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530 kids signed up for this year’s New England BKL Fest at Quarry Road Trails in Waterville, ME held this past weekend, March 5 & 6.  Many came to race, some came for the Nordic Adventure activities, others came for the lollipops and everyone came to have fun on their skis! Mansfield Nordic had a strong showing with 18 skiers making the long trip over from Vermont. The theme of this year’s festival was “Soar Over Snow” and how fitting it was that we should all look up to find a bald eagle soaring over the venue Saturday afternoon!

Saturday started things off with Classic Relays. District Chairs and Coaches spend the weeks before matching kids up and finding partners for everyone who wants to race. If you don’t have a partner in your age class from your club, we usually find you a partner from another club in your district which for us means Frost Mountain, Sleepy Hollow or Mad River Valley. It always ends up being wicked fun and sometimes begins the start of new friendships!

Our home base for the weekend!

Finally the day arrived and cold temps and sunny skies promised a great day for skiing and outdoor spectating. Coach Charlie Cobb joined Coach Rosemary to form our weekend wax team and they tested, tested and re-tested waxes and skis to find the best combinations to give our skiers fast but kicky skis.

Oliver Tremble in the lead!

Oliver & Bella

The youngest kids started things first with the Grades 1 & 2 Mixed Relay. MNC’s speedy skiers Oliver Tremble and Isabella Altadonna teamed up to make a very fast team and won their race! Congratulations Bella and Oliver! That pretty much set the tone for the day with the MNC skiers rising to the call and putting NorthWest Vermont on the podium multiple times! The MNC/Frost team of Charlie Sterner, Finn Laber and Clay Bagnulo (FMN)  placed third for the 3/4 boys. In the 5/6 boys relay, Henry Sterner teamed up with Levi Peters (SH) and James Langan (South Burlington) and placed third, with Liam Vile and Oakley Crawford placing 8th.  Our incredibly talented 5/6 girls teams took  the top two spots with Ryley Morigeau and Brooke Greenberg placing first and Astrid Longstreth and Pearl Page placing second. Plum Lindemuth joined our crew for the weekend and also skied a great relay leg with her partner from Sleepy Hollow.  Our 7/8 girls team did extremely well with Kate Carlson tagging off to long-time relay pal Pippa Diller and June Yates-Rusch (FMN) for a third place finish while Tessa Diller and her partner from GMVS placed 20th. Awesome job girls!

The Festival is all about having fun with your friends! Astrid, Ryley, Brooke & Kate.

Hanging out at the Club tent.

But the day was not all about racing. When you come to the BKL Fest, you get to hang out with all your ski buddies and do some fun Nordic activities. There was a terrain park where a lot of our skiers spent time riding the waves & bumps. There was the obstacle course, the mini-marathon and the laser biathlon. Chewonki came and did bird education and a demo. And then there was the large quantity of food that the parents brought complete with crock-pot lasagna, fire-grilled pizza, grilled burgers, s’more makings and lots of snacks to keep us all going. Thanks to Reid Greenberg for the firepit/grill and thanks to all the parents for bringing the delicious food and making it really festive.

The parade!

Ollie Laber: future biathlete!

Sunday came with it’s expected 0.5 inch of snow and warm temps. It was the day of the individual skate races and it started to drizzle. Today the older kids raced first and the younger kids raced in the afternoon. The races started with the 5/6 girls and the MNC girls had a very strong showing with all four of our girls placing in the top 15 and Plum having one of her best races this year. Just amazing! In the boys 5/6 race, we landed 2 in the top ten and one more in the top 30. Another amazing result and all this in drizzle on a hard packed trail which had become very compact and difficult to ski. It was fast, but it wasn’t easy – it was downright squirrelly! It took guts, experience and confidence to commit to those skis and push hard!

Henry Sterner.

The 7/8 race was adjusted a bit out of an abundance of caution but still presented with a challenging loop that was skied twice. Pippa, Tess and Kate all skied very well, taking the difficult downhill with confidence, skill and tucked run-outs and landing one more top ten result for MNC.

Brook, Pearl and Ryley

Lunch hour brought the Lollipop race where Ansel Page and Ollie Labor skied a good long loop, passed the costumed Eagle and were awarded with lollipops. Then Pippa Diller joined the rest of the 8th Graders for her BKL Graduation and ceremonial loop on skis around the field.  Good luck in high school next year Pippa!

Ollie Laber and Ansel Page passed the Eagle and just kept going!

Luckily, the rain tapered off in time for the afternoon races and first up were the 3/4 girls, followed by the 3/4 boys. Both Charlie Sterner and Finn Laber skied well and another top ten was added to MNC’s pile.

Finn Laber in the 3/4 boys race.

Charlie Sterner in the medals!

Last, but not least, we arrived at the 1/2 girls and boys races. Isabella Altadonna put on her ski tutu and skied a very fast 1 km loop to finish second! Awesome job! Oliver Tremble took off his hat so he wouldn’t over heat. It was a very good move because he steamrolled into first place with his incredibly strong V-2. Congratulations to Bella and Oliver!

Bella is ready to race!

I am incredibly impressed with all these skiers. They had so much fun, they all skiied so well and the rain never got them down. You have got to love kids that choose to spend their whole day outside racing and playing on skis whether it’s sunny or raining! These kids have a love of the outdoors, are very fit and have awesome attitudes. It was my both my and Charlie’s pleasure to spend the weekend with them!

Results HERE 

Lots more good photos HERE

Photos from the Official Festival Photographer HERE Check back because I think he has not uploaded all his photos yet.  You can even purchase these!