Eli's Body wins 20K Regional Championships!

Apparently his toe was 2" behind. A memorable race and an epic finish to the carnival season! More to come soon when the dust settles a bit from the awesome weekend of racing

Eli 2" behind Jack Hegman
At Regional Championships

EISA Nordic Coach of the Year!!

Huge congrats to Coach J for being voted as the EISA nordic coach of the year!!

Well deserved!!

Throwback Tuesday

I would like to share a moment from a time in our lives when braces and dorky glasses were in high fashion. This is beautiful documentation of Olivia Meyerson's, our fearless captain's, first race. I am proud to have been her relay partner, and that she confused me for an 8th grader when I was in fact in 6th grade. The height difference hasn't changed much.

2008 Eastern Mass Bill Koch Festival Relay Team #purespeed

Williams (Winter?) Carnival

Although we were not at Prospect this past weekend, and it really was not winter, the purple cows still had a great Williams Carnival!!

A view from the chairlift of the racing venue at Lake Placid                                       

Benson showing off her Williams pride:)

Tsaina and Bens work together in the skate race

Elowyn and Luke eating a clementine

Posing for the photo shoot

Photo credit for all these pics goes to Sonya!!!

So lucky to have this guy out there cheering for us!!

Awww

Thank you to all of the parents for the delicious food table, the amazing cheering and support!!

"Wassup top ten" (congrats to gardner)

Some beautiful girls...and Braden.

Make it work

A lack of snow has made the skiing situation around Williamstown difficult this "winter". However this Sunday we were determined to not be denied our weekly aerobic shower. An early morning skate ski at the base of Jiminy followed by a short run was enough to shake out the legs from this weekend. Everyone is resting up today to prepare for the final push into Middlebury. Training with tough conditions is often a mental battle, but fortunately one that the Williams team has no problem fighting!


Skiing at the lower lift.


Luke demonstrating the perfect ski to run transition.


Satisfied Ephs.

Onto Regionals!

Williams Skiers taking up 1/3 of the top 15

Wow. Not bad having 5 skiers in the top 15 for the weekend. Go Ephs!

Eli EISA Skier of the Week!

Congrats to Eli for being named EISA skier of the week! They had Eli listed as 1st instead of 2nd for awhile. Maybe they were predicting the future?

http://eisaskiing.blogspot.com/2016/02/eisa-skiers-of-week-dartmouth-carnival.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EisaSkiing+%28EISA+Skiing%29

Great day at Prospect

An excellent day skiing at prospect yesterday, and the team was all smiles. After -15 degree F weather last weekend, it's 50 and raining today in Williamstown, but we're getting used to it at this point. Despite the weather, spirits are high and the team is getting ready to crush the competition this weekend at our home carnival! Expect big things. 

Happy senior girls

Always ready for a camera

Joey Schrupp

Perry stoked with the best skiing prospect's had all year

Jay getting sendy

Elowyn

Evan Carr

Extreme Cold and Extremely Great Results at the Dartmouth Carnival

After being blessed with snow at Prospect, some of the team headed up for a wonderful ski in Stowe, VT in preparation for the races at Craftsbury the next day!

"I just love skiing" -Josh

Spotted: A man in his natural environment

Tsaina getting friendly with the opponents.

Benson jumps for joy!

The next morning we awoke to near zero temperatures and wind chill wasn't helping the matter, even with the races moved up due to the dropping temperatures.

Pre-race yawns.

Becker knows how to pick her fruits and veggies.  No wonder she skis so fast.

Eliza getting ready for her warmup and to brave the cold weather.

Rebecca means business!

We turned to the Alaskans for advice on the cold weather this weekend.  Thankfully the team finished the weekend with only one frostbitten ear, a few cold fingers, and superb results!  We enjoyed Valentines Day, spreading the love across the EISA circuit.  After the rainstorm and 55 degree weather predicted for tomorrow, the team is looking forward to the Williams Carnival this weekend at the Lake Placid.

