Half-Naked Boys are the Best Boys

This past weekend was an historic occasion. It was also a hot and wet few days, so of course shirts had to come off. Enjoy the photos (courtesy of Dad, aka Peter Hoenig).

Hats off to Jordan, with his best finish ever (second place) after a legendary one-on-one duel with Dartmouth skier Fabian.

Hats off to Braden, also with his best finish ever (second place). He told me before the race that he was going to basically sprint the first lap -- he did.

Hats off to Joey, who went insane on the last lap of the 20k and was heard screaming and seen gesticulating madly while racing. See Ingrid's post below for a representative photo of his mental state. He had his season best, and definitely blacked out.

Hats off to Luke, who, although was maybe slightly more relaxed than Joey, skied like an animal and also had a personal best (20th) for his last race of his skiing career. Still can't believe it, and I can't see how the ski team (sorry underclassman + Joey) is going to function without Lukey taking care of business.

Hats off to Nicky-Bobby who skied up and led the pack ~3 seconds before crashing. He skied 9th place, which is badass, and would have qualified for NCAA's in the process if we didn't have such a damn fast team.

Girls killed it.

Coaches killed it as usual.

I won. We won. Damn right.

Bates Carnival, Oscars Style

We might not have watched any movies in the past few weeks because we've been a little preoccupied skiing, but that doesn't mean we can't take in interest in the happenings of movie-dom. So, in honor of the Oscars, here's a recap of the past weekend given to you by the Academy (of Fast and Fun Nordic Skiing):

We'll start out with a little red carpet viewing...

Best Costumes go to the Women's team last Thursday for wearing their cow tights to classes in the morning in honor of Regionals.

Ivy caught me in the act

Best (Worst?) Hairstyles go to Eli (with a raging mullet) and Jordan (with some nice racing stripes/sunglass holders). At least the cuts seemed to make them go fast...

The neck tattoos really added to the look
PC to flyingpointroad (http://www.flyingpointroad.com/)

Best Picture goes to Jack Schrupp. Thanks flyingpointroad for capturing this special moment.

Watch out kids. This is what 20k and 8 times up high school hill can do to you.

Best Film Editing goes to the one and only Perry Thomas. Check out his latest masterpiece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7qHy9mMjrU&feature=youtu.be

BEST TEAM goes to us! Men's and Women's teams combined. On Friday. For real. Our friend Bart who runs the timing shed will verify: http://www.barttiming.com/eisa/Results17/bat17.htm. Also, the men took 4/6 podium spots for the weekend, Eli became the first Williams skier to win a carnival race, and the women put 3 in the top 15 (a season goal)! An all around swicked weekend. 

Wettest Race of the Season goes to Saturday's 20/15k mass start skate race when it never stopped raining/misting and it was so foggy that the vid from the race looks like something out of a zombie movie. 

Emerging from the mist

Best Benson-Glare goes to Hannah Cole. (Maybe there's a statistical correlation between being named Hannah and having a good glare?)

The Nominees

Best Coaches go to Jason and Perry (duh!). But actually. Jason won EISA coach of the year for the SECOND year in a row! Pretty darn cool. And they proved they deserved the title the next morning with some ripping fast skis.

And finally, the one we've all been waiting for....

Hardest Class (drumroll, please) goes to the Class of 2019!

...

Just kidding! There's been a mistake! Someone handed me the wrong envelope!

The hardest class actually goes to the Class of 2017! 

Gonna miss these guys next year! Luckily we have all spring to hang out :)

Next year, however, the competition for hardest class is looking wide open. The class with the best vision will probably be able to see-ize the title.

Eli, Jordan, and Braden are all skiing at NCAA's in Jackson, NH next week so send them speedy thoughts!

