The Men’s Alpine squad continued to ski extremely fast, but suffer untimely mistakes that thwarted some otherwise good skiing.  Chris Kinner had the most consistent weekend, finishing 36th in GS and 31st in slalom.  Kevin McNamara chipped in a 38th in GS, with Andrew Spielvogel notching the men’s best finish of the weekend with 29th in slalom.  Sam Harrison showed his continually improving form with 33rd in slalom and Brad Alvarez followed that up with a 38th in slalom.

Catherine on the Eastern Cup podium

A number of our skiers also competed in a FIS Eastern Cup slalom race on Sunday, with almost the entire collegiate field in attendance, as well as a few Olympians you’ll see racing for the US in Vancouver in a few weeks.  So needless to say, the fields were very strong.  Kevin McNamara overcame a start spot of 66 and deteriorating course conditions to rally to an impressive 22nd place finish, some of the best skiing we’ve seen from him to date.  The women had a tremendously successful day as well, with Tenley Malmquist making a big move up to finish 17th, and Catherine Sheils linking two nearly flawless runs for 3rd place and a podium finish!  In the process, these three Harvard skiers beat a good chunk of the regular collegiate field, so this should prove a valuable confidence booster heading into the upcoming Dartmouth Carnival.  The teams are headed in the right direction, and we couldn’t be more excited!!!

Nordic Report by Coach City

Last weekend saw perfect race-time temperatures in the 20s and fresh powder that fell in the days leading up to the carnival.  The highlight of our weekend was the women’s 5km Classic on Saturday when we put three skiers into the top 25 (Alena Tofte – 18, Audrey Mangan – 20, Esther Kennedy – 24). I’m certain we’ve never placed 3 women in the top 25 before, but would love to hear from any alums who can tell me otherwise!  To give you a sense of how tough EISA is, it was only good for a team finish of 7th on the day (although just one spot behind Middlebury and a few points out of 5th).  The 5km classic was a breakout race for Alena, a freshman whose previous classic best was a 36th.  Cara Sprague and Anika Petach were not far behind our scorers in 34th and 41st, respectively. In Sunday’s 10km skate, Esther significantly improved on her previous skate finishes this year to lead the team with a 25th place finish.  Alena was close behind her in 33rd, and Clare Miller scored for the first time for us with a 46th place finish.  Audrey missed Sunday’s race due to illness.

Things are also looking promising on the men’s side. Freshman Tony Ryerson jumped into 41st in his second 10km classic race of the season (from a previous best 62nd). Trevor Petach led the men in Sunday’s 10km skate with a solid 43rd, a minute out of 27th.  The guys looked much sharper after the rest week.  Indeed, most of the team improved their previous placings in one technique or the other, which suggests that we’re rounding into peak fitness.  Where we didn’t improve our placings, it was because we weren’t aggressive enough in passing slower skiers at the first opportunity.  In an individual start race, like both events at UVM, one has to ski one’s best pace the whole time.  By drafting or cruising for a few seconds behind a slower skier when you don’t need to, you can lose several places in a short race very quickly.

Esther

Team with the Laval (Quebec) coach - who jumped into the photo.

Alpine Report by Tim Mitchell

The weather and snow conditions were ideal both days and the team is skiing better every race.  The men’s team is still finding its feet in terms of consistency; there is plenty of fast skiing, but we’re just not finding the finish line cleanly right now… Despite a few bobbles here and there, there were some encouraging results.  Chris Kinner led the way in GS with a 35th, followed closely bay Sam Harrison in 40th and Andre Spielvogel in 41st.  Alec Boardman put two solid runs together for a 35th place in slalom, a career best result, followed by Sam Harrison in 38th.  On the women’s side, the alpine squad was led by Catherine Sheils, who finsihed with two strong results, 17th in slalom and 21st in GS.  The women’s performance was supported by a 27th in GS from Meghan Luck and a 31st in slalom by Margie Thorp.  Things are starting to come together for the alpine team, and they continued to roll along with a strong performance by Catherine Sheils on Sunday at a FIS Eastern Cup SL race with the majority of the collegiate field plus other top Eastern athletes.  Sheils was 8th after the first run, and despite a brief “hip check” fall in the second run, held on for 13th place.  Next up, the team takes to the hill at Stowe, VT for the UVM winter carnival.  Don’t forget, you can “watch” the race results in real-time at www.live-timing.com!

