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.

We brought the carnival season to an exciting close with several individual bests and three athletes – Alena Tofte, Catherine Sheils and Rebecca Nadler – qualifying for the NCAA Championships!   Catherine and Rebecca are the first-ever Harvard women’s alpine NCAA qualifiers; Alena is our first nordic qualifier since 2004 and only our third since rejoining Division I in 1990.  We also had eleven athletes named to the USCSCA All-Academic Ski Team.

Alpine Race Report by Coach Mitchell

The Crimson Alpine squad contested the Bates carnival ski races, which also doubled as the NCAA regional championships this past weekend at Sunday River, Maine.  Conditions were ideal both days, with hard snow and consistent surfaces.  It was an expanded collegiate field this weekend with teams from several other divisions competing for a berth to NCAA nationals as well.  The men’s  team continued with their recent run of consistency, putting down predominantly error-free runs.  Kevin McNamara led the way with a 37th in SL and 36th in GS.  In the GS he was backed up by Andrew Spielvogel in 41st and Ian Anderson as the third point scorer in 45th.  In SL, the Crimson men stacked 4 skiers within 5 places, with Ian Anderson in 45th, Brad Alvarez 47th, Alec Boardman 48th, and Sam Harrison 49th.  The women’s alpine team had a bit more trouble finding the finish cleanly, but still rallied some impressive results with Catherine Sheils 14th in SL and 22nd in GS, Caroline McHugh 24th in GS, and Meghan Luck 42nd in SL and 43rd in GS.  Wish us luck at nationals!

Nordic Race Report by Coach City

Esther and Cara (background) lap through the stadium in the 15k

We returned to Rumford, Maine, this past week for the first time since the US Cross Country Championships in early January.   Fortunately, a lot of snow had fallen in Rumford since then, including about a foot during our cautious drive north.  The new snow allowed us to ski the usual courses in Rumford (rather than the 2km of snowmaking and shoveled snow at nationals) and made the already difficult climbs there even slower and harder.   Jen Rolfes led the way for us in the 5km skate with her career-best 21st place finish.  It’s a very encouraging result for her leading into the Junior Olympics next week on her home course in Minneapolis.  Jen was followed by Esther Kennedy (43rd) and Clare Miller (50th).  Alena Tofte (15th) finished her regular season with a very solid and smoothly skied 15km classic.  Esther (34th) had her best classic result of the season just off the front of a pack that included Cara Sprague (37th) and Jen (38th).

Kevin, Sara and Tor cheering on the women

The men were felled by a bug that worked its way through the team over the weekend. Chris Stock (31st) led the men while healthy, followed by Tor O’Brien (48th, second-best career finish) and Tony Ryerson (49th).  We sat Chris for the 20km classic race on Sunday to rest for JO’s.  Kevin Sprague (43rd) took the lead spot for us on a day when soft, slow conditions pushed a number of skiers to quit.  Kevin was followed by Tanner Wiegand (46th with a strong second half) and Tony (47th and visibly under the weather).

It was the final pair of races for captain and senior Cara Sprague ’11.  Cara, who was The Crimson’s Comeback Athlete of the Year in 2010, fought back from injury valiantly for the second year in a row.  Even as she was she was working herself back into shape after several weeks on crutches this fall, she was also balancing thesis work and medical school applications.  Amid all of that, she managed to notch top-30 performances this winter at Dartmouth and UVM.  We’ll miss Cara’s dedication to skiing and her love of the team, and we wish her the best as she moves toward graduation!

All-Academic Team

Eleven of our skiers were named to the US Collegiate Ski Coaches Association All-Academic Team.  Our All-Academic team for 2011 included: Alec, Andrew, Cara, Caroline, Catherine, Chris, Clare, Esther, Jen, Kevin M., and Margie Thorp.  We were third in the league (just behind Dartmouth and Williams) in the total number of All-Academic team members.  Our skiers averaged a 3.75 GPA in the fall semester in fields ranging from Molecular and Cellular Biology to Computer Science, Engineering and Sociology.

