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Congrats to Ava Thurston (U16G), Aidan Burt (U16B), Rose Clayton (U18G), and Meredith Stetter (U20G), the four MNC athletes who qualified to represent the club and New England in the 2019 Junior National Championships! This crew will travel to Anchorage, Alaska next week with Adam (U18 Boys coach) and Sara (U16 Girls coach) for a big week of racing against the best in the country.

MNC skiers Tim Cobb and Sammie Nolan were incredibly close and are currently named as 1st boys alternate and 2nd girls alternate, respectively.

This is a new mark for the club in recent memory, with 4 athletes attending as well as all three age groups represented!

Pressure and stress can do some crazy things to a person. Whether you stay up late, wake up early, fidget with your nails, grind your teeth, or pace every time you stand up…you know what your ‘ticks’ are. For the past two weeks that deep-seeded feeling of anticipation has set in as we’ve crashed head-on into the final two Eastern Cup weekends. I can’t speak for everyone on the team, but for the past week in particular I’ve been singularly-focused on Eastern Cup #4. Add in the forecast for wild weather on Sunday, the very last Eastern Cup race, and you can imagine the insomnia.

We’ve been boosted, though, by so many things. Positive attitudes and the knowledge that the hard work is paying off…particularly after a few great days at Eastern Cup #3. Combine that with a deeper staff of coaches at races to dial in everything from skis to on-course management, AND a giant heated wax trailer big enough to fit 4 wax stations and enough skis to form a wallpaper of base material…and the ingredients for kicking butt are starting to simmer.

This final weekend was our best yet, unequivocally. Saturday rolled around and found us at a new venue, the Dublin School. With a course full of

Aidan firing on all cylinders

gradual climbs and hairpin descents, aggressive and powerful skiing were rewarded. It had Aidan’s name all over it, given his penchant for big jumps, spins, and tele turns. In a combined field of U16 and open skiers together, Aidan skied to 11th place in both the morning 3km and afternoon 1.5km (winning both races for U16). Timmy slid across the line next for the Pugs with two solid races that immediately bumped him WAY up into the points standings for Junior Nationals. Eli, Brook and Charles felt a bit flat but all had good performances. Particularly relevant for Brook and Charles was the chance to do well against some competition they’ll face in a few days for the State meet.

In the women’s race Ava crashed on a corner by skiing TOO aggressively into the trailside crust, but rebounded for the afternoon. A lot of nervous energy was spent by coach anticipating how some of our JN “bubble” skiers (those very close to making the team) would do. For the women this was a good number of skiers…Rose, Meredith, Sammie, and Ali all were in striking distance. On Saturday it was Ali who really started to get her groove back and was skiing with confidence and lots of SPEED.

It reminds me of a quite underrated Disney movie from my childhood, The Emperor’s New Groove…the search to get the groove back, that is. Which is doubly ironic because Ali actually has an extreme Llama phobia (no joke).

Ali’s New Groove

Having the kind of races that put them right in contention were Rose and Meredith. In particular, watching Meredith attack the V1 sections with a furious-but-stable hop-skate was such a great example of how far she’s come this year, from barely ever rollerskiing to training like none other. Both her and Rose set themselves up to fight for a JN spot the following day.

Meredith charging!

Rose charging!

The Dublin School was an awesome place to ski. The school is investing a lot into Nordic right now and you can tell: modern courses, snowmaking on the way, a yurt that’s likely to be a real lodge very soon, and the logistics to pull off a great Eastern Cup. Also, the weather was FINALLY warm on race day for the first time in…months? That brought out the spectators, and having four races in one day also meant other skiers went out to yell at their teammates and cheer them on. It was starting to feel like serious spring skiing fun out on the snow.

Hanna skied to 13th for her best U16 finish yet!

Charles skiing with a lot of dynamic confidence

After a really nice team dinner at our favorite Covered Bridge restaurant (thanks parents!) we woke up on Sunday to find…Holderness Crazy Weather Eastern Cup Round #3. That’s right, for the 3rd year in a row it was quite a day out there, with a classic race at 32 and snowing…heavily. Then sleet. Then a brief break…then more sleet. Then more snow…you get the idea.

