NCAA REGIONALS - EPHS PODIUM AGAIN!!!

We had an outstanding wrap up to the regular carnival season this past weekend in Rumford! Saturday's races were the 10K Mass Start Skate for the women and 15K Mass Start Skate for the men. The women's team raced well with Olivia finishing in 17th, Christina 21st, Hannah 29th, Kristin 49th and Laura 50th earning a 6th place finish overall as a team. The men's team had another outstanding day and earned a PODIUM FINISH for the 2nd day in a row. Isaac, Will and Vanya finished 15th, 16th and 17th rounding out our top 3. Phil finished 28th, Ian 38th and Kalle 41st.

Here are a couple of links with the sports info write ups from the weekend:

Day 1: http://athletics.williams.edu/sports/skiing/2012-13/releases/20130222k1zqv7
Day 2: http://athletics.williams.edu/sports/skiing/2012-13/releases/20130223rsndjc

We've had an incredibly successful year as a team and it showed on the NCAA ranking lists. On the women's side senior Christina Knapp and freshman Olivia Meyerson will be representing the Ephs at the NCAA championships. On the men's side we also had 2 qualifiers with junior Isaac Hoenig and sophomore Will Wicherski!!  Also of note is the EPH crew heading to junior nationals in Fairbanks, AK. Vanya Rybkin, Josh Harrington and Jenna Maddock will be making the journey north to compete in 4 races during the March 11-16 timeframe.

We are so proud of the entire team and the supportive and encouraging environment that has been present throughout the season so far. GREAT JOB TO EVERYONE ON THE TEAM! Also a big shout out to the amazing EPH alums and parents for the incredible support up to this point.

We are gearing up for the NCAA Championships and Junior Nationals over the next couple of weeks and we have PERFECT ski conditions at Prospect to help us do so. The NCAA crew is leaving for Middlebury on Tuesday and the Junior Nationals crew for Fairbanks on Friday. True to form the rest of the team is nowhere near sick of skiing and racing, so they will be tackling some local races and continuing to train until the very end. We're looking forward to having a BIG CHEERING SQUAD at NCAA's. If you're in the Middlebury, VT area the classic races are on March 7th and the final Mass Start Freestyle races on March 9th. SEE YOU THERE!!

Here are some excellent photos (courtesy of Peter Hoenig...thank you Peter!) from this past weekend:

Kalle in the 10K Classic

Kalle in the 15K Skate

The crew after the Friday race

Olivia leading a pack in the 10K

Christina and Hannah skiing together

Laura and Kristin

Senior Ian Nesbitt in his last carnival!

Vanya and Phil 

Isaac and Phil in a huge strung out pack

Phil showing off his shades

Phil leading the pack in his last carnival!

Will and Isaac worked together for much of the race

All of the seniors. GREAT JOB YOU GUYS!

The whole crew after Saturday's racing

Isaac on his way to NCAA's!

Will - dressed for WARM WEATHER!

Christina and Sarah

Will and Isaac

Great Job Women's TEAM! 

Ian racing to his BEST CAREER FINISH. 11th!

Women's Start

Will and Isaac tearing it up

Men 3rd and Women 6th at EISA CHAMPIONSHIPS Day 1

Today was a beautiful day at Black Mountain for the 5/10K Classic EISA Championship races. We had our first TEAM PODIUM of the year with the Men's Team in 3rd place! Will lead the team in 8th place, followed by a CAREER BEST finish for Ian and his new boots in 11th, Isaac in 15th, Vanya 26th, Phil 31st and Kalle in 54th. The women also had a strong day and finished in 6th. Christina had a CAREER BEST finish in 14th, Olivia 26th, Hanna 30th, Kristin 31st, Laura 42nd and Sarah 57th.

GREAT JOB TEAM!

Here is a pic of everyone enjoying the beautiful day after the races:

Tomorrow's races are the last races of the regular carnival season...Mass Start 10/15K Freestyle. Stay tuned!

Will Wicherski honored as EISA SKIER OF THE WEEK

Will's 4th and 7th place finishes at the Middlebury Carnival did not go unnoticed by the powers that be and Will was recognized as this week's EISA SKIER OF THE WEEK!! Follow the link below and scroll down.

http://eisaskiing.blogspot.com

Also of note is that the Women's Alpine Skier Of The Week is our very own Geordie Lonza who finished 1st in the slalom and 4th in the giant slalom at the Middlebury Carnival.

CONGRATULATIONS WILL AND GEORDIE!

2013 Middlebury Carnival Report

This past weekend the team was racing on the trails at Rikert Touring Center for the Middlebury Carnival. This was our first look at the new race loops that Middlebury has successfully added snowmaking to. Most of the trails seemed quite familiar, but the loop skied very well and it is nice to have another man-made snow venue to add to the list!
Friday's race was a bit challenging on the waxing side as conditions were changing every 10 minutes or so even throughout the women's race. Most of our women ended up on zero skis with varying levels of success and about half of our men ended up on zeros as well. In the women's race Olivia matched her best classic finish of the season and finished in 15th place. Christina was 24th, Laura 40th, Jenna 44th, Elena 45th and Hannah 48th. In the men's 10K Classic Will had an outstanding race and finished 4th! Vanya was our second skier in 22nd, Ian 23rd, Phil 28th, Isaac 30th and Kalle 38th. On Saturday in the  15K Mass start Olivia was again our first skier in 18th place. Christina was 23rd, Hannah 34th, Laura 43rd and Elena 45th. In the 20k Mass Start Will had another great race and was battling for a podium spot until the very end of the race. Will ended up in 7th for the day. Kalle had a great race as well finishing in 24th, Ian 28th, and Vanya and Phil sprinted for 31st and 32nd.