It was a weekend of wicked weather changes: from 55 degrees and rain on Friday to heavy gusts, windblown snow and temperatures in the teens on Saturday.   We wrap up our carnival season this weekend with the EISA Championships at Sunday River and Black Mountain of Maine, but the racing doesn’t end there!  Rebecca, Catherine and Alena are in strong contention for NCAA berths going into the final weekend, while four nordic skiers were named this week to the New England team for the Junior Olympics in Minneapolis.

Alpine Race Report by Coach Mitchell

Caroline McHugh's second run in the W's GS

Harvard alpine raced the Middlebury Carnival this past weekend at the Middlebury College Snowbowl on the historic Ross and Allen trails.    Conditions changed dramatically from Friday’s warm, rainy, slushy SL, to Saturday’s freezing cold, wind-whipped GS.  The men put in a solid showing both days, with all six members finding the finish line both days.  Kevin McNamara led the way with a 31st in GS and 27th in SL.  Ian Anderson tallied more points for the team with a 47th in GS and 40th in SL.  Brad Alvarez and Andrew Spilevogel both chipped in to help the team score with 49th in GS & 47th in SL and 52nd in GS & 46th in SL respectively.  Alec Boardman and Sam Harrison rounded things out with 50th in GS & 48th in SL and 53rd in GS & 50th in SL respectively.  The women struggled a bit with crashes and DNF’s, but Catherine Sheils and Caroline McHugh continued their steady assault on the EISA circuit.  Sheils scored an impressive 11th in SL and a career-best 13th in GS, with Caroline McHugh notching a 29th in GS and halving her start number to finish 24th in SL.

Nordic Race Report by Coach City

It was an unusual double skate weekend for us at Middlebury.  On Friday, both men and women skied a 10km individual start race on Middlebury’s newly homologated course.  The course held up remarkably well given race-time temperatures that reached into the high 40s.  We gave our guys early seeds (Tony Ryerson was bib 1) in hopes of having a faster course for them.  Indeed, Tony set a fast time that held up well and he finished 27th, just 15 seconds out of 20th.  Kevin Sprague continued his late season resurgence, finishing just 20 seconds behind Tony in 35th, followed by Chris Stock (40th).  Tor O’Brien (47th) had his best career race: he was just 1 minute behind Tony and beat all but one Bates skier.  Alena Tofte (15th) continued to lead the women while Esther Kennedy (29th) had one of her best skate races of the season.  Jen Rolfes (36th) completed our scoring.

en Rolfes and Cara Sprague (background) in the scramble leg of the relay

On Saturday, the format was a sprint relay: each skier raced 1km before handing off to a teammate; each team consisted of three skiers who did the 1km loop 3 times.  Fortunately, we skied this relay much better as a team than we did at the Colby carnival last month.  The course was in an open field (across from the usual trails at Breadloaf) which allowed spectators to see the entire course.  The weather was a complete change from Friday: temperatures in the teens with horizontal windblown snow squalls that made skiers going uphill into the wind come nearly to a stop. The women repeated their 5th place finish in this event from last year.  Jen skied aggressive scramble legs; Esther held us close; and Alena put teams into the rearview mirror.  Our B team (Cara Sprague, Clare Miller and Addie Byrne) was just one place behind Williams A, and ahead of Bowdoin A.  The men’s A team (Tony, Kevin and Chris) placed 8th in the relay, 6 seconds out of 7th.   After the end of our races, we went over to the Snowbowl to cheer on the alpiners.  We saw the women’s second run of the GS before cold temps and impending homework assignments pushed us back into the vans for the ride home.

Addie Byrne anchoring the B team to the finish

For the first time in memory we have had four skiers – Alena, Jen, Tanner Wiegand and Chris – named to the New England team for the Junior Olympics.  The JO’s will be held on Jen’s home course (Wirth Park) in Minneapolis from March 4-13.  Congrats to Alena, Jen, Tanner and Chris!

The 100th Annual Dartmouth Carnival this past weekend saw a greater depth of performances from our team than in past weeks, particularly among the women’s alpine and nordic squads, leading to higher overall team finishes.  This weekend we’ll compete at the Middlebury Carnival, where Nordic will have an unusual double skate weekend (5/10km Friday, 3x3x1 sprint relay on Saturday).

