We opened our collegiate season this past weekend at the Bates Carnival with three top-10 individual results, and several solid team placings, including a 4th for the women’s alpine in GS.

Alpine Race Report by Coach Mitchell

Harvard alpine took to the hill this weekend for the first collegiate race of the season at Sunday River.  Snow conditions were great, although some new fallen snow and strong winds made visibility difficult at times.  The women’s team got off to a strong start with a 4th place finish in Friday’s GS, led by some stellar skiing by Rebeca Nadler in 6th position.  Catherine Sheils and Caroline McHugh rounded out the scoring spots for the team with very strong results in 21st and 30th respectively.  This represents some of the best GS skiing we’ve seen from the ladies this year.  Freshmen Cate Kistler and Liz Strong both ran into trouble in the first run, but only after putting down some great turns on the challenging upper section of the course.   With the addition of several new teams to the league has come a new rule cutting the field down to the top 60 after the first run.  The men had a tough go of it and narrowly missed the cut-off in the GS.

In Saturday’s slalom, the women were poised for another strong result after the first run, but a few hiccups in the second run had the women end up in 8th position.  Scoring was again led by Rebecca Nadler, who took advantage of a great second run start position, putting down one of the faster runs of the afternoon for a 10th place result, her best collegiate slalom result.  Catherine Sheils was on the verge of a top-10 result after a fast first run, but was caught out by a tight flush-gate in the second run, costing her a bunch of time, but a heads-up move by her in skiing the combination gate backwards saved some time and saved some team points in the process.  She ended up 14th on the day.  Caroline McHugh had a solid first run, but was forced out of the course after getting her pole stuck in the second run, ripping her pole and glove off of her hand completely.  Cate Kistler had a very solid top section of the first run going, but was caught out on the side hill section and Liz Strong diced the hardest part of the pitch and posted a split time that would have had her threatening the top-10, but hit a rut funny a few gates before the finish, costing her a chance at the second run.

The men put down some better skiing on Saturday, with Kevin McNamara and Andrew Spilevogel both skiing runs that would have qualified them for the second run, but both ran into trouble at the transition coming off the steep pitch.  Ian Anderson was linking together a fast run, but a straddle took him out of contention.  All in all, there were some great things to come out of the weekend, but the team is primed to take it up a notch for next weekend’s UNH carnival.

Nordic Race Report by Coach City

New snow – 6-8″ of it – fell as light dry powder in Rumford on Thursday night.  Winter, finally!  The new snow altered the course from the hard and fast manmade snow we’ve been skiing on since early December to something more familiar to the West.  The 5km skate used a variation of the national championship course with well-spaced climbs and very skiable downhills.  Alena Tofte led the team with a career-best 7th place finish.  Clare Miller and Esther Kennedy were neck-and-neck in the mid-30s.  The men skied 10km, which meant

3 trips up the fabled “High School Hill.”  Chris Stock rallied in the third lap to move from the mid-20s up into 19th.  Akeo Maifeld-Carucci, Tanner Wiegand and Tor O’Brien also moved up in the standings as the race progressed, which indicates good fitness.

The mass start classic races went off on Saturday under lightly falling new snow.  Alena and Esther skied near each other for most of the race and led the team with 22nd and 28th place finishes respectively.  It was Esther’s best finish since her freshman year.  Jen Rolfes rounded out the scoring in 43rd.  With a relatively short race distance, a deep field, and a mass start, the men’s race skied in a series of pulsing charges that alternately slimmed the pack and let it re-constitute.  Chris, Akeo and Tanner were all in the main pack for most of the race.  Chris repeated his 19th place finish with another late-race charge.  With Tanner and Akeo also finishing in the top 40 (about 40 seconds behind Chris), the men’s team placed 7th for the day, up from 9th in the skate race.

Junior Tony Ryerson suffered a season-ending broken arm after falling in practice on Tuesday.  He had surgery to repair it on Friday and was in our thoughts throughout the weekend.  We wish him a quick recovery!

The unseasonably warm temperatures in Cambridge this fall have made for very pleasant dry land training, but by Thanksgiving week the skiers and coaches were all itching to get on snow. Fortunately, both squads found great skiing over the holiday. The alpiners took to the slopes in the Vail, Colorado area. The nordies headed to Craftsbury, Vermont, where a well-timed 8-12 inches of snow fell just as camp began.

Alpine Thanksgiving Camp Report – Liz Strong ’15

Thanksgiving break was the Harvard alpine ski team’s first on-snow training camp this season. Using my family’s house in Frisco as our home base, we trained at Loveland, Copper, and Vail. Beginning the camp with five consecutive days of giant slalom training, we rested on Thanksgiving.

My teammates battled illnesses ranging from influenza to appendicitis to come together and have a great Thanksgiving dinner. [Coach's Note: yes, one of our athletes had to have his appendix out during camp! He recovered well and is back to schoolwork and will be training again soon.] We spent the last three days of the camp training slalom at the U.S. Ski Team’s arena at Copper. Sunny skies and warm temperatures made it hard for us to leave Colorado Sunday afternoon, but we are looking forward to a short camp at Sunday River this weekend.

Senior captain Caroline McHugh posted a fantastic first-person video of a day on snow with the team on our Facebook page.

