Winter at Woodford

There is still no snow in town. Actually, it is worse than that. It is raining here. BUT - that rain is now falling in crystalline form on the top of the mountains. Today we skied with the snowflakes at a place called Woodford State Park, which is a couple miles past Prospect. Woodford has a paved roadway that winds around cabins and lean-tos, and the road needs very little snow to be skiable. There is also a large, frozen lake which enough people have skied in order to set a good diagonal path around the perimeter. Yesterday the team did intervals and today a short distance session.We are glad it is  "winter" somewhere!

Interval training

Holly diggin' in

Knappster and Sarah ski the lake

Ben, Casey, Vanya, Isaac, Phil, have fun on skis

Valentine to the Team from Barb Kourajian

Nobody has ever measured, even poets, how much a heart can hold.                                                      -- Zelda Fitzgerald

Barb's Valentine Tree

Mass Start Classic and Carnie Crush Carnival

It wasn't the high of 9 degrees that the weather forecast called for several days ago.  It was a good 25 F when we woke up this morning in Stowe, VT, and the temp didn't drop much from there. Actually, things  heated up quite a bit more after the races, when all the teams gave out valentine cards to their "Carnie Crushes". The Carnie Crush tradition is always held at the Dartmouth Carnival, the second weekend in February, and although Valentines day is still officially several days away all the spirit of the holiday is loud and present in the slew of cards, candies, poem readings, ballads, choreographed dances, custom made heart-wear, glitter, and blush that is witnessed at the post-race festivities.
    It was a good day for Williams, as the men put 4 and women put 3 inside the top 30.
The men raced first, a 20 k mass start which was slightly less frantic than the previous open carnivals, but with a highly condensed field.  Dimitri and Will stuck to the front pack throughout much of the race, Dimitri finishing in 11th and Will 21st.  Vanya finished just after, in 23rd, and Ian in 28th.   Isaac and Kalle were not far behind, crossing in 33rd and 35th.
   The ladies had a great day, passing racers in order to lower their ranked bib number. Christina, Kristin, and Hannah all skiied close together throughout the race and finished close together in 24th, 27th, 28th.  Holly and Becca skiied inside the top 40 as well, in 39th and 40th.
** Hannah Hausman would like to note, however, that she was officially the first skier across the finish line for the entire women's field -  - - - albeit in a stretcher (after having passed on on course she was given a free ride to the lodge and thankfully checked out an hour later).
  After that scare was over, the team joined the masses of other teams in the parking lot across from Trapps to give out valentines and watch the serenades begin.   
    
Results

Start of the men's race

Start of the women's race: Hannah S, Becca, Kristin, Christina

Holly, Becca

Kristin, Becca, Hannah S

Men's team gets a card from the Colby women

Elena gets serenaded by Bowdoin's Scott Longwell

The Carnie-Crush Scene

The Williams women singing their crush to Colby men's team

Kalle gives his valentine to Carolyn Daniels (BAT)

Elena and Kristin give Alex Howe (UVM) a card

6th in Skate at Trapps

What a gorgeous day at Trapps! It is the Dartmouth carnival, but since Dartmouth has no snow (we feel their pain) they moved their carnival to Stowe. So we are back at the Trapp Family Lodge for the second weekend in a row. The trails are gorgeous here, the 5k complete with a three-part series of tough climbs and some fast and skiable downhills. The morning track was fast, and though it warmed up very quickly for the men's race (35 degrees!), slowing up the track a bit, the split times were still wicked fast.
Christina Knapp was our first woman to finish, leading the squad with a 33rd place. Also scoring for the women was Hannah Smith (35th) and Kristin Halvorsen (39th). Becca Bell also had a great race today, finishing 45th in her first closed college carnival.
The men took fourth as a team today, putting three in the top twenty and 5 in the top 30! Will Wicherski grabbed our top finish, in 15th, with Dimitri Luthi and Isaac Hoenig one second apart and right behind him in 16th and 17th.
Vanya and Ian were also in the NCAA points, taking 21st and 29th.

Becca

Kristin

Christina

Aime Smith, Elena Luthi, Hanah Smith: cheering the men's race

Dimitri

Will

Sweet Day

Another early morning at Jiminy

Yesterday morning at Jiminy Peak we left the Bunny Hill for the Real Slopes.  The snow was pretty sweet, with precipitous steeps.