Alpine Race Report by Coach Mitchell

Harvard Alpine contested the Dartmouth carnival races this past weekend at the Dartmouth Skiway in Lyme, NH.  Racing conditions were excellent with hard snow and a consitent surface both days, although Frida’s GS started off brutally cold.  The men’s team was led by Kevin McNamara in 35th, a solid GS result which illustrates his improving form and consistency.  Andrew Spielvogel scored points for the team in 44th, with Ian Anderson, Sam Harrison, Alec Boardman, and Brad Alvarez securing 47th-50th placings respectively.  Ian Anderson led the way in the slalom, linking two clean runs for a 41st place finish.  Alec Boardman also put together two solid runs for the team’s second best result in 44th.  Andrew Spielvoel, Sam Harrison, and Brad Alvarez went 45th, 48th, 52nd respectively to round things out on the day.

In the GS, the women’s alpine team was led by Rebecca Nadler, returning from World University Games only a few days prior, in 16th.  Caroline McHugh put down a scorching second run and punched in a 21st place result, a fantastic result as she has been steadily climbing the results sheet this year.  Meghan Luck also scored points for the team in 25th place, her best result of the season; and Catherine Sheils was just behind her in 29th.  The women ended up 7th place in the team standings on the day.  Catherine Sheils turned it up a notch in the slalom, leading the Crimson women to an 11th place finish, and again Caroline McHugh put down two solid runs to be the team’s second finisher in 31st.  Rebecca Nadler and Meghan Luck rounded things out for the women in 42nd and 43rd, placing the women 8th on the day.

Several members of the team competed in a FIS Eastern Cup slalom race on Sunday, which was highlighted by Kevin McNamara’s 22nd place finish from a start number in the 60′s despite very difficult conditions and a stacked field.  Look for Kevin to roll this success into this coming weekend’s Middlebury Carnival races and the NCAA Eastern Regional Championships the following weekend hosted by Bates at Sunday River!

Nordic Race Report by Coach City

Oak Hill had some of the best conditions I can remember ever seeing there.  The track was firm packed-powder throughout and held up beautifully through two days of racing.  Even the infamous S-turns were in good shape.  Friday was a 5/10km individual start skate race on the lower portion of the trail system in frigid conditions (it was -12F when we arrived at the stadium, nearly 40 degrees colder than when we’d inspected the course on Thursday afternoon!).  Alena Tofte (16th) led the team, with solid other finishes by Esther Kennedy (33rd) and Jen Rolfes (40th).  On the men’s side, Chris Stock (32nd) was just at the back of a tightly-packed group that stretched well into the 20s.   Tony Ryerson (44th) tried to hold off the eventual 3rd place finisher and while this worked for a few km, he ran out of gas short of the finish line.  Tanner Wiegand (52nd) finished the scoring for us, placing us 11th for the men, 8th for the women.

After finishing their own races, Alena, Esther, Clare and Esther cheer Tony Ryerson into the finish of the 20km Mass Start Classic

Temperatures remained below forecast on Saturday, but at least were in the single digits when we arrived at the stadium.  Saturday’s course included the climb up Oak Hill to the upper trails.  Although finding a kick wax for the day wasn’t hard, we did debate over the appropriate binder for ensuring kick survived climbing up – and as importantly, skidding down – Oak Hill.   Eventually we went (somewhat conservatively) with a thin klister binder that held up well and gave our skiers kick to the end of the race.  (This strategy paid off when some other teams found themselves without kick on the second lap.)  Alena had an excellent classic race and her second 16th place finish in a row.  Cara (28th) was not far behind her.  Alena and Cara both out-sprinted competing skiers in the stadium.  Jen Rolfes (39th) demonstrated her growing comfort at 15km races by scoring our third team spot.  Esther Kennedy (40th) was just a few seconds behind her.  Addie Byrne has had the misfortune of arriving as a natural skater in a year in which all the long races are classic; but even so she’s demonstrating better classic form with each race.  The women moved up to 7th on Saturday; not quite where we want to be, but a solid result.  On the men’s side, Tony (31st) had one of his better races this season while his Mather House roommate, Kevin Sprague (42nd), had his best race of the season and hopefully a breakout result.  Kevin even out double-poled a Bowdoin skier at the line to ensure what turned out to be a tie with Bowdoin for 8th team place.  Tanner Wiegand (41st) was sandwiched between them after skiing his second very efficient 20km race in two weeks.  A big thank you to Anna McLoon ’04 for her help with waxing for the mass start races on Saturday!

