Multi-Sport Athletes

Members of the ski team are generally known to be excellent examples of student-athletes: hard at work on the trails and, inevitably, with our studies. Examples:

  

I think we are less appreciated for our talent in a wide array of other sports. Too often we are typecast as one-dimensional, single-skill-set kids: skiers and skiers only.

And sure, our training schedule has generally limited our involvement in recreational sports. My golf game has yet to take off; Braden Becker, Yarmouth Clippers Spring Athlete of the Year (confusing I know), has had to adjust his groundstrokes on the tennis court since 2014; Hannah Cole hasn't checked any Mid-A punks into the boards since she got kicked out of PeeWee Hockey for excessive roughness when she was eleven (I'm taking some liberty with details there).




But my point is: we are actually really good at lots of sports, especially BOWLING. Over the years, Greylock Bowl has felt our wrath (Okay, Hans's wrath). This year promised to be another bloodbath.

BUT Wednesday night is League Night at Greylock, which we learned upon arrival. So this team is also really good at adapting. We turned 80s Bowling Night into 80s Game Night at Poker Flats. Games included but were not limited to: Sardines, Cookie-Baking-With-Carr, Sheriff of Nottingham, Woosh/Zoom/Bink, Presidents, and some game that Lucy made up to piss off Joey.

Here we are, in all our glory. Til next year, Greylock Bowl!!

First Weekend of Seven - Eastern Cup at Quarry Road

After months and months of training, the team was able to brush the dust off at the first of seven weekends of racing in a row.  We headed to Waterville, ME for the Eastern Cup at Quarry Road, and in sum, the training paid off.

After an eventful six hour drive, the quote of the first 12 hours was "can you pass the hand sanitizer?".  After previewing the course, the quote was "do you think we should use skis with metal edges?".

Saturday morning we awoke to blue bird skies, frigid temps., and a fast, icy course for the skate sprint.  With the conclusion of the qualifier, we had seven women and seven men in the heats.

Jordan Fields sending it in the qualifier.

First Year, Ingrid Thyr impressed us all weekend, qualifying in 23rd for the sprint (4th EPH), and finishing 15th (3rd EPH) in Sunday's mass start classic.

Sarah Becker handles the icy corner with ease during her sprint qualifier.

Lots of Purple Cow suits in the heats!

Sonya (right) won the B-Final in front of Hannah Benson. Hannah Cole (left) made it to the A-final and finished in 6th overall.

Hannah Benson qualified in 4th, and finished 2nd in the B-Final.

Hannah Cole handily winning her heat!

A decent amount of the EISA field was present.  Here's Nick Gardner (left) and Dylan Syben (2nd from right) during their quarter-final.

Dylan won the qualifier, and went on to place 4th in the final.

Luke Costley was on his way to the semi's when he got tangled up just after this was taken.

Hans had a great day, making it to the A-Final, and finishing in 6th place.

Jack Schrupp was also in the A-Final, and finished 5th overall.

Dartmouth vs. Williams - Dartmouth might of had the edge in the sprint, but our guys hit them where hurts most - in the distance race.

Mass start.

Lots of purple at the front!

Jordan and Braden each had one of their best classic races for 4th and 5th respectively!

Eli had a great race for 2nd place!

Nick Gardner finished 7th after crashing early on, and sending it back up to the front.

Rebecca striding through the mass start classic 10k!

In the women's 10k mass start classic, we had three in the top fifteen and six in the top 30, with Benson in 11th, Cole in 12th, and Ingrid in 15th.


Everyone is fired up for the first carnival, hosted by SLU, in Lake Placid, NY this weekend!!

Perry

As I mentioned in the season outlook, the pasture is BIG, GREEN and ready for grazing. Go Ephs!

                                      

The boys team on Sunday Jan. 15 after a 15k mass start. 

New Edit, New Season

https://youtu.be/pld1eAnw-IQ

If the boys were dinosaurs...

While the women's team was happily munching on fried eggs, cheese biscuits, grapefruits, and other Driscoll delights at brunch yesterday, Lucy stumbled upon a most important query: What if the all the guys on the men's team were dinosaurs?

This is what we figured out:

Tyrannajordanus Rex

Velocibecker

Carrosaurus

Liopleuroschrupp

Pteronicktal

Tricerajack

Ankylosyben

Elibertadromeus

Hansphosaurus

Stegocostleyus

All we're saying is that if dinosaur footprints are found at Prospect, we won't be surprised.

Peace. Love. Paleontology.

<3 The Women's Team

Winter Study Update

Following a magical week in Quebec at MSA, this week was spent back on campus absorbing all the training we did at camp. Of course, less training just means more time for fun! We cheered the U.S. women to historic podiums at the Tour de Ski, ate our first Driscoll brunch of 2017, and got back in the weight room with a challenging adapted strength plan. Here's what else the team was up to this past week:

1. Team time trial because recovery can easily lead to satisfaction, and we all know how dangerous that is (if you don't, see Braden for a heart to heart about your future). Here's Weenie poised at the start, ready to tear it up for her 3rd race effort in her first 10 days on snow this season --> Hardest member of the class of 2018.

2. Eli got new sunglasses. Yes, they are photochromatic, so no, he never takes them off.

3. Elowyn challenged the paradigm that one must take pants off one layer at a time. No BKL'ers were [intentionally] harmed in the attempt of this challenge. Apologies to those who were deeply troubled and confused.

4. Somehow Prospect survived for a beautiful OD on Sunday, but we are touch and go with snow coverage #PrayforProspect

5. Cinnamon sugar toast: the OG love story 

This coming week we head to Maine for the Eastern Cup at Quarry Road--Go Ephs! 

Life after Williams: Colorado edition

Sometimes it's good to hop into a headlamp race to test to see if anything is left of all those intervals... or your teammate texts you about a Skimo race up and down and up Ophir Mountain, CO.

3,000+ vert, 20 kilometers, one broken boot and some icy skins newly minted ski mountaineers Ben '15 and Laura '16 made it to the finish. 

 

Time Trial Recovery

Yesterday we had a 5/10k skate time trial at Prospect among a horde of BKL kids getting ready for their own races. In order to recover from a hard effort, some of the team went to one of Bennington's finest dining establishments: the Blue Benn. There's nothing like a cheese and apple omelet and some raspberry chocolate pancakes to start the recovery process!

Lucy, Ingrid and Sonya try to figure out how to work the jukebox

Braden may or may not be slightly put off by what is happening in the corner.

Nick and Evan livin' it up at the counter.

We're looking forward to one more week of race prep before our first races at Quarry Road for the Eastern Cup. In the meantime we a cheering on our freshman Dylan as he races at US Nationals in Soldier Hollow. Go Dylan!

Fresh Snow, Good Food, and Great Company

As I frantically pack my bags, all I can think about is how much I'll be missing this amazing skiing we've had for the past week here at Mont-Sainte-Anne.  As a team, we put in about 20 hours of skiing, including two time trials, one interval session, two speed sessions, and lots of technique work.  The men and women have made some delicious meals for us every night, and we all had a blast breaking bread with the parents for our parents dinner.

So psyched for our first night at MSA!

Just got groceries!

Great to have Jack Schrupp back with the team after his excursions in France.

Elowyn Pfeiffer also returned after a semester in Ecuador.

No poles.

Three senior ladies.

Men's team on our 3hr OD.

22 skiers strong on our recovery ski, post TT.

Our final ski was pretty great!

The ski truck is loaded, and the caravan departs at 8am tomorrow morning - It will be a packed ride with 22 people between two vans and the ski truck.  Looking forward to an unprecedented race season!!

Perry