Eli 2nd PLACE! - Ties for the best ever Male Finish

It was a FRIGID day today at the Dartmouth Carnival, but it didn't slow down the team!!
Men's Results:
http://www.barttiming.com/eisa/Results16/EISA/doc2016-8.pdf

Women's Results:
http://www.barttiming.com/eisa/Results16/EISA/doc2016-7.pdf

Special SHOUT OUT for a standout performance: ELI led for 4 out of 6 laps and almost took a HUGE win today in the 20K Classic! He tied the best ever result for a male nordic skier at Williams. The whole team raced hard and we had gutsy efforts across the board to be proud of. Both the men's and women's teams are pumped and looking forward to rocking the cow in a big way at our home carnival this weekend in Lake Placid, NY!

Not Bad With 5
In the Top 22!

Last week proved to be another fun week of training as Winter Study courses wrapped up. We also got to see a few of our teammates other talents this week. Members of the team had the opportunity to be "transported to the society of angels" by Eliza's gregorian chant. We also discovered Sonya's passion for fashion as she explained to us her clothing line, unfortunately I can't talk more about it because it would "not be a strategic move from a marketing standpoint." Eli and Hans gave us a sneak preview at their future as renowned Yelp food critics.

We also had a chance to ski with some of the Bill Koch League kids.

Sarah who found an especially sassy group of girls to ski with

Jordan leads some kids as they rip around another loop.

Come weekend we headed over to Lake Placid where some people raced and others trained through, or gave themselves a chance to get healthy.

Olivia happily waits to see Sonya, Luke and Hans in the Saturday sprint heats.

Hannah Cole is smiley

Coach in action

Luke walks after his heat

snow!

We came back to fast dissapearing snow at Prospect but still had a wonderful ski to round out a great winter study!

A Trip to NY: Skyscrapers and Cement

The team was able to pull together another great week of training at Prospect as the snow rapidly depleted. After a solid double pole session one day and a practice with some local BKL skiers the team was primed for the Supertour races in Lake Placid, NY or a solid block of training at Mt. VanHoevenberg for others. Unfortunately, Lake Placid was not immune to the unseasonably warm weather the Northeast has been experiencing and the races had to be moved from the Olympic Nordic venue to the manmade snow loop at the Ski Jumps. Being a native of New York, I was psyched to be back on home turf, tearing up some familiar courses, and admiring the beauty of Upstate NY and the Adirondack Mountains. As it was a week off from the Carnival circuit, we had the flexibility to choose between racing, for those who felt they needed more practice, and a couple quality workout sessions for those looking to stay primed deep into the season.

Aside from racing well, another goal of mine for the weekend was to convince fellow freshman Braden Becker of the astounding diversity and natural beauty of New York State – he couldn’t help but profess his love for the state by the end of the weekend.

In case anyone needs more convincing. Above: view from Wright Peak

Sickness kept me from racing the sprints on Saturday, so I joined the crew heading to Mt. VanHoevenberg instead, where the conditions were great for training (not quite enough snow to hold the races) on all of the unbeatable trails that VanHo has to offer. 

Meanwhile, the Williams contingent showed the big guns of the Supertour circuit a little bit of the Purple Valley’s finest. Congrats to Hans and Luke for making the heats, and Sonya for making the U18/U20 heats! On another note, the restaurant competition heated up on Saturday night with Lisa G’s surging into the lead with a great meal had by all. A larger group raced on Sunday for the 10k classic interval start race, but the balmy beach weather that NY treated us to and the challenging 2.5k loop were no match for the Ephs. Congrats to Braden, Nick, and Tsaina for their top 30 finishes, and again to Braden for being the fastest U20 out there on the day!

Everyone is looking forward to charging back onto the Carnival circuit this weekend at the UVM Carnival to continue our awesome run of domination.

Thanks as always to Jason and Perry for the fast skis and world-class coaching. And thank you to everyone who follows and supports us!

-Evan Carr

P.S. In response to Perry including a quote in his post below I leave you with this…

“Polls are for strippers and cross-country skiers” –Sarah Palin

I’m not really sure what she’s getting at exactly, but I think it might have something to do with not letting past results hold you back and prevent you from doing great things in the future, and she mentions cross-country skiing, so I like it.