Eight Mansfield Nordic BKL skiers and two Coaches teamed up to ski in the Strafford Nordic Relays on Sunday in warm temps under a sunny blue ski. The Nordic Center is located at the home of the Strafford Organic Creamery. They have a small, barn-like touring center and most of the trails run through farm fields. The Strafford folks built quite a course for this event featuring a couple of jumps, a few bumps to ski over, hairpin turns and an uneven bump section. We all skied one or two legs of the skate race in the morning and then klistered up and skied the classic relay in the afternoon.
Kate Carlson and Ryley Morigeau made for a very fast 1/2 girls team, sporting their Jessie Diggins socks and skiing faster than many of the 3/4 teams. Watch out for this relay team at the BKL Festival in March! Next we had a slew of teams in the 5/6 category: Brady Morigeau & Taylor Carlson, Cole & Jordon Shullenberger, Julia Thurston & Virginia Cobb. These guys all skied two laps.
Watching from my vantage point by the biggest jump, I am happy to report that all these kids fearlessly took the jump and most of them “got air”. Brady impressed everyone watching by getting the lots of air, doing a little knee bend trick while aloft and landing it! I think we should hook this kid up with Billy Demong- he could have a future in Nordic Combined!
Coaches Jen and Rosemary teamed up to race in the open category, but unfortunately, missed their start (the race time was moved up!). However, they jumped right in and due to the improved structure of their skis (they missed the start because they went back to structure their skis), they weren’t last! Their classic race was a lot better!
After a morning of racing, the kids all had lunch while Coaches Eden, Jen and Rosemary tested the wax, structured and klistered ten pairs of skis in thirty-five minutes! All that klister we’ve applied in practices has paid off! We have this klister thing down now!
We all had good wax, skied our classic legs and then, were treated to Strafford Organic Creamery ice cream cones in lieu of prizes. Yum! What a fun race! Below are some photos:
Sun and smiles! Spring skiing with lots of snow is always a nice treat
Can you say “dynamic V1”?
Klister skiing at its finest
Pack skiing, repping a non-skiing sport during the race!
Relay socks for the WIN!
Cannot beat some post-race ice cream!
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