Mansfield Nordic Club

Winter made a brief return this past weekend just in time for the first Eastern Cup races at Craftsbury. A pounding snowfall mid-race on Saturday and enough freshies to explore off the manmade loop had things feeling like a holiday wonderland!

The MNC Pugs stormed onto the scene this season with Greg Burt snagging his first-ever Eastern Cup podium with a 3rd place finish in Saturday’s U16 skate sprint. That final heat was the most exciting of the day,  hands-down. All four racers were jostling for position the whole time, and the final spot on the podium was won with Greg’s well-timed lunge for the line.

Greg showing how it’s done in his semifinal heat, pulling away by a WIDE margin

Not to be outdone, first-year U16 Tim Cobb had a great qualifier to grab a top-10 finish, while Baxter was not far behind. Kai, Tim and Baxter also finished 9th, 11th and 13th, respectively, in the U16 skate race on Sunday. In that event, Greg picked up his second podium of the weekend with another bronze and another super strong race in the overall standings.

U16 podium for the 5k skate. L-R: Adam Witkowski, Ben Ogden, Greg Burt

Ben Longenbach and Charlie Cobb had fast skate sprint qualifiers, with Charlie doing some real skating since some shin injuries cropped up during running season. Ben Carnahan, on the other hand, had a confirmation of Compartment Syndrome last week but was still out on course double-poling the skate race and turning some heads as he flew past the competition!

In the women’s 5k, Eliza put down an impressive skate race that was balanced, fast and snappy. Her and Marika are looking primed and ready for a great race series ahead as they tackle World Junior Biathlon trials in a little over a week. Wish them from our side of the country as they suit up to race at Kincaid Park all the way in Anchorage, AK!

In the men’s distance race, Will got to spend a few laps towing Kai in his wake before Baxter jumped along as well a few more laps in. Seeing the three MNC suits working together out on course was pretty cool! Peter, Tim Cobb and Tim Janson just missed out on the big MNC train with slightly later start numbers, but they raced fast and smooth nonetheless.

Baxter, Will and Kai skiing together in the distance race (photo: Gary S)

It was also fun to wax some skis for the MNC collegians, Amy and Rachel. Those two finished pretty close together, picking up this season right where they left off!

Initial results can be found at the 802 Timing website. Note that these results are not yet sorted by age group/race category…points and rankings should be up soon on the NENSA website!

A big thanks goes out to Sara and Kate for help testing skis, waxing skis, supporting skiers and contributing to a great couple of days. Thanks as well to all the families and friends who came to cheer, share snacks and even generously offer the coaches some lodging right down the road.

The “Craftsbury House”, for lack of a better term, with Kate and Sara ready for a day at the races!

More pictures and video are sure to emerge over the next few days…keep checking back!