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.