EISA Regionals: 1 Blizzard, 4 PR's, 2 NCAA Qualifiers

Holly Whitney races to 19th during the women's mass start classic

It was a wild weekend for sure, as Saturday's blizzard-like conditions capped off a season of Eastern skiing which has felt more like spring than winter. Proving their toughness to adversity and resilience through a storm, the Ephs had a great weekend of races wherein 4 racers had PR results - Christina , Kalle, Vanya, Holly - and 2 racers qualified for the NCAA's - Dimitri and Will.
Friday's 5 and 10 k skate races were held under cloudy and calm skies, with temps hovering around 30 degrees. The men raced first and placed three in the top thirty, for a combined team score of fifth: Dimitri Luthi was just outside the top ten in 12th, Isaac Hoenig in 19th, and Vanya Rybkin in 24th. The women were next, and Christina Knapp led the team to a 6th place finish with a PR skate race in 27th, while Hannah Smith placed 33rd and Hlly Whitney 35th.
Though the forecast called for overnight snow, we were unprepared for the storm that hit Stowe that night. Going to bed with lightly falling flakes, we then awoke to a power outage and a new blanket of white that was 4 inches and building. Though the groomers were on the race course until an hour before race time, they could not keep the tracks clear, the cover building nearly an inch an hour. With the additional 15-20 mile an hour winds and frequent gusts of 30mph, the stadium where the racers started, finished, and lapped through was the white-out howl of a cyclone center.
But when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Holly, Christina, and Elena Luthi skied most of the mass start 15 k race together, using team work to pick off their competition. By the time Holly emerged from the woods for the finish stretch she was powering through side-blowing snow in order to cross the line in 19th place!  A senior, Holly earned her career best appropriately at the end of her career. Christina finished close behind, in 21st, and Elena crossed in 26th. With these scores, the women placed 6th as a team.
The classic tracks for the men's race were even more snowed in, but as everyone was racing at the same time in the same conditions, there was no complaining to be done; only fast racing. And the fastest race for the men came from freshman Vanya Rybkin. Vanya, who hails from Alaska via Russia, perhaps felt as though he was right at home, skiing across the Arctic or Siberian tundra. He skied quickly into the lead pack and never let go, crossing the line in 10th as the team's top points score of the weekend. Kalle Jahn had his career best finish as well, skiing from a first lap rank of 46th all the way up to a finish place of 27th. Rounding out the men's score for 6th was Dimitri, in 33rd.

Our two NCAA qualifiers are Dimitri and Will Wicherski. Dimitri finished the EISA season ranked 8th and Will finished in 19th. As the highest ranked freshman, Will also earned the honor of "Rookie of the Year"!! (Will has been racing the World Junior competition in Erzerum, Turkey this past week (Reprezent!) so did not compete at the Regional competition).

(Photo albums are updated, as well)

Results

Rankings

Kalle

Becca

Kristin

Elena

Purple-Cow-Cookies!

Dawn of the Mass Start Classic Day: Coach Fisher starts brushing out the no-wax skis

Knappster, Elena, Holly, pack-ski during the race

Hannah Smith

Hannah Hausman and Aubrey feed racers in a gusty stadium

Vanya races to 10th!!!

Isaac storms through the storm

Dimitri

More photos from Williams Carnival

Sampling of photos taken by Dave Dethier at last weekend's race:

Dick Nesbitt and Bud Fisher at the wax bench

Warren and Deb Whitney setting up the food table

Aubrey's Photo Fave of the Week: freshman Sarah Abramson

Holly Whitney skis to the finish of last home carnival

Craftsbury stadium with busy Williams ski team workers

Hannah S finishes with Casey and Sarah on timing/bibs

Aubrey's Fave Finish Photos: Vanya and Ian lunge the line in their respective individual start races.  (Later they find out that Vanya clocked a time that was .7 seconds faster. . . .)

Prospect: Back on Track!!

Sparkling morning on new snow

The night we returned from our relocated winter carnival was the night Prospect got several new inches of snow. . . . probably not enough still to hold the winter carnival, but it made for quite a spectacularly sunny Sunday ski. The trails had total snow coverage, classic tracks, and a good amount of weekend traffic.  And even Mountain Trail was doable! 

