It was another fabulous weekend of Eastern Cup racing this past Saturday and Sunday, and old man winter did not disappoint us! Amazing conditions and awesome trails awaited us in both Craftsbury VT and in Holderness NH. Thank you to all the organizers of this weekend – Dartmouth College & Ford Sayre and all their volunteers, along with the staff and volunteers at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center for a great day of racing on Saturday, and, to the Holderness Nordic ski club and their wonderful volunteers for the second great day of racing on Sunday. Without this great community involvement, these races would not be possible – thank you all!

Saturday was the combined Eastern Cup and Dartmouth Carnival race day #1, with classic distance races held at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center in Vermont. Podiums included, for the women, first place, Caitlin Paterson, Craftsbury Nordic; second place Elizabeth Guiney, Craftsbury Nordic; third place Elizabeth Gill, UNH. For the men, first place, Fabian Stocek, Dartmouth; second place Eli Hoenig, Williams College; third place Peter Holmes, UNH. For the U16 girls, first place was Anna Lehman, SMS; second place Charlotte Ogden, SMS; third place Abigail Streinz, OSI. For the U16 boys, first place was Will Koch, SMS; second place, Griffin Wright; and third place Zander Martin.

Sunday’s Eastern Cup/Cheri Walsh freestyle races were held at the Holderness School in Holderness NH, where it snowed all day! It was a winter wonderland with beautiful trails, but made for some long and tricky driving home post racing. Podiums included ~ open women: first Carly Winn; second Mary O’Connell, Craftsbury Nordic; third Rena Schwartz, GMVS. For the men, first place was Daniel Streinz, Mountain Endurance; second place Welly Ramsey; third place Aidan Kirkham. For the U16 girls podiums went to – first place Anna Lehmann, SMS; second place Olivia Cuneo, GMVS; third place Abigail Streinz, OSI. For the U16 boys it was, first place Josh Valentine, Gunstock Nordic; second place Matthew Moreau, CSU juniors; third place Will Koch, SMS.

We held our annual New England JN Team informational meeting after all the races on Sunday. Thanks to SWIX for making the trek down in the snow for uniform fittings, and to all the JN coaches and staff, and potential JN Team athletes and their parents for sticking around, if they could. We will be naming the New England 2017 JN Team shortly – stay tuned!

Please go to our NENSA fb page for photos from this past weekend!