Till next time,

Ingrid

Class of 2020

Middlebury Carnival

Some great racing this past weekend at Middlebury Carnival!  As a team we were 2nd for the entire weekend, behind only Dartmouth!  Many personal bests, and it was great to see Jordan Fields in 4th in the 20k skate, as well as Hannah Cole in 10th, and Hannah Benson in 12th.  I think we all thought at one point that we would put two men on the podium after Eli and Jordan went off the front, half way through the men's 20k skate, which was super excited and promising for the future!

Hannah Benson in the lead pack during the women's 15k skate - She finished 12th!

Hannah Cole skiing to 10th place!

Tsaina cracked the top 30 for 29th place!

Post race hugs and congrats!

Start of the men's 20k.

Eli and Jordan leading the race!

Braden skied a gutsy race for 10th place.

Eli, Jordan, and Braden went off the front right after the half way point! Jordan finished 4th and Eli 5th.

Great skiing from these two during the women's 15k Skate!

Hannah Cole during the women's team sprint relay.

Hannah Benson and Ingrid giving the coaches feedback on their skis.

Sarah Becker skiing in the team sprint B-final

Tsaina striding through the lap during the team sprint B-final.

Conditions changed fast between the women's race and the men's, and most men decided to double pole - including Eli and Braden.

Braden anchored our first men's team to 2nd place!

Jack Schrupp and Luke Costley led our 2nd men's team to 6th place

Eli tagged Braden with a decent lead going into the final lap.

Jordan tags Nick Gardner during the men's B-final.

Nick with a healthy lead!

Nick and Jordan handily won the B-final for an 11th place overall finish.

Hannah Cole back in the top 10!

Three boys in the top 10 on Friday!

Second place podium in the team sprint!

Faces of Perry

Hello Eph Fans! The ski season is flying by. We've had our heads down getting into a rhythm and have been having success achieving unprecedented results. I just tallied up the "on snow" team practices so far this season and it's already at 75 sessions. WOW. With all the excitement and the weeks ticking by I decided it's time for this post. Perry Thomas has been a huge part of our success over the past 3 seasons. He is always up for ridiculously long work days, re-waxing our 13 ski test fleet EVERY WEEK, absurd race ski waxing sessions into the early morning ours, long drives, early mornings etc, etc. I'm pretty demanding and usually he's able to do it with a "smile". I've gotten used to the many "Faces of Perry" over the years, but feel like it's time to share a few of them with the rest of the Eph Nordic Skiing world. Plus I know that many of his BNSC athletes are going to love this post. Sorry Perry, had to do it!

The Man Himself pre TT at MSA

Lucky Charms?

Definitely not lucky charms
Odds are I eat these?

Finding "snow" in Woodford..
wait, maybe this is Notchview

Yup, lost odds are again

Wax Truck

Banquet Time

So, am I going to die tubing
down this ski jump?

Yup. Lost Odds are again

MSA Bliss

Banquet Time again

All American? Yup!
Sunburned? Yup!
Corwin? Yup!

I hate flying

Anyway, thanks Perry for all of your hard work over the past 3 season, for your friendship....and for your many FACES!

Winter Wonderland

It was quite the snowy drive getting up to Craftsbury last weekend, but we finally made it and now have plenty of snow. It was a great weekend of fast racing, Carni Crushes, and beautiful, snowy skis! Here are some highlights:

After a lot of spinning wheels and teammates pushing, Jordan successfully drove the truck out of the deep snow.

Better a whitewash than no snow at all!

Elowyn is amped for the single-digit temps during Friday's 5k skate relay

Happy Hannahs!

Carmen loves the applesauce! 

Hugs all around

Post-race smiles

Evan, Elowyn, and Jack having some fun at the top of Mountain Trail on Sunday's snowy OD
"This is the most wintery thing I have ever done." -Elowyn

Ivy approves of the fresh snow!

Ivy part 2: loving the beautiful weather at Prospect on Tuesday!

It was beautiful indeed!

The team is excited to rip it up at Middlebury this weekend! Rock the cow!

-Lucy