Minnesotan Spring

As the dirty snow banks in Williamstown continued to melt last weekend, the MidWest contingent of the team slogged through 6 inches of fresh new powder for a truly Minnesotan spring break adventure.

Thursday morning, Maddy Wendt ’11 made the trek up North from the suburbs to Grand Rapids, MN, home of Mark Johnson ’11 and family. Over the next three days, the pair proceeded to fulfill several North Woods stereotypes: maple sugaring, beer brewing, elongating vowels, pronouncing the word bag bayg, and skiing across frozen lakes and over trails covered with the tracks of deer and wolves.

Mark starts the ascent at Sugar Hills in Grand Rapids, Maddy and Mark's biathlon coach Vladimir in the background

Not actually the Johnsons' sugarbush, but not too far off.

Saturday morning, Mark and Maddy headed back down to the Wendt homestead in Marine on St. Croix, where they managed to get in a great workout double poling with skate equipment on an ungroomed, crusty, and very uneven state park trail. The evening concluded with what was possibly the best homemade pesto pizza ever. Sunday included a walk to downtown Marine, the weekend’s second batch of Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes (ask Mark for the ridiculously delicious recipe), and a trip to the airport because Mark had to return to his thesis back at Williams.

The unbelievable cupcakes.

Dimitri Luthi Races Swiss National Championships

Dimitri (left, red suit) starts the 50k with Cologna (right, #61)

Dimitri and Dario Cologna

"I guess staying with Dario for the first 15km was a bad idea."

Nobody that is familiar with Dimitri's style of racing will be surprised that he started out too fast in the 50km race at the Swiss National Championships. Though he admits he didn't know if he'd be able to finish, with the help of several liters of coke downed over the last 10k, he was able to make it across the finish line, and in a very respectable 20th place!

"Probably the most I ever suffered, but still a lot of fun."

The 50k was the second race in the Swiss National Championships, the first race held were skate sprints.  Out of 70 men, Dimitri qualified in 24th and moved up to 17th place.

All in One Week: 87.5kms of Racing, Four Races, and Three 2nd Place Finishes

Without any specific training for marathon distance racing or biathlon marksmanship in quite some time, I somehow managed, somewhat unintelligently, to fit both types of events into a single week. It started with Team Domination at the Bretton Woods Marathon in New Hampshire (see previous post) and finished with a series of three races at US Biathlon Nationals at home in Minnesota. With no expectations I charged into the week and ended placing 2nd in three of the four races: the Bretton Woods classic marathon, the 12.5km biathlon pursuit, and the 15km biathlon mass start.

My shooting was the key to achieving good results at the US Biathlon Nationals given how exhausted I was by the end of the week. With only picking up my rifle four days within the past year I managed to improve from hitting 50% (bad) in the 10km sprint, to 75% (mediocre) in the 12.5km pursuit, and then to 90% (superb) in the 15km mass start. The cherry on top was finishing in front of all three athletes who have qualified for the World Cup. Booya!

Racing in Altenberg, Germany (2009)

Happy Birthday, Holly!!

Christina and the Birthday Girl

Mark Johnson takes 2nd place at US Biathlon Nationals!!

(photo by Topher Sabot)

From a second place marathon last Saturday to taking second place at the US Biathlon National Championships this Saturday:  Mojo only missed 5 shots to post the best shot record and finish only 8.6 seconds back from first place, USBA's Wynn Roberts, in the 12.5km pursuit..  Congratulations Mark!!
Article on Fasterskier.com

Happy Birthday, Dimitri!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dimitri had to travel today on his birthday, but soon he will be home in Switzerland and ready to contest Cologna at next week's Swiss Spring Championships. :) Happy Birthday Dimitri! Have Fun!

Ephs sweep Bretton Woods Marathon and Academic All-East

Team Domination continued to take names last Saturday in the Bretton Woods Marathon, putting two Williams skiers on the podium for the 40k race: Mark Johnson (who is right now traveling to Minnesota for Biathlon Nationals) took second and Phil Tosteson took 3rd., out of 97 total racers (17 women)
  It was a wet and icy track,and the event turned into a double-pole race after the klister quickly wore off, but the skiers that finished the event still came back with smiles and praise for everything: the scenery, the post-race food and prizes, and their hosts for the weekend: Diane and Andreas Halvorsen and Nat and Marianne Lucy.