Nordic Report by Chris City

Our headline result this weekend was the team’s 5th place finish in the women’s classic sprint relay on Saturday.  It was an unusual format for us: teams of 3 skiers, with each skier racing 1 km and then tagging off in the stadium to the next leg.  Each skier raced three legs.   Esther Kennedy got pinched between other skiers at the start and finished her first lap in 11th, but within sight of a number of other racers.  Audrey Mangan picked up a few of these spots, moving us to 8th.  In their second laps, Cara and Esther continued to close the gap to the skiers in front of them while holding off the teams Audrey had passed.  On her second lap, Audrey moved the team up to 6th.  Esther stumbled going out of the stadium for the final lap, but still managed to close on Dartmouth’s B relay skier in 5th.  Audrey caught the Dartmouth skier as she came into the stadium to tag off to Cara and then Cara opened up the gap by a few more seconds.  It was really exciting to watch our team race through the pack!  It was a team effort: Audrey passed the teams in front of her and Esther and Cara helped make that possible by skiing consistently fast splits even as other teams started to fade on their second and third laps.   We finished ahead of all but 4 A teams (Dart, Midd, UVM and UNH).

Our women’s B relay team skied very well, too, finishing ahead of two A teams (St. Mike’s and UMPI) and a number of B teams. Anchoring our B team, Alena Tofte skied splits that were as fast as those on our A team, and Anika Petach’s were not far behind.  Our guys skied fast early splits but faded as the race went on.  They finished ahead of Bowdoin and were battling with St. Mike’s through the last few laps, but just couldn’t hang onto them near the end of the race.

Tony

Cara

Kevin

On November 1st, the team took part in the annual 15k classic rollerski race in Andover put on by the Cambridge Sports Union. Greeted by warm weather and fresh pavement, everyone cruised to personal best times.

The start of the 15k classic

Captain Audrey Mangan cruising to a 2nd place finish

Freshman Esther Kennedy rolling in 3rd place

Women’s Results
1. Alex Jospe 43:52
2. Audrey Mangan 46:46
3. Esther Kennedy 51:47
4. Alena Tofte 52:23
5. Clare Miller 55:51
6. Jody Newton 59:31
7. Anika Petach 62:57

Men’s Results
1.  Jackson Rich       39:58
2.  Andy Milne         39:59
3.  Tony Reyerson    41:31
4.  Trevor Petach     43:01
5.  Bob Burnham     43:18
6.  Rob Bradlee       43:23
7.  John Rich           44:45
8.  Jamie Doucett    44:46
9.  Dave Loney       48:04
10. Erlemo Lochan 48:42
11. Robert Faltus    50:52
12. Will Brote         53:23
13. Tor O’Brien      54:30

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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Alyssa Devlin

This past weekend both squads weathered the adjustment from exams to racing (in some instances less than 18 hours separated the two!) with fair team results and some solid individual finishes at the Bates Carnival. 

From Tim Mitchell: Our weekend was highlighted by Chris Kinner’s 22nd place result in the GS; this was the best alpine result in recent memory.  Kevin McNamara was solid in both the SL & GS to notch the first finishes of his collegiate racing career.  Alec Boardman and Brad Alvarez both made huge strides in their performances over last year and each contributed to the scoring on the alpine side.  Caroline McHugh notched her first collegiate results as well, knocking on the door of the top-30, while Tess Wood put down two solid runs each day to bolster the women’s team score. Conditions at Sunday River were good, with fantastic, hard snow for the GS and average conditions for the SL.  The weekend was marked by seriously chilly temperatures which continued for the next several days as the Alpine squad remained at Sunday River for three more days of training before the Spring Semester begins.