Nordic Thanksgiving Camp Report – Akeo Maifeld-Carucci ’15

This year marked the beginning of what looks like will become an great new Thanksgiving camp tradition for Harvard’s nordic ski team. This year we went to Craftsbury, VT instead of making the customary Thanksgiving break trek to Canada. In Vermont we stayed at the local outdoor center in an olympic-village like setting, with skiing out the door, weight facilities, and an excellent dining lodge. Our first day was spent dry land training, but thanks to a large snow that night we were able to ski twice a day for the rest of the week. It was such an amazing time being back on snow after the long summer months, and spending so much time bonding together as a team. Our first few days on snow were dedicated to easy distance skiing, with lots of technique work to transition and adapt all our hard work from roller skiing to snow skiing. The week built in intensity culminating in a 4.5km skate race.  This was a great opportunity for everyone to push themselves and get a in a really good hard effort.

Off the trails we also had a fantastic time. After a few months of Harvard dining hall food it was a nice change to have home-style cooking. We also had a suite with a nice common room where we were able to spend lots of time together studying, watching movies, talking about skiing and baking pies and cookies! Everyone was sad to leave after such a fun camp, but with only a few more weeks before local skiing, spirits are still high and the air is filled with excitement for the upcoming races.

Thanksgiving snow!

Nordic Team at Thanksgiving

Some highlights of the alpine team’s training and racing this season:

Congratulations to next year’s captains, elected by their teammates to lead Harvard Skiing next season:

Alpine

Andrew Spielvogel

Caroline McHugh

Nordic

Clare Miller

Tor O'Brien

Harvard skiers were in action at the NCAA Skiing Championships in Stowe and the Junior Olympics in Minneapolis last week and posted solid results in both.  Let’s hear it for post-season racing!

NCAA Championships Alpine Report by Coach Mitchell

Catherine

Harvard Alpine had two representatives competing this past week at the NCAA Skiing Championships, held on the Main Street trail on Spruce Peak at Stowe, VT.  Warm weather and snow/rain made the conditions less than ideal as racers were greeted by foot-deep craters next to each gate, or difficult chemical-hardened snow in some spots.  Many teams fell victim to the quirky conditions and in the end, finishing two solid, clean runs is what it took to be competitive.  In the Giant Slalom, both Rebecca Nadler and Catherine Sheils went down in their first runs, Rebecca a victim of soft, peely snow, and Catherine falling prey to one of the ski-eating holes on the course.  Both got back up and battled hard, ending up 32nd and 35th respectively.

Becca

In the Slalom, the difficult conditions continued and took out Catherine Sheils, who was having a blazing-fast first run, certainly on her way to a top-ten result.  Rebecca Nadler overcame a tough start number and out-skied everyone that started near her, moving into 18th place after the first run.  In the second run, Rebecca was laying it on the line and got shot out of a rut and went way off line, but recovered well and finished 20th on the day, while Catherine Sheils fought through the ruts for 28th place on the day.  Thanks for following Harvard Skiing this winter. We’re already excited about next year and are looking to build on the progress of this year!

NCAA Championships and Junior Olympics Report by Coach City

Alena

Alena Tofte represented our nordic squad at NCAAs, which consisted of a 5km individual start skate race and a 15km mass start classic race.  The skate race was held in wonderfully sunny weather and fantastic snow conditions at Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe.  The groomers managed to pack 2 feet of fresh snow into a really solid race surface that held up well the whole day.  Alena had an early bib placing (2nd), so it was difficult to assess her race as she was skiing.   Her early time held up, however, and she finished 31st, beating (among others) several EISA skiers who qualified for NCAAs ahead of her and two skiers from perennial powerhouse Denver University.  She was just six seconds out of the top 25.  Trapp’s is not the hardest course in the East, but there are a couple of solid climbs including a challenging final uphill where a number of skiers withered and where many finishes were decided.  Alena was putting time into a lot of people on that part of the course.

The conditions for the classic mass start race on Friday were more challenging.  Stowe received several inches of new snow on Thursday followed by warm temperatures overnight.  There was a steady rain – sometimes very heavy – during the women’s race.  The wax tents flooded with several inches of ice water.  Most of the East teams went with klister, while many of the West teams chose to use a form of waxless ski called “zeros.”   In our pre-race testing, the waxed skis performed better than waxless, but there didn’t seem to be a distinct advantage to either in the race itself.  Indeed, Colorado skiers won both races with the same pair of zeros.  I ended up a touch thick with her klister and while she had excellent kick, her skis proved draggy compared to the skiers around her.  It was a very long and tiring race for everyone and a number of the top racers fell when the skied-in new snow met uncompacted portions of the course.  Alena (35th) held on well and it was a solid result for her in a very strong field.  Her time compared well with other skiers from the East she’s been skiing against all year.  I’m proud of the way Alena performed in her first NCAA Championships.

Jen Rolfes and Chris Stock were in Minneapolis last week representing New England with multiple top-10 finishes in the Junior Olympics.  (For those of you who may not be familiar, the Junior Olympics are the national championship for skiers aged 19 and younger.)  In the skate sprint, Jen and Chris placed 7th and 11th respectively in qualifying. Both made the B final and finished 9th overall.  In the classic mass start on Wednesday, Chris took his first podium spot at a JO’s, finishing 3rd in the 15km race and Jen was not far off the podium with an excellent 6th place finish.  Neither Chris (16th) nor Jen (20th) had a great day in the skate Friday, but both bounced back to contribute some of the fastest relay legs of the day to their respective teams on Saturday.  Both Jen and Chris earned All-American honors for their finishes at JOs.

Alena, Catherine and Rebecca will be racing at the NCAA Championships in Stowe from March 9-12.  The Crimson ran a nice profile of our three racers this week. The full list of NCAA qualifiers can be found here.

The nordic races will be held at Trapp Family Lodge on Wednesday (5/10km individual start skate) and Friday (15/20km mass start classic).  Alpine races will be at Stowe on Thursday (GS) and Saturday (SL).  We hope to see you out there, but you can also follow the races through a live webcast here.