I looked back at the testing/wax log and counted up that we put 13 different kick wax options and combinations on the snow that morning. 14 if you count zeros. Thanks to all the club members and friends who chipped in to contribute to our big fleet of zero/waxless ski options! We ended up at 50/50 for the most part in the women’s race, and all of the open men raced on zeros.

Sammie taking. No. Prisoners.

There was panic in the wax trailer, no doubt about it. The schedule and race starts wait for no coach, so we were in full scramble to get wax on skis for the older women’s 10km. I’m really proud of how several girls handled the chaos without freaking out…because there were moments when I certainly was! In fact, this might’ve contributed to what was the womens team’s Best. Day. Of. The. Year. I am hypothesizing that everyone was so frantic and focused on what the heck they were going to have under their feet that they forgot about the fact that they had a big race on the line. So when Sammie blasted through the lap zone having caught and passed a big competitor, AND put another 30 seconds into her…I was losing it! It was the Sammie Nolan we saw this fall, skiing like she was chased by wolves and crushing the competition with tempo, power, glide, and climbing speed.

Then when Rose and Meredith both came by about to catch their competition for JNs from multiple bibs back, the excitement only got higher. How do you know it was a good day? Rose saw who she was catching, knew she was skiing herself onto the team, and looked at me with a smile and stuck her tongue out as she headed onto the second lap.

I got to be there when those first three crossed the line, with huge high-fives. In fact there were a LOT of high fives that day. Sammie ended the day 9th overall! Meredith and Rose were next in 11th and 12th. Following that was Julia in 20th for her most killer race of the season, and then Jenny (29) and Lily (31) also popping HUGE races!

Difficult classic conditions? Julia doesn’t make it look like it!

With all the best Juniors in New England in one spot, THIS is how we knew we could race all year

The only bummer was Ali, who raced without having taken her inhaler beforehand and struggled with breathing problems…she looked AWESOME on the first lap but you could tell it was fading fast when you can’t take in air. But like I said earlier, that groove was back…especially when she hit the big optional jump they included coming down the hill into the lap zone…whether or not hitting that jump was intentional on her part or not, I won’t say 😉

Coming up next was the open men. Timmy laid it ALL on the line to race into 13th overall. In a CLASSIC race! He did all he could to nab that trip to Alaska, but either way he looked phenomenal double poling. The effort he’s put into getting stronger in the gym this year is evident. Charles and Eli both beat several racers they hadn’t been close to all year, and were skiing great.

In fact, results notwithstanding this day showed the value of so many things we put effort into practicing. Crazy difficult classic conditions require great snow-feel, balance, coordination, and patience. Often, skiing “hardest” is not the way to ski “fastest”. We do lots of weird things to work on this…sometimes when rollerskiing I’ll spread leaves on the trail and dump water on them to make the pavement slippery. Sometimes we’ll wax with less kick than normal on purpose. We hit ladders in the gym, jump onto Bosu balls, and use the TRX to hone our core strength…and seeing everyone manage the skis out there was amazing. For example: Sammie. Meredith, Lily and Hanna were on kickwax: mostly a combination of two waxes I boiled together in an old soup can earlier in the week (no joke). Rose, Julia, Jenny, and Ali (and all three guys) on the other hand, raced on zero skis. It’s important to note that zeros are not like skins or fishscales: they do not provide “easy, perfect kick”. They require finesse and a keen technique to ski them well. The fact that half our group skied on one thing and the other half on something completely different, with great skiing from all, shows how that hard work pays off.

Speaking of hard work paying off, after the wet, snowy races it was time to gather for the naming of the Junior Nationals team. Already locked-in were Aidan and Ava! Next up was the older group naming. Skiers were called, and familiar names were rattled off. And then, in the 11th U18 spot was…

ROSE CLAYTON!

And called up two names later…

MEREDITH STETTER!

It was hard to contain the emotion. JNs is a huge goal and EVERY ONE of the Pugs worked incredibly hard. It came down to the last weekend, and when all the cards were on the table so many of the MNC gang threw down their best races of the season. A bittersweet nod goes out to Timmy and Sammie. As of right now (Monday night) Timmy is the first alternate not yet selected, and Sammie is the second. MNC club members: do your lucky dances and charms because other skiers (particularly those busy college kids) have until Wednesday to possibly decline their spots.

