out the day with 4 hours of snow time.

Kirsten and brother Dane from Middlebury share a moment outside the lodge at the end of their ski.

Sarah, a Candian first-year and former "piner" tests out the horizontal glide.


Fiona and Dmitri fill their bellies with all the stuffin's at Thanksgiving Dinner

Girls team feast!

The Williams Nordic Women gathered Saturday night at Emily's co-op, Milham, for a pre-season feast prepared by the senior girls, Emily, Liz, and Fiona. The menu included butternut squash / peanut soup, chicken with garlic and onions, salad, fruit salad, garlic bread, and dessert courtesy of our very own Aubrey!

Emily explains the fixins'.

The women discussed the racing schedule and racing opportunities for both carnival team members and development team members. Notably, the proceeds from mitten and hat sales, along with other concerted efforts spearheaded by Emily and Liz, will mean that it will be much cheaper and easier for development team members to race consistantly than in years past. We also discussed team goals for the upcoming season, and many of the veteran skiers reflected on lessons learned from years past.

All in all, there was good company and good feelings about the upcoming season.

Senior girls (and master chefs) Emily, Fiona, and Liz.

Here is the recipe (contributed by Emily's Mom) endorsed by Alice as "the best soup I have had in my life". It is gluten-free, lactose-free (Em left out the cheese) and vegetarian, so everyone could eat it!

(Note: I posted the wrong recipe originally, without really looking at it. Below is the correct one. I hope I didn't screw up too many peoples' meals- my sister Roz definitely had a time of it the other night with the wrong recipe!)

Peanut and Squash Soup

“This mildly spicy, slightly sweet soup hails from Senegal. – recipe by Lia Huber”

1 ½ teaspoons peanut oil

4 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash

1 cup chopped onion

2 tablespoons minced garlic (about 6 cloves)

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon ground coriander

4 cups fat-free, less sodium chicken or vegetable broth

¾ cup reduced-fat creamy peanut butter

2 tablespoons tomato paste

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Heat peanut oil in a large saucepan over medium–high heat. Add squash and the next 5 ingredients (through coriander) to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Add chicken broth, peanut butter, tomato paste, and crushed red pepper, stirring well to combine; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until the squash is tender. Sprinkle with cilantro.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: about 1 cup)

The Bottom Line: Yummy!

Ski Team/Crew Team Workout

The skiers more than held their own with the men's and women's crew team in last Thursday's 4x4 minute interval session.  Teams of 3 (mixed gender/mixed squads) went head to head for 48 minutes of constant erging.   The team who rows the furthest wins!  

Coach Aubrey with skier-turned-rower Crosby Fish '10 and rower Joey Kiernan '10

Sam Kapala '09 went stroke for stroke with the best of the men's crew and led his team to the win

Maddy Wendt '11, Emily Olsen '09, and Gabby Joffe '11 sync up and row together for one of their four minute pieces 

We're headed to upstate New York for Thanksgiving break! Salmon Hills Nordic Area (www.salmonhills.com) is getting lots of lake effect snow and it sounds like we'll be sharing the trails with plenty of other college teams.  We leave Wednesday morning! 

just another day in the office

Maddy Wendt shows off battle wounds from a Level 4 intensity session in the half pipe at Sheep Hill

Fall Pictures

It's been a beautiful fall so far!  Highlights of last week include the annual Schnell time trial with Dimitri, Aubrey, and Alice leading the men's and women's teams to record times, the brutal half pipe workout at Sheep Hill, and Maddy's 20th birthday!  Yesterday we did an OD skate rollerski workout in Savoy, MA and spent most of the morning skiing into a stiff headwind, with chilly temperatures, and even a bit of snow at the end!  This past week the team has really pulled together on an awesome fundraiser to sell mittens and hats during lunch in the student center.  The money will support the development team this winter by covering their entry fees for the NENSA Eastern Cups.  In just five days we've made close to $500!  We are well on our way to make racing available and affordable for everyone this winter!  This week is our last full week of classes and training before Thanksgiving.  If the snow cooperates we'll spend Thanksgiving as a team at Foret Montmorency in Canada before returning to school for one more week of classes in December and then a week of exams and final papers before break!  Keep your fingers crossed for snow!

       

Above: Liz, Amy, Dimitri, Nick, Kirsten, Alice, and Evan cheering on the runners at NCAA Div III Regionals at Mt. Greylock High School.  Men were 1st, women were 2nd and both teams are competing at the NCAAs this weekend!  

Apple picking in October followed by dinner and massive birthday apple crisp for Caleb and Robby!

The ladies at the end of a technique/speed workout in October

Robby, Matt Cranshaw (ski team friend), Keith, David, and Evan on Mountain Day with WOC Director Scott Lewis and WOC President Jay Cox-Chapman '09

Hannah and Holly in the apple orchard 

Coming up this week: 4x4 relay erg intervals on Thursday with the crew team!  Feel the burn!

Pictures from Liz, Alice, & Keith.