Our group all flew out to the West Coast a bit early, a tactic I have learned and applied ever since some harrowing flight delays and travel chaos on my first few trips to this event. Just arriving 24 hours in advance makes a big difference in reducing stress and keeping things feeling good…
Triple-Threat-Trio REUNITED
With a 4AM start last Friday, our group of myself, Ava, Hattie, Rose, Charles, and Craftsbury’s Cormac Leahy flew without incident right to Reno, Nevade. We got ourselves a totally-sweet Christler Town and Country minivan and scooted 10 minutes down the road to our AirBnB house. After a long travel day nothing beats cooking your own dinner and sleeping in a non-hotel bed. We slept-in the next day, made some blueberry pancakes, watched the US men winning the World Junior Championships relay, and headed down to the airport to link up with the NENSA shuttle vans.
We shot up the beautiful I-80 through canyons and crags, gaining in elevation until we topped out at the top of Donner Pass (7,200ft!). At the top of the pass rests the Auburn Ski Club Training Center, an awesome venue with a trail layout similar to the Range albeit a bit more “carved-int0-the-hillside”. The coolest part about this venue is the training center itself…a moderately-sized lodge featuring locker rooms, changing areas, waxing space, and bathrooms in the lower level. On the upper floor an eating area, offices for coaches, and a small kitchen. Can you say MNC dream building??
Cool lodging and cool location aside, by Saturday night the whole MNC team was reunited…INCLUDING a certain skier now representing the Intermountain team who is back in this whole skiing business. Magda!
With the group fired-up, the snow deep, and the weather sunny, it was pretty much everything Cali was advertised to be. We skied super-easy the first two days to keep the altitude from hitting us hard, and after the opening ceremonies it was on to the individual-start classic day.
The waxing was not super easy, but there have been tougher days. The real key was the pacing and measuring the effort level…Charles had a GREAT first lap putting himself inside the top-20, but like several other New England skiers I saw him coming on the second lap and wondered if he would make it to the finish in one piece. I don’t think I have ever heard such loud breathing from so many different humans…needless to say Charles is not one to give in, and he made it in. Next up were the U18/U20 races featuring Ali, Sammie, and Rose. I was super impressed with how Ali and Sammie raced, as they both finished in the upper-end of the New England team and in Sammie’s case JUST outside the top-30 in 32nd place. Two separate coaches also approached me after the race to say how strong Ali looked on the climbs, which was unknown to me as I was hovering in the start/finish area and didn’t see the tougher parts of the race.
Rose came through for the U20 women with an awesome 9th place to earn the first MNC All-American (top-10) honors of the week! At this point, the snow had gone from chilly and firm to sloppy and wet for the U16 women, one of the last races of the day. It was Ava and Hattie’s time to shine. Ava was going for the win in an event that we identified as a big goal, while Hattie was carrying some serious momentum from a stellar State Champs performance in similarly slushy snow. The early splits had Ava about 20 seconds behind one of her biggest competitors, Nina Shamberger from Rocky Mountain. Ava admitted that the negative split affected her mindset and got the best of her, yet she still closed hard to reel back 20 seconds in the last 1.5km and beat Nina. She ended up 4th, with 2nd-through-4th place all within the same second. A bummer to miss the podium, but her self-analysis was right on point and it was a really good experience to remember and learn from. NEVER give up or let yourself get negative in a race!
Hattie came through with a bomber 16th place to score Alaska Cup points (top-20) in her very first JN race! The ball was rolling as New England AND Mansfield Nordic kicked things off on a strong foot.
Race day #2 was long and arduous: a skate sprint in the thick slush. With temps at about 60 degrees and bright sun, copious amounts of sunscreen, Gatorade, and Pedialyte were consumed! MNC put 3 skiers in the heats, and nearly four with Sammie just outside in 32nd once again. This time it was the U16 skiers who got to race earlier and avoid the craziest of the slush. After qualifying 21st (from a seeded position of around 60th) Hattie hung with her heat and finished 5th for another top-30 day. Ava qualified in 3rd and had a comfortable quarterfinal before she got boxed-out in her semi. Unfortunately it was on to the B-final and not the A-final, where she would battle for 7th place. Not letting the others get in her way this time, Ava got after it and totally dominated that B-final for 7th overall.
4th place!
Rose had the deepest slush of the day in the older women’s races, but that happens to be her favorite condition to ski in. With an uphill finish stretch on top of it, you couldn’t pick a better sprint course for her! She qualified in 4th, and though she trailed at the back of each heat off the line, she easily made any time back up on the hills. Sure enough it was into the A-final with 2 more of her U20 teammates (Abbie Streinz and Ingrid Miller). Rose was in 5th into the first downhill, before working her way up to 4th and nearly catching the podium in the final 100 meters. 4th place!
Unfortunately, despite avoiding the news of the world around us in the Lake Tahoe bubble, the Coronavirus got the best of everything, including Junior Nationals. Everything got cancelled on Thursday morning.
It is a huge bummer, given the fact that the remaining races suited us very well and most were feeling better and better about the altitude with each day.
You could easily play a “what if” or “if only” game…but suffice to say I think this group was trending toward some podium and even top-of-the-podium performances, particularly in relays.
But the reality is, we spent Thursday morning organizing plane flights rather than skiing the race course. And even now, this update is being written on an American Airlines flight somewhere between LAX and Washington, DC rather than trailside at the Auburn Ski Club.
Event cancellations swung through the entirety of the ski world: no more JNs, no more World Cup, no more Easterns, no more end-of-season parties…the toll will hit us emotionally AND financially, but for now all we can do is stay safe and healthy.
JN action shots courtesy of Dave Priganc
