SLU Regionals

Waahhooooooooo!

This past weekend at the St. Lawrence Carnival in Lake Placid was a blast!  The skiing was excellent, and I thoroughly enjoyed testing every wax known to man, and chasing our skiers all over the "Ladies 5K" loop at Mt. Van Hoevenberg.  Both the men's and women's team had their best weekends of the season, scoring 177 points and 155 points between both races.  The team ended the season on a high note, and a huge congrats goes out to Hannah Cole, Eli Hoenig, and Will Wicherski, who sealed their bids to NCAA Championships with this weekend's performances.

I had the pleasure of escorting Eli to the big event this weekend.  Jay headed to Lake Placid at 1pm Thursday with most of the team.  In the meantime, I shot some hoops as I waited for Eli to get out of class at 4pm.  Easiest van ride ever.  We rolled in to Lake Placid just after 7pm, and met up with the rest of the team at a pizza place in town.

Another cold one on Friday.  We've gotten pretty used to it by now, so it wasn't too bad.  The ladies started the Carnival off with an individual start 5K skate race.  Hannah Cole had a great day finishing in 9th place.  Tsaina wasn't far behind in 15th place, and Hannah Benson was our third scorer in 29th place.  The women's team scored 79 points for 6th place, but were only three points out of fourth place.

Sarah Becker skied to an impressive 37th place!

Hannah Benson getting some glide!

Hannah Cole skiing to 9th place!

Rebecca skies to 46th place.

The men skied around the Ladies 5K loop twice Friday.  Jordan Fields led the way for the Ephs with an 11th place finish.  Following closely behind Jordan was Will and Eli who took 12th and 13th place.  The men tallied 90 points for the day, which earned them a third place finish behind Dartmouth and UVM.

Eli skiing to 13th place.

Jack skiing to 23rd place.

Jordan skied a great race for 11th place.

Luke skiing to 52nd place.

Vanya also skied a great race for 17th place.

On Saturday, the men skied a 20k mass start classic with the women skiing 15k.  The men skied a great race, with only a couple minor mishaps.  Out of the start, Luke got caught up by someone falling in front of him.  He ended up breaking a pole, but luckily Josh was nearby to hand him a new one.  It turns out that Josh is a little taller than Luke, so he had to ditch Josh's pole for a shorter one.  It probably felt like Luke was skiing with a telephone pole in one hand.  Despite only skiing with Josh's pole for a few meters, permanent damage did occur and Luke now looks like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.  But he was able to regain contact with the rest of the field.  A little while later, Vanya was spotted scootering down the hill into the stadium with a ski in hand.  He ended up breaking his binding.  He grabbed one of his practice skis (from the ski rack next to the lodge, which was not part of the race course), and ended up finishing the rest of the race.  In the end, it was Will skiing to a 13th place finish, with Jack Schrupp skiing really well for 15th, and Eli in 17th place.  The men totaled 87 points for another third place finish behind Dartmouth and UVM.

Cheering for Eli.

Jack leads Eli, Vanya, and Jordan.

Jordan skiing to 25th place.

Luke and Vanya skied the last lap and through the finish together.

The men's field early in the race.

Will skiing to 13th place

There was some turmoil in the women's race as well.  A few hundred meters out of the stadium, Hannah Cole had to stop short to avoid slamming into a girl in front of her.  Unfortunately, Olivia, Tsaina, and Hannah Benson were right behind her, and a pile up of Williams ladies resulted.  By 1k into the race, we didn't have any women in the top 30.  By 2k, Hannah Cole, Tsaina, Benson, and Olivia were charging to the lead pack.  They regained good positions, but were pretty spent from the effort.  Cole ended the day in 12th place, with Tsaina in 17th, and Olivia in 18th.  The women totaled 76 points for a 6th place team finish, but they were only four points out of fourth place.

Hannah Cole skiing through the lap.

Olivia skied a great race for 18th place.

Tsaina skiing to 17th place.

The start of the women's race.

Olivia and Tsaina after their awesome 17th and 18th place finishes.

I can't believe the last carnival of the season is done.  It feels like we were at Craftsbury for our Thanksgiving camp just last week.  The season has flown by, and I'm bummed to only have a week and a half left.  It has been a pretty epic year!  We've had personal bests achieved every weekend, five different men have finished in the top 10, the women scored over 80 points in three different races, and we're sending three skiers to NCAA championships.  I am really impressed with how every single one of our skiers balances an intense class schedule and school work load, with all of the training and racing we do, and all of the other activities and interests they have.  We have a great group of young men and women, and they are just awesome!

Eli, Jack, Luke, and Vanya on course cheering for the ladies!

A huge shoutout goes out to all the parents!  Without your support and help, Jay and I would be even more lost than we already are, and the kids would be starving.  Big thanks to Peter Hoenig for taking all the beautiful pictures of our skiers.  We have a really photogenic team!  Thanks to Peter Benson who froze his hands off taking video for us to watch and analyze throughout the season.  Thanks to all the parents that contributed food every weekend and manned the food table, even in the below-zero degree weather.  Couldn't have done it without all of you!

Pretty amazing spread!

Lastly, huge thanks to Coach Jay for being such an amazing coach, mentor, and friend.  He works extremely hard, and he does it all with a smile on his face.

We leave for NCAA Championships at Lake Placid on Monday.  First race is Wednesday, March 11 with the 5/10K individual start skate, and Friday, March 13 is the 15/20k mass start classic.  Still plenty of skiing to be done!

Perry