Behind Mark and Phil the rest of the men's team:  Kalle Jahn: 5th; Robby Cuthbert: 8th, Isaac Hoenig: 10th, Casey Jones: 12th, Caleb Lucy: 23rd

Maddy Wendt led the women's contingent, coming in 5th.  Her teammates followed: Kristen Halvorsen: 7th, Julia Seyferth: 8th, Holly Whitney: 10th.


ALSO IN THE NEWS:  The Williams College 2010-11 ski team had 15 members (most in the East) named to the US Ski Coaches Association All-Academic Intercollegiate Team!!!  What a bunch of smarties. (Link to article)

NCAA Mass Start Classic Race!

Wicked, wicked weather for yesterday's long classic races. Steady 41 degrees all day, but on and off again downpours of rain, making for flooded waxing tents, wet classic tracks, soaked clothing and tricky waxing.

At a certain point the athletes had to choose what skis to race on - either no-wax skis or klister - and then they had to live with that decision for 15 or 20 k, whether good or bad. Many racers had success on no-wax, and many had terribly slow or slipping no-wax skis. Many racers had success with klister skis, and many had terrible icing problems with klister skis.

Our crew did alright, though Keith had slow no-wax and Sarah's were icing badly, all three racers toughed out the wet track and fought their their last race with the kind of effort - if not the wanted results - they could feel really good about ending the season on.

Dimitri had the best race of the day, in 19th place. He had a good start and fought hard to maintain contact with the lead pack, which landed him a place at the top half of the field.

Helping our three racers find a little more fight was our huge cheering squad: most of the team raced Bretton Woods Marathon this weekend and so they came a day early to watch the classic races. Also, the women's alpine team and coaches came - with umbrellas and Williams flags - and braved the rain to cheer on their fellow ski-mates.

As coaches, Bud and I left the venue soaked and exhausted, but SO very satisfied with the season:
What an amazing winter of training and racing.
What an amazing group of student-athletes.

Thanks to everyone and to all parents who gave us so much support this year via both physical and electronic presence!!

(side note: I hope to update the photo albums in the next couple days)

Women's mass start

Sarah

Women's alpine team came to cheer us on!

Coach Fisher at the bench, as the water starts flooding the wax tent

Keith skis in a pack around the first lap

Dimitri

Ian, Kristen, Julia, Evan stand in the pouring rain to watch the women's race

Evan helps with spare poles and gatorade feeds

Keith, Bud, Aubrey after the race

Training Day: MORE snow.

It has been snowing since early this morning. It has not let up. I don't know how much snow has accumulated, but the man that owns this hotel has not stopped plowing since early this morning, and we STILL couldn't get our van up the steep hill to the parking lot!!

The course had just been groomed when we got to Trapps for a "course preview", but if there hadn't been other skiers constantly in the tracks they would have covered in very quickly.

THe forecast is calling for rain today, but it is now 3:30pm and it is just wet, wet, snow, falling heavy and constant.

When we toured the course today we were all on zero or multi skis, which don't require kick-wax. Some worked better than others, they iced quite a bit, but definitely worked better overall than other athletes trying to get kick on hard wax.

Tomorrow is a whole different story - it is still supposed to be "light rain" in the morning, so we'll just have to see what we've got when we wake up!!

Women's race: 9:30
men's race: 11:30

Apparently the NCAA is live streaming the races. I don't know how the last one worked, but if you want to give it a try they will begin the live feed just before the race: http://www.ncaa.com/sports/skiing/d1

Bud and Keith tour the course

Dimitri testing zero and multi skis

trying to get the van up the hill to the hotel

Keith Kantack takes 22nd in first race at NCAA's!

A perfect day for a skate race at Trapp Family Lodge, in Stowe, Vermont: Sunny, little wind, fresh and hard-packed snow, 25 degrees.

gorgeous day, gorgeous tracks at Trapps

The morning was festive, with the tents and colors of so many teams spread out across the parking lot at Trapps, and the uniforms and flags of so many different schools on display.  11 of the 21 schools that were racing today were from either the west or central divisions, so there were many unfamiliar faces as well.