Junior Nationals Pug Squad ’19! Ava, Meredith, Rose, Aidan. Adam (U18 men’s coach) and Sara (U16 women’s coach)

You can read a bit more on the JN team and MNC presence HERE.

Regardless of Junior Nationals, Eastern High Schools, U16s, or Eastern Cups…I am SO PROUD of everyone on this team for what they accomplished this year. It was not an easy year. A very “heavy” year, as I’ve put it several times. Having everyone accomplish what they did, at every level, feels like such a fitting way to head into the post-season of final races. So much of what these skiers did was a mix of personal drive and team support, and when that balance is on the vibe is at its most killer. After a spring, summer, fall and winter of ‘cultivating the vibe’ this group of Pugs made it happen.

The VT Qualifier last weekend was the first time this season where it felt like the whole gang shifted into the right gear, nailed the RPMs, and gunned the engines. This week it was all about keeping it pinned, as we kept most sessions short and the intervals fast and furious. In large part, good results and skiing continued with our most consistent weekend of racing and best showing top speed and depth alike.

We were also absolutely dialed with skis and support which was critical. The biggest thanks of this goes out to Dan Clayton for his AWESOME trailer. This thing is big enough to fit the MNC trailer inside twice-over, if we ever wanted to operate in Death Star mode…but in all seriousness, it’s amazing what a heated indoor space will do for both the quality of the skis produced and the longevity of coach fingers and toes. As we were cleaning up around 4pm on Sunday, Sara and I both remarked how much more energy and positive attitude we had compared to most post-race Sundays packing up ski tables at sunset. A big part of this was being warm during the combined many hours spent hunched over the wax bench. The other big part was the fact that we had a big staff and were able to get out and be on the course, in the moment, for the skiers during their races. It even helps me give a bit more detail on how everyone raced since we got to see it happen firsthand!

Saturday, 5/10km Freestyle

Rose, joining the ranks of #BlizGang?

The women’s race featured U16 and Open skiers all in the same race. This was also combined with the 2nd day of the Middlebury Carnival…a great chance for some to see how they stacked up against the college skiers at schools they’re either attending or looking at applying to! Ava led the way with an incredible 28th place overall finish. That equaled a commanding win for U16s, and a result that would’ve put her 20th overall in the college race!

This was also a great opportunity for the older girls to lower their points in the U18 rankings, and while some nearby competitors had stronger racers, others ranked higher found themselves behind some speedy Pugs. Rose had a competitive race in a day with tight times…30 seconds was worth 20 places! Close behind her were Sammie and Ali, 10 and 12 seconds back, respectively.

Not far behind that was “Zesty Esty” Cuneo, who took some big names out there. It was pretty impressive to watch her tempo even on the third cloverleaf section of the course, 3.5km into the race.Hanna continued her streak of strong races to 3 in a row after last week’s impressive classic and skate qualifiers. She caught a lot of girls in front of her and really took the last downhill with aggression. Speaking of aggression, U14 skier Greta Kilburn hop-skated like you wouldn’t believe to crush the competition on the steepest hills! It was also Mackenzie’s first race as an MNC skier, rocking the Pug!

Brook with yet another strong race!

The men’s race was two tough laps, meaning you had to hold your form through the notorious Rikert S-Turns even after a full 5km of sending it. Things were all looking good for Tim Cobb to go big in one of his premiere events, and he made good on the day with an excellent points race, holding 8th for U18s on both laps. He said it “hurt the whole time, but just had to do it”. That’s kinda what it’s all about. Brook also continued a great season surprising a lot of competitors who may not have heard of him before…15th for U18s! The biggest bummer came when Eli, in the midst of a great race, flew off course and hit his head pretty badly. He felt ok to start on Sunday but decided that things were still not quite right so we’ll need to get more updates on that as the week progresses 🙁

The final event, late in the day, was the U16 men. After a week of sickness and nearly no training, Aidan wasn’t quite feeling up to it but a little pre-race motivation to just go for it and have a strong attitude paid off. He started conservatively but had a great last third of the race to pull ahead of arch-rival Trey Jones by a scant .2 seconds. Even more impressive considering Trey started 30 seconds behind and had the benefit of chasing Aidan’s splits the whole race. But in the end it was Matthias who took the win, which was well-deserved and shows a pretty strong relay team potential for JNs in a few weeks. More great races by Ford Sayre friends (from Thanksgiving Camp) Sam and Jack have them in great spots to head to Anchorage too!

