From Coach Mitchell:  The Dartmouth Carnival saw an upturn in the results for the Alpine squad.  Chris Kinner skied to 23rd place in the GS and was 13th on the second run, just over 1 second out on the run despite a few minor mistakes.  Freshman Kevin McNamara anchored the team in the Slalom with a 37th place result (which was top-30 for collegiate athletes).  Brad Alvarez and Alec Boardman made huge strides in their skiing this weekend, as they were both able to transfer much of what they have been working on in training to a race situation for the first time, a HUGE step for sure! The Alpine squad had a more difficult go of things at the UVM carnival at Stowe.  The weekend was marred by bad luck and very difficult course conditions.  The team battled valiantly, but broken skis and a few untimely binding releases somewhat derailed the team’s performance this weekend.  On the bright side, Caroline McHugh put down a fantastic first run of Giant Slalom, just over 1 second behind the leader; while skiing a very aggressive second run, Caroline hooked her arm on a GS gate and crashed out only a few turns from the finish and what surely would have been a top-15 result.  With the Dartmouth results, however, it appears things are starting to pick up, and after a great day of Slalom training at Pat’s Peak on Sunday, the team is anxious to get back in the gate this weekend for the Middlebury carnival!

From Coach City:  Last week’s warm rain and subsequent cooling led to icy and fast conditions over the weekend at Oak Hill.  We saw quick times and relatively little separation between places.  Both men and women skied well, including the downhills, and with a few more seconds here or there and we could have picked up a number of places.  Cara Sprague posted a second-straight top-25 finish in the classic 5km on Friday.  She was followed by Alyssa Devlin (41); Audrey Mangan (48); Anna Schulz (55); Shannon Mulshine (57); and Meri Burruss (65) in an expanded field of 68 racers.  Saturday was a mass-start 10km race for the women.  Cara placed 35th to lead the team; she was followed by Alyssa (43); Audrey (50); Shannon (52); Anna (55); and Meri (60).  On the men’s side, the men were just on the back edge of a tightly-packed group of finishers in Friday’s 10km classic.  Trevor Petach led the team in 56^th place; he was followed by David McCahill in 57^th, Joe Tofte in 59^th and Tor O’Brien in 60^th.  The guys moved up a few spots in Saturday’s 15km skate, which took them all over the Oak Hill trail system.  David (50^th) edged out Trevor (51^st), followed by Joe (57^th) and Tor (58^th).

The highlight of the UVM carnival was our best women’s team placing in at least 20 years.  The weather for the classic race was unbelievable: when we arrived it was sleeting, and this quickly changed over to snow, 40mph gusts of wind, and even thunder.  About half-way through the race, the clouds cleared and the sun came out.  Scott and Sara found some wax that worked fairly well for the women.  Even so, two of our skiers competed on racing waxless skis.  The women focused on the race rather than the conditions, and the result was a 19th (Cara); a 21st (Anna); and a 31st (Audrey), and a team finish of 8^th – one point behind Williams.  The snow continued to change through the guys race, and their finish positions don’t indicate much except that they can double-pole for 9 miles.   I’m proud of the determination and effort the entire team showed under very difficult conditions.

Many thanks to the parents and friends who have come out to cheer over the past few weekends.  We’ve enjoyed great post-race lunches the past two weeks provided by the Devlins, Schulzes, Burrusses, Mulshines, and Spragues!

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