Isaac and Kalle share the early morning

Vanya and Hannah S, mid-mountain

Vanya Parts I and II

Vanya pt. III: Air

ATTN: WILLIAMS CARNIVAL OFFICIALLY MOVED TO CRAFTSBURY, VT

Williams will host our carnival at Craftsbury, VT, as a one-day event: 10 k individual start classic races for both men and women.  Start times: 10am and 11:30

Four in top-twenty, Men take 4th in Skate race

We had a great day of racing on Sunday! The women showed their solidarity as a team by stacking the first five finishers within seven places of each other. Hannah Smith headed up the women's group, taking 37th, while Holly, Christina, Hannah Hausman, and Kristin slated 40th through 43rd.
The men had a day to be put on record. Even with one man down the team put four in the top twenty-five. Headed by captain Dimitri Luthi in 10th place, the men placed fourth as a team. Isaac Hoenig was our second finisher, in 17th place, followed closely by Ian Nesbitt in 19th and freshman Vanya Rybkin in 24th. Phil Tosteson and Kalle Jahn put two more count inside the top 40, placing 31st and 38th.
Huge thanks to Williams Geology professor, former parent, Prospect shoveler, and always huge fan of the team, DAVE DETHIER, for taking these photos and a billion more!! I promise to get all the race photos up on Picasa soon!!

Results

Holly

Smith

Hausman

Isaac

Phil

Casey

Ben

Classic Stowe; Happy Birthday, Knappster! And ALPINE WOMEN TAKE FIRST!

Okay, first of all: HUGE props to the Alpine women: Geordie Lonza took FIRST PLACE today!!Laurel Carter was right behind her in second place! And Sarah Cotrill was 10th, putting the women's team in FIRST! YEAH!!!!
Next: Our races: 5 and 10 k classic at Trapps in Stowe, VT. The trails were gorgeous today, some fresh cold powder for the ladies race in the morning made the waxing pretty easy, but the sunshine that warmed the tracks just before the men's race made for terrible kick conditions during the men's 10k. The Luthi duo led the day for the team - Elena taking 29th and DImitri 28th. Kristin Halvorsen and Christina Knapp were our second and third ladies, in 35th and 37th. Vanya Rybkin and Ian Nesbitt were our second and third men, finishing 29th and 32nd. ( Results )
And: Christina Knapp turned 21 today. And all the women bought her favorite thing in the world for her today: hot chocolate. :)
Also: There were no less than FIVE recent ski team Alums coaching at today's races: Liz Kantack (SMS), Alice Nelson (BKL league in Burlington), Maddy Wendt (CSU), Robby Cuthbert (Greylock HS), and Evan Dethier(GMVS).  !!!
Finally: Diane and Andreas Halvorsen graciously invited the team and any available parents into their home for a delicious dinner this evening. It was fun to meet the parents, have a nutritious and filling meal, and duel out world cup level  pool and ping pong games in the gameroom downstairs.

Christina gets a special birthday present of Bib #1

Kristin

Elena

Dimitri

Ian

Vanya skis past Coach Fisher giving splits

Knappster's B-day treats

Brownies and clementines at the Halvorsen's

On Snow in Stowe

We are glad to be able to race on real snow, just 3 and a half hours from home. Prospect finally became unskiable yesterday, though we tried to zoom around the virtual ice rink out of pure desperation. . .
We have a 5/10k classic tomorrow and a 10/10 skate on Sunday. Some of the team got to drive into Stowe this afternoon and get a short ski in. The tracks were sugary, but the skiiing was real! And some lightly drifting snow made it feel like Winter. Every nordic and alpine team in the east is here at Stowe this weekend, so it was impossible to get a dinner table in town. We made out pretty well with take-out and slices at Pie-Casso. While waiting for his pizza, Erik also won a 35 dollar gift certificate. Good thing we are coming back next weekend!

Kristin and Kalle make their way across Prospect stadium yesterday

Kalle, Isaac and Patrick watch to see if any of their teammates eat it when returning back to Prospect Lodge

Erik's the Big Winner at Pie-Casso

Dead Week Shenanigans in East Burke

           We have a few days off in between the spring semester and winter term, so right after the showdown in Jackson a few of the guys from the team headed to East Burke, VT to Mitch's house to unwind and have fun before the work gets started again.  Turns out we have been doing things on skis basically nonstop since we got there; alpine, cross country and sessioning jumps in his backyard.  It's been awesome but not as relaxing as we intended.

Patty, Will & Erik kriss kross skiing at Willoughby Gap. 

Mitch, Erik and Will stoked on the alpine skiing at Burke Mtn

Mitch and Patty shredding Powerlines and getting face shots.

Pat corking out

Mitch leaving the stratosphere

Shredding

Pat goes down hard

Tree stall action

Mitch jumping over Patty

Sending it