Sunday, 5/10/15km Classic Mass Start

Mass start classic races are the most intense races for coaches…a bunch of skis to get done ALL AT ONCE and a bunch of skiers to handle (broken poles, feeds for longer races, keeping track of place and time back from important competitors…). We had 5 staff on-hand, a big warm trailer with 3 waxing stations, and things went great in most every way possible. We were able to test and re-test and few key wax decisions and had some great skis for the early races. Later on, I think things evened-out as people caught up to what the snow was reacting to, but we were definitely “ahead of the curve” early on and that allowed us to keep focused on making good adjustments and feedback from individuals.

The first race was the U16 women’s 5km. Ava and Hanna were set to make their mark, and right from the first climb Ava just skied away from the field. Her plan going in was “ski from the front like it was an individual-start” and she didn’t hold back. She outkicked them on the uphills, and used her always-aggressive downhill abilities to put on the most impressive display yet. The best moment? She skied up the last hill into the finish completely alone, with nobody else in sight. Ava is usually pretty laser-focused in a race, with that glare of utter concentration. But when I yelled “they aren’t even out of the woods yet!” to her, she turned to me and gave a big smile, which in turn made me laugh too. What a race!

A happy moment for skier and coach!

The bummer from this race was Hanna going off the trail, much like Eli the day prior. She had been right in a group at 15th place but had to fight back bravely from last place. There’s a point in the course where you look right by the main start/finish area and it would’ve been an easy move to call it there and not finish the race, but Hanna dug in and skied hard!

The women’s 10km came up next, the race with the most Pugs and the chance to battle closer to the front without a gigantic combined Supertour or college race. Playing to all of her strengths, it was Ali who came out of the gate quick, avoided a few early crashes, and punched her best race yet this season. 18th overall, in a race that was not only indicative of speed and power but also ski agility and tactics. Ali came back to the trailer looking to get some wax taken OFF her skis to make them faster…she moved up on every downhill and rolling section, and skied relaxed and kicked easily to maintain her energy and place on the climbs. Really great to see some of those things we work so much on during the summer and fall pay off!

Not far behind were Rose and Meredith, who skied back-and-forth much of the race and finished just ahead of a large grouping of SLU and Williams skiers. Julia had a big rebound after a tough skate race, and Lily put down her strongest race of the year in a great aggressive effort. Lily has shown that kind of aggression in intervals and training throughout the year but this is one of the first times that confidence and assertiveness has really been totally there in a race and it was super cool to see.

The real rough race was for, Jenny through pretty much no fault of her own. Something happened with the binder on her skis and it seemed like the wax just wouldn’t hold onto the base; a lot of double-poling on a modern course that’s made for striding, and we’re past the “character-building” part of the season so it’s extra tough to see that happen…really great work to gut it out and basically double pole for 8km: the upper body power did look serious!

Pug pack! Sammie and Lily charging uphill

In the open men’s race, 3 laps made for a long race! Gatorade feeds were on hand and the sun continued to shine, but the awesome grooming and solid tracks held up no problem. The race of the day went to Charles, who skied smooth and strong to gradually move up and keep his spot each lap. He captured top-15 for the U18 field and showed again that he’s a force when he is on his game. The longer and more technical the course, the better! Brook earned big-time pace points for starting out smooth and doing nothing but pass racers the whole time. As he put it, “it was the first 15km I didn’t hit the wall in”. For Timmy, it was a valiant effort to get out fast and be near the front, and a move he had to make. It cost a lot of energy though, and it showed throughout the 2nd half of the race. Eli was feeling the effects of the crash the day before and tried to keep it contained.

Every weekend involves sitting down (or driving home) with a lot to process. This weekend, there was a lot of processing positives. A lot of remembering good moments of strong skiing and getting excited for more of it during the last Eastern Cup weekend and beyond. February is a good time to be hitting your stride.