Ladies Team

Christina and Aubrey on top of the Mountain

Slalom back home

Dimitri Podiums at Home Carnival

Dimitri

     The night before our own races we learned that the Alpine women had crushed in their slalom race, taking FIRST PLACE and our cheer after our pre-race meeting was "Podium!".  Senior Dimitri Luthi must have taken that to heart, as he stormed his way through the field and onto the podium at his last home carnival -  a third place finish!    Vanya tied for 25th and just one second back Ian took 27th, to round out the scoring and place the men in  4th place.
      In the women's race, Knappster notched another top-30 for the season, finishing 26th. Elena was just 10 seconds behind her in 30th and Holly (last Williams Carnival!) placed 40th.
   It was sad to have to move our home carnival away from Prospect, but the whole team chipped in to help run things smoothly for the one-day classic race at Craftsbury Nordic Center in Craftsbury, VT.  The Center also did a great job grooming their fun 5k course, which both men and women raced two laps of during their 10 k individual start races.  It was warm and overcast, klister kick on icy tracks with a couple sugary downhills. 
     I did not get photos of the women's race, as I was still testing and waxing for the men's race.  (btw: both Hannah H. and Kalle were a HUGE help testing skis in the early morning hours and throughout the day!)
  Also: huge thanks to Dave Dethier and Dick Nesbitt for helping with timing and skis! And to the Whitney's for organizing the post-race food table!
   

Even ski carts were decorated in prep for the weekend

Isaac rounds a downhill corner

Elena, Andrea Fisher, Kristin, cheer the men up the last hill

Vanya

Erik

Phil

Ian

Ramping Up...

After a really long travel session, we finally came into Erzurum.  As soon as we touched down we could tell that things were different than normal.  One of our techs was the victim of an extortion scheme which made him pay 115 euros for a tank of gas, and the hotel we are staying at was way up above the city at the base of an alpine mountain.  We started training the next day, and since the venue is about a 40m drive from the hotel we get to see some of the landmarks and statues on the way there.  Such as:

Squatting downhill skier

Two-headed eagle at the gates of the University

Satellite dish-ridden alleys

 An Antarctica-grade storm moved in just about as soon as we got here and it raged for the next few days, closing the road and making it hard to train and go outside.  It was awesome to watch Dmits kill it and ski to third yesterday, big shout out to him, and also to see Kikkan slay the world cup on Eurosport.

Low visibility

We had doping control randomly yesterday, we had planned to go into the city, which is very cool and has a lot of historical things, but you can't say no to WADA.

I think they left out a word, but maybe this is the Russian HQ.

Today the weather cleared up beautifully and the gale force winds were replaced by bluebird pow and shining sun.  Training was awesome, too bad I have a race tomorrow or else I would have been there for days.  The venue is odd, there is one hill that seems to be manmade with about 6 different ways to go up to the top of it, and that is all.  It is also fenced in by barbed wire, for some reason, which adds to the oddness.  Getting to train with all the guys decked out in their various national team gear is rad though.  Another sign we're not at home is the prayer calls from the nearby mosque that come at noon, weird to hear during an interval session.

The venue is pretty sick.

After training I got to work my Norwegian skills on the van ride back, which was fun, and also me, Boobar, and Logan Hanneman rode up the tram to the top of the alpine area.  We were standing in line then a guy with a Turkish Ski Federation jacket took us by the arm and ushered us past the line and into the gondola for free; we have all decided the USST jacket is kind of a golden ticket in some places.

Boobs and Bog Logs checking out the skiers

Boobar pointing the way

 Traffic laws are "optional," which leads to situations similar to "jigsaw puzzles," described by the Canadian coach.

Major traffic jam at the bottom.

Women with head scarves waiting for something

The view from the top, Erzurum has 368k people

The ski jumps, lit up at night.  Hopefully we get to see our guys jump this week.

Stoked!

Beautiful at the top

Some abandoned station

I just found out that since Patterson got sick or something and didn't come that I am doing all of the races, even the sprint which is tomorrow.  It's the last off-day before the race week and I am super stoked to go and see what I've got against the best juniors in the world.  I will probably update again sometime mid-week, but for now, a parting shot courtesy of Big Logs and his super nice camera.