 The loudspeaker near the start line was cranked to high volume, the excited expectations of the spectators equaling the excited nerves of the athletes.

The men's race started right at 10, individual starts at 30 second intervals.

Keith Kantack started with bib #5  and Dimitri Luthi had bib #11.  Keith started conservatively, but at every time check he got a little bit faster and picked up places.  He held his form together through the last steep hill and didn't lose any time through the finish line, placing 22nd; 7th for the Eastern region, and less than 40 seconds out of top 10.  A sweet race!

Dimitri had a fast, smooth, start, but it wasn't his day to hold speed through the finish. Though he dropped some places in the last couple kilometers he still held a 27th place, 10 seconds out of the top 25. 

Sarah Tory, in her first-ever major ski race, started speeding up as the race went along, but ran out of track in the short, 5k loop. She placed 39th, a solid race in the midst of such stiff competition.

Full Results

Dimitri in the start gate

Dimitri

Keith laps through the stadium

Keith puts all he's got left into the last hill

Sarah in the start gate

Sarah

Dimitri, Keith, and Coach Fisher watch the women's race

NCAA's in Stowe, VT!!!!! Day 1: Course Preview

We drove to Stowe this morning and arrived at noon to blue bird skies, fresh snow, and a shiny-groomed stadium at Trapps Family Lodge. It was almost 30 degrees when we previewed the 5k race course, but the snow was still pretty cold and fast.
Then it was back to the hotel to wax skis and get gussied up for the banquet, where had the typical pasta meal, received a warm welcome from a son of the Von Trapp Family, heard an inspirational speech from Beth Reid, and were introduced to the athletes in each region.
We attended dinner alongside our alpine team, so there were 10 in total:
Nordic athletes: Dimitri Luthi, Keith Kantack, Sarah Tory
Coaches: Bud Fisher, Aubrey Smith
Alpine athletes: laurel Carter, Annie Lighter, Geordie Lonza
Coaches: Ed Grees, Kelsey Levine

Tomorrow's schedule**:
10am men's 10k skate
12pm: women's 5k skate

It is supposed to be a pretty nice day tomorrow, but no matter what, we are ready to ROCK!!

***though alpine was supposed to race Thursday, they have moved their GS race to tomorrow to avoid a winter storm warning. So there will be no nordic or alpine races on Thursday.

Sarah skis under stadium start banner

Coach Fisher is nothin' but smiles while wax testing today

Dimitri and Keith soak sun after their course preview

Waxing skis outside the barn at the Hob Nob Hotel

The athletes: Dimitri, Annie, Sarah, Geordie, Laurel, Keith

Sarah, Keith, Aubrey eating at the banquet

D.

Go EPHS!!!! Bud Fisher, Annie Lighter, Laurel Carter, Sarah Tory, Kelsey Levine, Aubrey Smith, Geordie Lonza, Keith Kantack, Dimitri Luthi, Ed Grees

Last Team Practice at Prospect

Warm and rainy for today's speed-up interval session at Prospect. We started in the afternoon in order to catch the morning's 50k World Championship race live. Thus inspired, despite the pouring rain, we hit the tracks.

It was a pretty good workout, considering. The snow was slow, but not entirely mushy, the temps were warm and and the rain let up a bit before we started in on our intervals.

Plus, Christina had cake made for post-practice celebration. :)

Caleb, Robby, Holly, Dimitri, Mark converge on Sunny-Four-Corners on a not-so-sunny-day to start skate intervals.

Dimitri, Caleb getting ready to start

Maddy: "psyched" that she gets to wear her raincoat during her last interval sesh at Prospect

Sarah, Holly, Maddy: keeping speedy despite slow snow

Maddy, Aubrey, Sarah after workout. Soaked, but still smiling.

Klister Kickin'

After a wicked cold day yesterday we were back in the sun today, mid 30's, starting to feel spring-like.

While the coaches went fishscale, the athletes got some good practice on their klister kickers. Today the recipe called for short speeds: one every two minutes, for 30 minutes.

Tapering down, speeding up.

Dimitri, Phil, lead boys up Chickadee

Casey

Isaac

Sarah, Julia

Coach Fisher gives some instructions on the workout to the women's team

Dimitri's Blue Steel