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Team New England returned to Junior National competition in Minneapolis, Minnesota this week with gusto.  After a two-year hiatus all ten U.S. Ski & Snowboard regions reconvened for this celebrated event, with a few of the strongest divisions sights set on the coveted Alaska Cup.  The Alaska Cup not only rewards individual performances, but rather the depth of the full team.  After two days of excellent competition, Team New England (717 points) has a sturdy lead over the Midwest of 218 points.  Alaska sits in third with 438.

Alaska Cup Point Tallies

Team New England arrived in Minneapolis after a very successful Eastern Cup season that saw venues in four different states: Maine, New York, Vermont and New Hampshire.  This schedule allowed for a balanced, yet extremely competitive regular season including two SuperTour events.  The final weekend of Junior National qualification, hosted this year by the Dublin School, tends to be a junior-centric event — providing head to head competition amongst the top juniors in the region.  This exciting weekend really highlights the depth of our region and allows for some last minute adjustments to the Junior National team based on who is skiing fast at that moment.  While there is a finite number of athletes that can make the trip — it is the whole of the energy and resources of our region that make Team New England so strong!

Team New England was greeted to a beautiful Opening Ceremonies in downtown Minneapolis over a stone arch bridge.  All teams marched with pride and the excitement of returning to National level competition was evidenced by a goodhearted snowball fight!  New England looked sharp and focused in their well known blue and yellow snowflake Swix uniforms.

Monday saw the first competition, with freestyle interval start races.  Team NE came out of the gates hot with eight podiums and 14 top-ten All Americans.  While our veteran skiers performances were outstanding there were many amazing results by first time Junior National skiers too!

Highlights included: U20 Women Nina Seeman🥇 and Cat Stow🥉 — U18 Women Ava Thurston🥇 Hattie Barker🥉 Sofia Scirica 5th and Evie Walton 6th — U16 Girls Beth McIntosh 5th and Annelies Hanna 9th — U20 Men Aidan Burt🥉 Jack Young 9th — U18 Men Jack Lange🥈 Sam Gallaudet 8th and Fin Bailey 9th — U16 Boys Tabor Greenberg🥇 Micah Bruner🥉 and Quinn McDermott 4th.

As always it takes a total team effort including athletes, coaches and amazing wax techs!

Wednesday saw classic sprint competition and Team NE crushed it again.  With conditions teetering on the line between hardwax and klister our skiers and techs felt right at home, not to mention some help from premixes that were born back East.  An amazing stat: three-quarters of the team qualified for the afternoon heats.  The second day of races saw 16 top-ten All Americans and five podiums, including three National Champions — Congrats to Fin Bailey🥇for U18 men, Ava Thurston🥇for U18 women and Nina Seeman🥇U20 women. Jack Young took🥈for the U20 men and Ellis Slover got🥉for the U16 boys.

Action continues on Friday with Mass Start Classic races — you can view Livestreaming here.

Full results available here.
NENSA’s IG account for more pictures and video.

After two years of anticipation, the “Soar Over Snow” BKL Festival surpassed all expectations! With well over 500 participants, this was the second largest Festival in over 6 years with children traveling to Maine from as far away as Rochester, NY. The host District, Maine, set a participation record for their District with over 160 Maine children taking part in the festivities. The BKL Festival had something for everyone with live birds presentations from Chewonki featuring two rehabilitating owls, laser biathlon with US Biathlon, an obstacle course, a Bump Jump, a Mini-Marathon with a bird search, a club parade of skiers, and races. And to top off the weekend, a real live Bald Eagle soared over the stadium for all to see!

On the racing front, Saturday featured the relay event which kicked off under bluebird skies and Sunday saw the individual start races.  Spirits were high the entire weekend and even a bit of rain on Sunday couldn’t wipe the smiles off skiers’ faces.

Camaraderie, community, and joy were omnipresent at this celebratory youth ski event and photos speak louder than words to convey that.

We are so grateful to Quarry Road Trails and the City of Waterville for being incredible hosts. The BKL Organizing Committee dedicated considerable time, energy, and expertise to the planning and implementation of this event and the number of volunteers who stepped in to help was inspiring. We are also incredibly grateful to all the NENSA sponsors who support this event and we were honored to have Fischer and Skida join us in-person.

And last but not least, a huge thank you to all the participants, parents/caregivers, and coaches who joined us in Waterville, Maine. We hope to see you all again next year!

Race Results | Photos from Flying Point Road

 

 

 

It’s March and that means big Popular races in New England!  Here’s what’s on the docket for this weekend:

3/5 47th Annual Mt. Washington Cup Skate Race at Bretton Woods.  Registration link HERE.

3/5-6 Rangeley Loppet & Burt Kettle Classic at Rangeley Lakes Trail Center. Registration link HERE.

On the horizon:

3/13 Long Haul Loppet at JacksonXC. Registration link HERE.

3/13 2022 Inferno Cross Country Cross at Sugarloaf. Registration link HERE.