Alena, Esther, Jen, Clare and Addie giving out Valentines during the annual Carni Crush festivities

It was an exciting weekend as two Harvard skiers notched top-ten results in fresh powder conditions at Stowe, and Rebecca Nadler raced into the top 25 at the World University Games in Turkey!

Alpine Race Report by Coach Mitchell

The alpine team contested the UVM Carnival this past weekend on the Main Street trail at Stowe’s Spruce Peak.  Conditions for the GS were near ideal, although a few tricky gates on the course’s constantly varying terrain proved tricky for the Crimson.  The women were hampered by the absence of Rebecca Nadler, who was in Turkey , competing at the World University Games.  Caroline McHugh carried the women’s team with her 29th place finish, while freshman Ian Anderson led the way for the men in the GS with a 46th.  He was followed closely by Sam Harrison in 47th and Alec Boardman in 50th, both scoring points for the team.

The team faired better in the slalom, as soft snow wreaked havoc on the collegiate field.  The Crimson skied smart and it paid off with Catherine Sheils putting down a blazing second run to finish 6th on the day, with Caroline McHugh punching in a 21st place, and Meghan Luck chipping in some valuable points in 35th to help the women place 7th in the slalom. The men showed some consistency on a day when other teams struggled to find the finish line.  The team was led by senior captain Alec Boardman in 34th, with Ian Anderson just behind in 36th and Andrew Spielvogel the third team scorer in 38th.

Several members of the alpine team also competed in an Eastern Cup FIS race the following day, the men at Suicide Six Ski area and the women at the Middlebury Snowbowl.  An overnight storm dumped a few inches of fresh snow on the courses, ensuring another day of slalom in the ruts…  Kevin McNamara charged out of the 80th start spot to an impressive 33rd place finish, while Catherine Sheils punched in a top seed result in 14th with Caroline McHugh making a big move forward from a start spot of 58 to finish 33rd.

Freshman Rebecca Nadler had some strong races at the World University Games in Turkey, highlighted by a 21st place finish in the slalom.  Stay tuned as the Crimson compete at the Dartmouth Carnival this weekend, with the alpine events taking place at the Dartmouth Skiway in Lyme, NH.  This is our closest college race to Boston all year, we’d really like to see some familiar faces at the carnival, so come on out and be a part of the most successful season the alpine team has had in a long time!

Nordic Race Report by Coach City

Sara Cushman and manager Alyssa Devlin '11 provide a feed to Cara Sprague '11 during the 15km Classic

A mid-week dumping of snow and cold temperatures created a perfect set of tracks for Friday’s distance classic races – our first carnival mass start this year.  Racing in his first collegiate 20km, Chris Stock paced beautifully and finished 20th overall.  Tanner Wiegand, who only recently started racing well at 15km, also did a great job in his first 20km, finishing 37th.  Cara Sprague led the women with her season-best 24th place finish.  Cara started conservatively and raced through the pack from her starting place in the 40s.  Alena Tofte felt flat from the start but still managed a top 30 (30th).

The day after a long distance race can be pretty unforgiving.  The women bounced right back, however.  Alena led the way with a 9th place finish (her second top-10 finish in as many carnivals).  Jen Rolfes was close on time in a tightly packed race and finished 29th.  In the 2.5 seconds behind Jen were five more racers, each of whom scored points for her team.  When we tell our skiers that every second counts, that's exactly what we mean.  By being at the front of that pack instead of the back, Jen scored enough points to move our women's team up from 7th to 6th on the day.  

