Isabel Caldwell

This year Gore Mountain Nordic Center in North Creek, NY hosted Eastern High School Championships. The spectator-friendly race courses and the amazing staff and volunteers at Gore made for a fantastic weekend for our junior racers!

Over the course of the weekend, racers experienced all of the different conditions assossiated with spring skiing. After driving through the tail end of Thursday night’s snow storm, teams rolled in around noon on Friday and athletes got themselves organized and then went out to preview the course for the 5km skate interval start race. Parents and fans were in for a treat – from the stadium they could watch the athletes ski up the entire A climb and watch them cruise down through the S-turn descent.

It is a difficult challenge to qualify for Eastern High School Championships. Athletes who qualify have the honor representing their home state and each state can bring up to 24 boys and 24 girls to the championships. This year Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont had full teams of 48 athletes. Adding to the competition, the Midwest (Minnesota), the Great Lakes (Michigan and Wisconsin) and New York each brought teams of 12 athletes.

The beauty of EHSC is that every skier counts towards a state’s team score. A state’s twentieth skier matters just as much as their third skier. Athletes are able to dig a little deeper and ski a little faster when they know that they are racing not just for themselves, but also for their team.

Saturday brought a true mixed bag of weather throughout the day, with intermittent showers (although it never actually rained during the races) and a warm afternoon sun. The morning featured the 7.5km mass start classic race. Racers then got to put their feet up and eat lunch for a couple of hours before heading back out for the afternoon’s wave start skate sprint.

Before the morning’s race the wax techs were out testing various klisters on the warm, wet snow. For many of the athletes this was their first time of the season racing on klister because it had been such a cold, snowy winter. Spectators had a blast watching athletes navigate the S-turn descent during the classic mass start and athletes finished the race exclaiming about what a fun, exciting course it was. There were a few spicy crashes on the S-turns, but athletes stayed nimble and were able to dodge racers and equipment that had fallen on course.

One of the highlights of the weekend was that the entire A Climb was in the stadium area so for every race it was lined with spectators. The crowd was roaring every time a skier came by and athletes were energized by the noise.

The afternoon sprint was incredibly exciting and spectators could see almost the entire course from the stadium. Each wave consists of one skier from each region and the format allows athletes to race head to head against similar speed skiers while still racing against the clock. It encourages athletes to work together within their wave to try to get fast times.

Saturday evening we headed over to the Gore Mountain base lodge for a delicious banquet dinner and awards ceremony. The top ten athletes from the first three races were recognized, along with the top three individuals from the combined three races. The athletes on the individual podium had consistent, strong results throughout the weekend – congratulations!

On Sunday morning we were greeted to warm, sunny spring skiing for the mixed relay. Each team consisted of four skiers – girls classic, boys classic, girls skate, boys skate. Relay day is a favorite for athletes and spectators alike. The stadium was buzzing with energy all day and as soon as athletes finished racing they were out on course cheering on their teammates. This is ski racing at its finest!

There are a lot of team points to be earned on relay day and every relay team counts towards a state’s score. At the front of the race there was a heated battle between Vermont and New Hampshire, with Vermont tagging off for the last leg only a couple of seconds ahead of New Hampshire. It was inspiring to stand in the tag zone and hear athletes ski in out of breath, tag their teammate and then find just enough breath to offer words of encouragement before their teammate skied out of earshot. Relay day brings out the best in everyone and it was heartwarming to see all of the camaraderie and sportsmanship displayed on course. Click HERE to view the relay day reel.

For team scores there were two tight races throughout the weekend: one for the full roster teams (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont) and one for the small teams (Great Lakes, Midwest and New York). Congratulations to Team Vermont for taking home the trophy this year!

Thanks to Underdog Race Timing and BullittTiming for timing and scoring the races. Results and rankings can be found HERE.

All NENSA photos and videos from the weekend can be found HERE.