Here are a few links to articles recapping the weekend:

http://fasterskier.com/article/95143/   (Will gets a mention in this one)
http://athletics.williams.edu/sports/skiing/2012-13/releases/201302154a0o9t
http://athletics.williams.edu/sports/skiing/2012-13/releases/20130216k1zlso

Great job team and way to ROCK THE COW!!
This Thursday we leave for the EISA Championships/Bates Carnival at Rumford. Friday is a 5/10K Classic and Saturday will be a 10/15K Mass Start Skate.

2013 Middlebury 15k Women's Start from Williams Nordic Ski Team on Vimeo.

Hannah leading Christina and Olivia early in the race

Olivia and Christina Climbing

Will leading the chase pack

Ian and Phil rounding one of the technical corners

Laura in the 15K

Christina with mom cheering!

Will on one of many icy corners

Kalle skied the downhills very well all day

Ian skiing powerfully

Vanya and Kalle

Phil and Kalle

2013 Dartmouth Carnival

This past weekend was a nice dose of WINTER for those of us that had been missing it. The carnival races were moved to Craftsbury, VT due to lack of snow at Oak Hill, but you wouldn't have guessed it based on the amount of snow the racers were skiing through on the 5k loop at Craftsbury. On Thursday the course was extremely fast with hard tracks, but by the time the 5/10K Classic races started on Friday there was a steady snowfall which made for a grueling race. The snow stopped in time for Saturday's relay, which made for a beautiful day on the ski trails!

Christina and Olivia led the women's team in the 5K classic in 18th and 19th place. Hannah was 36th Elena 45th and Jenna 53rd. On Saturday Olivia, Christina and Hannah finished 7th in the relay. Jenna and Elena skied the first two legs for team #2, but Kristin was unable to race due to illness.

On the men's side Vanya, Isaac and Will led the men's team in 19th, 20th and 21st place. Phil was 32nd, Ian 39th and Kalle 42nd. On Saturday the relay had no lack of excitement with the #1 team of Will, Vanya and Isaac almost finishing 3rd in the team scoring. It was a tight race and in the end we finished 5th in the team scoring (7th overall) and our #2 team of Kalle, Ian and Phil just behind in 8th overall.

Here are links to the sports info race reports:

Friday 5/10K Classic:
http://athletics.williams.edu/sports/skiing/2012-13/releases/2013020847jpgy

Saturday 3x5 Relay:
http://athletics.williams.edu/sports/skiing/2012-13/releases/20130209acde1g

And a link to the write up on Fasterskier.com:

http://fasterskier.com/article/traditions-stay-alive-at-relocated-dartmouth-carnival/

After the completion of the relay the stadium at Craftsbury switched gears to "CARNIE CRUSH" mode. Teams performed their "crushes" for each other which was quite entertaining as always!!  This coming weekend we're off to Middlebury (the host of NCAA Championships this year) to test out the new courses with a 5/10K Classic on Friday and 15/20K Mass Start Skate on Saturday.

2013 Dartmouth Men's relay start from Williams Nordic Ski Team on Vimeo.

The Harvard Men performing their Carnie Crush

Ian on leg 2 of the relay

Vanya leading Bates and St. Lawrence in the Relay

Sunday was a BEAUTIFUL day at Prospect for a Classic OD

The view from the top of PROSPECT

UVM Carnival

With warmer temperatures and a clear blue sky, Sunday was the perfect day for the girls team to head out on course and cheer on the boys in their 10km classic race. We positioned ourselves at the top of one of the hardest climbs on the course and snapped some nice pictures of our mens team.
Great job to everyone on the team and a huge thank you to parents for bringing all the food to fuel our performances!

 Phil on his first lap

 Kalle 

 Ian 

 Vanya mid lane change

Isaac on his second lap

Josh 

 Ben 

 Casey 

Will 

EPHS 5th at UVM Carnival

The carnival racing this past weekend took place at the Trapp Family Lodge Nordic Center in Stowe, VT. The snow was hit hard during the previous week of warm temps and rain, but they pulled together an excellent 5K race loop which was used for the 5/10K Skate on Saturday and the 10K Classic races on Sunday. Both the Men's and Women's team skied well all weekend with the women placing 5th both days and the men 6th on Saturday in the skate race and 5th on Sunday. The races were combined with an Eastern Cup, so we had 9 skiers in the women's field and 9 in the men's field. The number of racers doing laps out there was impressive!! Women- 227 finishers on Saturday and 164 finishers on Sunday. Men - 190 finishers on Saturday and 167 finishers on Sunday.

The depth of our team was shown all weekend long in both fields, but especially on Sunday where the top 6 Ephs were all in the top 29 in the carnival field!  http://www.barttiming.com/eisa/Results13/EISA/uvm2013-8.pdf

Here is a link to the Williams Sports Information write up of the weekend:
http://athletics.williams.edu/sports/skiing/2012-13/releases/20130203gjultq

And once again some OUTSTANDING pictures were taken by Peter Hoenig:

The feeding trough. THANK YOU PARENTS!!

Wicherski slaying the start on Saturday

Ben in the 10K Skate

Hannah showing off some great and powerful skating

Captain Casey working the flats in the skate race

Olivia coming through the stadium

Christina post race with a SMILE

Kristin fresh off her semester abroad in Norway

Elena giving 100%

Laura double poling through the stadium

Jenna climbing 

Home base. NICE TENT:)

Phil mentally preparing for the race

Eliza lapping through the stadium

Ian in the start gate

Isaac showing off one of his strengths - excellent technique!

Sarah aggressively double poling

Vanya looking ready to ROCK THE COW!

Kalle in the start chute

Thank you Sue Maddock for this GREAT PIC!

Back row left to right: Elena, Hannah, Jenna, Eliza, Sarah, Kristin
Front row left to right: Christina, Laura, Olivia