From Chris City:  Cara Sprague continued to build on her early season results by placing as the first Harvard woman in the 5km classic (48^th) on Friday and overcoming a bad start to finish second among Harvard women in the 15km skate on Saturday.  Alyssa Devlin took top honors for Harvard on Saturday with a 47^th place finish.  Audrey Mangan also scored for Harvard on both days.  Other notable results were a personal best by Meri Burruss in the skate race and the college carnival debut for Shannon Mulshine.  Captain Anna Schulz started both races despite fighting flu-like symptoms.  Illness and injury kept three of our four men from starting on Friday.  Trevor Petach had a good race in the 10km classic and a personal best on Saturday in the 20km skate (53^rd; 57:29; 2:52/km; 16 sec./km behind the winning pace).  Tor O’Brien was well enough on Saturday to make his Harvard racing debut (at four times his previous longest race distance!).   Many thanks to David Rand and the Drifters Ski Club in Jackson, NH for hosting us during intersession, and to Thom Perkins of Jackson Ski Touring Foundation for providing complimentary training on the Foundation’s trails.

A full race story and link to the complete results can be found here: http://www.gocrimson.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9000&ATCLID=3654371

 David McCahill – Eastern Cup Sprint (12/20)

Both squads were in training camps during the third week in December and had the opportunity to start their race seasons.  

From Alpine Coach Tim Mitchell: The Harvard alpine squad completed a highly productive 10-day training camp at Sugarloaf, Maine.  Athletes and coaches alike braved the single digit temperatures and frequent wind to get some much needed gate training before the collegiate season gets underway in less than a month.  Snow conditions were optimal every day; with firm consistent snow allowing for some challenging training course sets on a variety of the terrain at Sugarloaf.  The snow in the courses held up great and the team was able to get in a lot of quality high-volume training.  We were also able to train with the Colby College alpine team a number of days, which helped crank up the intensity of training and get a preview of the competition ahead.  The training camp concluded with 4 FIS races, although the final race was cancelled due to high winds and drifting snow from the previous night’s storm.  We enjoyed some good early season results given the limited amount of time on snow prior to this training camp.  Caroline McHugh overcame poor start positions in both SL’s to finish 36th and 38th and was on her way to a fantastic GS result but crashed 2 gates from the finish (she was in 9th place at the first split-time check).  Chris Kinner beat a number of top collegiate skiers in GS to place 12th in one race, while Kevin McNamara had a career-best result, moving from a start position of 51 to finish 16th on the day in GS, beating a number of top collegiate skiers in the process.  Brad Alvarez and Alec Boardman also made big strides in qualifying for and competing in their first non-colegiate FIS races, this experience should prove valuable come collegiate races season!  All in all it was a great camp and the athletes put forth tremendous effort over the course of the camp.  

From Nordic Coach Chris City:  The nordic team spent five days training and racing at Stowe from December 17-21.  As at Thanksgiving camp,  the white stuff arrived just before we did and made for some very nice skiing.  The emphasis at Thanksgiving was on classic technique and so during this camp we worked on improving skate technique as well as sharpening fitness for racing.  On Saturday and Sunday the team kicked off the race season at the NENSA Eastern Cup Opener, a two-day event at the Trapp Family Lodge.  In classic sprint racing on Saturday, sophomore Cara Sprague took top honors for the team by advancing to the elimination heats with the 24th fastest time on the qualifying timed lap.  In her quarterfinal heat, Cara had a slow start and was sitting last going into the final hill.  She charged past three skiers in the last 350 meters, including skiers from Colby and UVM who had faster qualifying times, and narrowly missed advancing to the semi-finals.  Cara finished 14th overall in the event.  Junior Audrey Mangan missed qualifying for the heats by four seconds. On Sunday, senior captain David McCahill led all Harvard finishers with a 34th place finish in the men’s 10km Skate race in heavy snow, wind and cold temperatures.  Cara was again the top Harvard skier in the women’s 5km Skate, and was closely followed by freshman Shannon Mulshine and captain Anna Schulz.  Complete results can be found at www.nensa.net. The Eastern Cup series is the primary route for qualifying for the Junior National Championship and attracts top high school and college racers from across New England.  The weekend’s racing included participants from our EISA competitors Dartmouth, Williams, UNH, UVM, Bates, Colby, St.Michael’s, Bowdoin and Middlebury.  Many thanks to the Schulz family for hosting us in nearby Johnson, Vermont!