from Katie Hill
CLUB CUP UPDATE – $5000 / $3000 / $1000
The Club Cup race is in full swing and defending champion MNC is back in the running after a slow start. This year there is some serious prize money available in addition to the usual bragging rights: thanks to a generous gift to NENSA from Kathy and Marty Hall, prizes of $5000 / $3000 / $1000 will be given to the top three teams. Just imagine what MNC could do with an extra $5000! If you are U16 or older, please help our team effort by adding a Club Cup race or two to your winter calendar. If races are chosen with care, skiers of all ability levels should be able to earn Club Cup points.
What is the Club Cup?
The Club Cup is awarded at the end of the ski season to recognize the best NENSA club in New England based on the overall performance of club skiers in designated Club Cup races. In past years the focus has been on citizen races with the masters earning most of the Club Cup points. This year juniors and masters are expected to have about equal impact on the overall team score due a new point system and a significant expansion to the number of junior races included in Club Cup scoring.
Who can earn Club Cup points?
All U16 and older skiers who are members of MNC are eligible to earn Club Cup points – individual NENSA membership is not required. The only thing you need to do to collect those points is to remember to list Mansfield Nordic as your team when you register for a race; if it doesn’t say “Mansfield Nordic” next to your name in the results, we don’t get the points! For those of you who ski for two teams – such as MNC and a high school team – you can list both teams but NENSA will award the points to the first team listed.
Junior Races Added to the Club Cup Line-up
As in previous years, NENSA published a master list of official Zak Cup/Club Cup races here on their website, which has been distilled below into the most suitable races for VT residents. The Zak/Club races on this list are citizen‘s races that welcome masters skiers of all abilities, from first-time racers to seasoned veterans (the Zak Cup is a separate ranking for individual masters, but the same races are used for both Club Cup and Zak Cup scoring). New this year, Eastern Cup/Vermont Cup races and the 2020 roller ski races are also being scored for Club Cup points. About half of all available Club Cup points will be awarded for the Eastern Cup/Vermont Cup/rollerski races (where juniors will collect most of the points) and the other half will be awarded for citizen‘s races (where masters will earn most of the points).
New Scoring System
The scoring system has also had a significant overhaul. In previous years, Club Cup points were awarded to the top ten finishers in each age group (10 – 9 – 8 – etc – 3 – 2 – 1), plus one additional point for each finisher. That scoring scheme favored participation with only a modest point advantage to faster skiers in most cases. The new scoring system puts a lot more emphasis on speed, with points given to the top 20 OVERALL finishers (30 – 25 – 21 – 18 – 16 – 15 – 14 – 13 – etc – 3 – 2 – 1) and 0 points for everyone else. Points are awarded in the men‘s and women‘s divisions for each timed race distance, including separate U16 races. With 230 points available for each distance/gender combination, Club Cup scores are going to be much higher than last year – in the thousands rather than the hundreds. And with half of those 230 points going to just the top five overall finishers, masters will need to choose their races with care if they want to score big points.
Club Cup Opportunities for Masters
Information on masters races for Vermont residents can be found here along with outlook for Club Cup points – keep checking back for updates as details change daily.
The best way for masters to earn Club Cup points is with a big MNC turnout at the masters-only races and at the smaller citizen races that don’t attract a lot of speedy juniors. Upcoming races to target for Club Cup points include:
· 2/7 – potential masters division at the Woodstock Vermont Cup (25 person limit for men, 25 for women)
· 2/7-2/20 – virtual Race for Snow (5k and 10k, your choice of technique; not sure yet if 3k counts for points)
· 2/28 – Trapp’s Race to the Cabin (5k classic hill climb)
Finally, there are a lot fewer women than men in masters races, with most women’s fields well below 20 entrants. That makes it a lot easier for women to earn points than men. So MNC ladies, we need you! You don’t need to be a speed demon to earn Club Cup points, but you can’t earn them without entering the race. Trust me on this – so far this year I’ve earned 25 points in two races (the equivalent of a 2nd place finish) by finishing last and third-from-last in small fields. Not to mention that it would be fun to have more MNC women skiing in the races!
The first in-person, non-virtual, official BKL race of the season was pulled off by the crew up at Craftsbury this past Sunday. What an afternoon for classic! Sunshine, blue skis, packed powdery snow and the excellent trails at Craftsbury were as much as any skier could ask for. The afternoon started with a fun lollipop course which began on the upper soccer field, went over the bumps and ripped down onto the lower soccer field to the finish. Our lollipopper, Bella Altadonna, loved it and skied it really fast!