Kevin Sprague '13 dueling with a Dartmouth skier during the 10km Skate

Our men's team had a harder time shaking off the soreness and exhaustion of the day before.  Chris once again led the way (31st).  We get another shot at these distances at Dartmouth this weekend; however, the races are flipped so that the shorter skate races are on Friday and the classic mass start – with its epic climb up Oak Hill – is on Saturday.  Hope to see you out there!

The team posted some excellent individual results at Colby last weekend, including a placing that should send our first women’s alpine skier to NCAAs in decades.  Race reports from both coaches are below.

This weekend is a rest week on the carnival circuit, but the nordic squad will be in action at our home course, Weston Ski Track, on Sunday.  For those alumni in the Boston area, we invite you to come watch your team race against the best juniors from club and college teams from across New England   There will be two sets of races: an Individual start sprint prologue in the morning (women starting at 10:30, men at 11:30), followed by a mass-start race in the afternoon (women at 1:30, men at 2:15).  Weston is a great venue for spectating and the snow is fantastic here right now – we hope to see you out there!

Alpine Race Report by Coach Mitchell

The Alpine team had a bit of a rough weekend in the extremely cold, snowy, bumpy, foggy (you get the idea…) conditions at Sugarloaf USA for the Colby Carnival races this past weekend. While there was still quite a bit of fast skiing, the difficult conditions saw a number of crashes and DNF’s for the Crimson. The weekend was highlighted by Becca Nadler putting together two strong runs in GS for a 6th place result, which, combined with her 4th place last week, will qualify her for NCAA nationals. This is a first for Harvard Alpine in probably about 30 years…  Another solid SL result just outside the top-15 should also move Becca up the seeding and qualification list within the EISA as well. Meghan Luck also put together her first two clean SL runs of the season, which helped the overall team score. The men’s alpine team started to link things together and despite some horrible visibility, they put down some aggressive runs and really stuck their noses in the thick of the race. Andrew Spielvogel lead the way in GS, scoring some valuable NCAA qualification points, and the hard work of seniors Alec Boardman, Brad Alvarez, and Sam Harrison started to come to fruition with what I saw as some of the best skiing of their careers. While the overall results may not make it that apparent, the men’s team took a big step forward this weekend and we’re looking forward to the entire team ratcheting things up a notch for the UVM carnival coming up!

Nordic Race Report by Coach City

Jen Rolfes in the relay (photos courtesy of Steve Fuller/FlyingPointRoad.com)

We had some of our best individual results in years at the Colby Carnival.  The carnival was moved to a new racecourse (Bond Brook Trails) in Augusta due to low snow conditions at Titcomb Mountain.  The course is beautiful, but an untested and icy downhill at the new venue led the organizers to shorten the course (and the race) from 15/20km to 10/10km and change from a mass start to an individual start.  As it turned out, the snow arrived in force on race day – about 8-10″ of fresh light powder fell while we were at the venue, all but erasing the race track and making visibility on the remaining downhills quite tricky.  Sophomore Alena Tofte blocked out the distractions, caught the talented skier who started 30 seconds in front of her within 3km and continued to roll from there.  She finished 8th overall.  Freshman Chris Stock also had an excellent race, finishing 17th – which is our best men’s individual result in over a decade.  Tony Ryerson continued his solid early season with another 25th place finish – impressively, he has moved up over 15 places from last year.

The relays on Saturday (3×6.6km) did not go as well.  When the gun went off in both the men’s and women’s races, we chased the leaders instead of skiing our game plan and, as a result, the sum of our efforts was quite a bit less than we expected.  Better teamwork and skiing a smart individual race are things we’ll be working on during the two weeks leading into the UVM carnival.

If you’re in the Boston area this weekend, I hope you’ll stop by to see us race on Sunday at Weston.  The whole team will be competing in the morning sprint, and in the afternoon most of our freshmen and sophomores – who are hoping to use the race to qualify for the Junior Olympics – will be going head-to-head with the best juniors from across the region in what should be a very exciting mass-start race.  There’s also plenty of skiing at Weston away from the race track, so come make a day of it!