3/18-20 Rikert Grand Prix at the Rikert Nordic Center & Middlebury College Snow Bowl. Registration link HERE.

These events are great ways to get out and enjoy some of the best ski conditions of winter.  Bring your friends and family and have a great time!

Skiers gathered at the Stratton Nordic Center on a sunny morning for an event full of adventure, obstacles, and fun!  It was the first time the crew at Stratton put on the Terrain Challenge and they did not disappoint.

Dozens of Bill Koch aged skiers gathered for the early morning races.  They were started by Sverre Caldwell, who seemed to be having as much fun as the racers.  The first and second graders had a particularly good time with him as he challenged them with all sorts of false starts, eventually giving them the elusive “GO.”

The Bill Koch racers navigated one to four times around a 1km loop full of challenges, like slalom gates, saw horses to duck under, and hay bales to barrel roll over.  Of particular spectating interest was the wall of hay bales 100m from the finish.  Each skier had a different approach to getting over them, some stepping, some rolling, some crawling, and some trying to jump.

Once the Bill Koch races were done, the high school and adult racers had their chance at all the fun.  The adult 6km course included all the features of the 1km, breaking away after 500m, then winding uphill until the course suddenly dived off the groomed trails downhill on single track lines.  After a few seconds of old school exhilaration, skiers returned to the groomed trails, for another climb, followed by more single track and flowing groomed downhill action, interspersed with unexpected turns, bumps, and jumps.  Matt Boobar who was in charge of course set up, said “it’s a lot like a cycle cross race, with smooth flowy and technical sections.”  When asked if the course was anything ski Ski-Orienteering courses, Alex Jospe responded with a big smile.

It was not your typical cross country ski race.  The whole event had a playful tone.  There was a piece of candy awaiting all the racers at the finish – everyone got to feel like a lollipop racer.  Parents and participants in other age groups hung around and cheered on every racer, some even got to cheer on their parents.   Costumes and fun hair dos were also part of the day.  Steve Bruner of the Stratton Nordic Center said “this event was awesome – we can’t wait to do it again next year!”

Results

Rankings

Returning to a normal Eastern Cup season was not a given at the beginning of the year.  And despite some challenges with Mother Nature, our venues, fortified with manmade snow, created a landscape that brought joy to everyone involved in this competitive sphere.  Taking a jog back to Quarry Road and the Roy Varney Opener it was almost surreal to see entire population of New England’s juniors back together racing at a high  level, but perhaps most importantly enjoying each others company, albeit on a 1.6 kilometer loop.  A spell of deep winter was perfectly timed for the back to back SuperTour/Eastern Cup weekends in Lake Placid and Craftsbury.  Despite frigid temperatures these weekends saw near record participation and our first international races since the start of the pandemic.  To bookend the season Dublin was prepared for  an unseasonable meltdown less than two days before the races — bolstered by a preemptive snowmaking session and accommodations to courses and training times —  the show went off in style!

The 2022 Dublin Double took on new form this year with two days of racing versus the two-start one-day event of the past.  Saturday was the debut of head to head sprints at the Eastern Cup level on the Dublin School Trails.  Firm and fast conditions were sporting for the competitors as they charged onto the serpentine loop six abreast.  While there might have been a few bumps and stumbles along the way — the level of skiing and excitement for spectators was high all day.  There was a top-30 round as well as additional rounds of 12 for U18/U20 and U16 athletes.  Discussions have already begun about what the best way to maximize skiing time for more competitors as our fields continue to grow.  Of note, the U16 fields have nearly doubled in size over the past 5 years.

Sunday racers tackled a “working” distance course on a 2.5km loop in the classic technique.  Dublin’s trails provide excellent spectating and the courses were lined with parents, volunteers and fellow athletes rooting on their favorite skiers.  U16’s skied 5km on the figure-8 loop while U18/U20 skiers completed a 1okm.  Coaches seemed to really enjoy waxing for a true klister day and skiers had fast skis with great kick — making for a really fun and fair final day of Eastern Cup competition.

Dublin, like all four of the Eastern Cup venues, have not only improved their infrastructure each year, but continued t0 cultivate communities that love to ski and host events.  We all owe a huge thank you to Quarry Road, Mt. Van Hoevenberg, Quarry Road and the Dublin for pulling out the stops and making the Eastern Cup what it is — one of the best race series in North America.

RESULTS

Some racers were laying it all on the line to try and earn a spot on the Junior National Team and all were out there to perform to their personal best.  Again the camaraderie amongst teams but also across programs is so heartening to see — skiers and clubs are embracing the team aspect.  We are seeing constant improvements that reflect and emulate the successes of our National Team’s success on the world’s stage — indeed several  of our current Olympians were racing in this circuit just a year or two ago.

As we head into the post season there are still many options for racing — juniors will focus on Junior Nationals,  U16 and Eastern High School Championships.  The Popular Series continues this weekend with the Stratton Terrain Challenge.  The series culminates with the Rikert Grand Prix where we will host end of the year Zak and Club awards, March 18-20.