Come experience this new teaching phenomenon IN-PERSON tomorrow at Stratton at our technique clinic and Coaches Symposium! 3 Hrs. left to register!
REGISTER HERE
THIS WEEKEND!
Preston Noon · ·
THIS WEEKEND!
Amie Smith · ·
NENSA would like to thank Marty & Kathy Hall for the wonderful opportunity they have given to NENSA, and our ski community, with the Marty & Kathy Hall $10k Challenge~ The Hall “Mark of Excellence” Award! Not only have they helped NENSA financially with a recent $10k donation, but they are also offering this additional $10k Challenge, which will support both individual athletes and the top school or club. Their generosity will add a great challenge aspect to our competitions this year!
The $10k Challenge is split into two $5k awards ~ spreading their generosity over more programs and athletes:
#1: $5000 will be awarded to the top school or club in New England based on the top 20 overall finishes (20 male & 20 female) for the App Gap Challenge and Lost Nation Roll Rollerski races, four Eastern Cup weekends, and select Popular Races. At the end of the season, the school or club with the most points will be awarded $5000 by the Hall’s.
#2: $5000 will be used for FIS podiums – NENSA will be supporting a robust FIS schedule this season and, thanks to the Halls, awarding cash prizes to top finishers similar to past U.S. & Snowboard SuperTour events and current Nordique Canada FIS events. For the first four FIS races, December – January, this Challenge will offer $1250 per race which will pay out for podiums ($300/$200/$150 per gender). While there is no national SuperTour series this winter, the Hall Challenge will offer our top New England based athletes much deserved monetary awards this season.
In the words of Marty and Kathy, “It is with great pride that we give these dollars to join the fray and journey to international success—we need help though—please join the battle!” Thank you again to the Halls for these very generous donations!
If anyone else is interested in supporting NENSA, and our programing this winter and beyond, please contact Amie Smith, Executive Director, at [email protected] or 781-864-0545.
Kait Miller · ·
NENSA just wrapped up a hybrid App Gap Challenge with invitational in-person and all-inclusive virtual components. This rollerski competition was important for both the competitors and NENSA as we start to implement protocols of how our winter events will be conducted. Athletes, parents and coaches were energized by and thankful for this iconic event. Due to the event’s success and the safety compliance of all involved, we look forward to hosting several more rollerski events this fall – stay tuned! As part of our strategy to continue fostering the competitive and social components of our programs during this health crisis, we were happy to support a strong showing of virtual competitors of all ages who were not able to physically attend – this model will remain in place until we are no longer in a pandemic.
Link to Event Video (edited by Bill Harmeyer, SMS T2)
For the in-person event, we had a total of 68 skiers from seven local teams race the 7.25k Classic App Gap Invitational over the course of 5 days within their team units. A silver lining to small teams racing over the course of a week was that all competitors competed on matched Swenor rollerskis. We had competitors from 5 local junior clubs – Stratton Mountain School (SMS), Green Mountain Vally School (GMVS), Ford Sayre, Craftsbury Nordic, and Mansfield Nordic – in addition to two professional teams – the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) and the Stratton Mountain School T2 (SMS T2) team. It was heartening and inspiring to witness the energy, excitement, and care that New England’s top junior athletes, World Cup competitors, Olympians, coaches, and family members alike brought to the event. We are grateful to everyone for carefully following COVID guidelines and helping us put on a fun and safe event.
Olympian and World Cup medalist Sophie Caldwell of SMS T2 captured the win on the open women’s side. She was closely followed by her teammates Katherine Ogden and Alayna Sonnesyn in second and third respectively. In the open men’s race, Ian Torchia, also of SMS T2, took a decisive win over CGRP’s Adam Martin. Craftsbury junior Finn Sweet had an impressive race rounding out the podium in third. For the junior women, Craftsbury’s Nina Seeman had a dominating performance taking the win by almost two minutes over her teammate Quincy Massey-Bierman in second. Hattie Barker of Mansfield Nordic placed third despite battling some wet weather on her way up the Gap. In the junior men’s race, Finn Sweet was followed by Charles Martell of Mansfield Nordic in second and SMS’s Fin Bailey in third.
Full App Gap Invitational Results HERE.
Our Virtual Challenge consisted of three categories: Climb in Time (total vertical in 30mins – 15mins for BKL), Climb over Distance (total vertical over 7.5k – 2k for BKL), and Climb the Whole Time (total vertical in two weeks). We also added a category that meshed all results across the hybrid event by comparing everyone’s average vertical feet per minute.
In the Climb in Time event, Mansfield Nordic’s Tristen Adie took the win climbing 1271 vertical feet. HSC Biathlon’s Marvin Wang placed second overall, and first for the men, ascending a total of 1216 vertical feet. In the Climb over Distance event, EMBK’s Leigh Neideck took the win in the women’s race and the BKL race climbing 185 vertical feet. On the men’s side, NWVE’s Chris Burnham outstripped the rest of the field climbing a total of 3006 vertical feet. Our impressive Climb the Whole Time winner is Peru Nordic’ Peter Minde whole climbed 10,771 vertical feet!
Full App Gap Virtual Challenge results HERE.
Thank you to our primary sponsors for this event: EnjoyWinter, Burkie and Cabot Cheese.
Top Places and Prizes:
Open Women
1) Sophie Caldwell – SMS T2 – M1 – Cabot Vintage Cheddar / Burkie Insulated Fuel Belt Case
2) Katherine Ogden – SMS T2 – SR – Burkie Insulated Fuel Belt Case
3) Alayna Sonnesyn – SMS T2 – SR – Burkie Insulated Fuel Belt Case
Open Men
1) Ian Torchia – SMS T2 – SR – Cabot Vintage Cheddar / Burkie Insulated Fuel Belt Case
2) Adam Martin – CGRP – SR – Burkie Insulated Fuel Belt Case
3) Finn Sweet – Craftsbury – U20 – Burkie Insulated Fuel Belt Case
Junior Women
1) Nina Seemann – Craftsbury – U20 – Anti-Freeze SuperPuff with NENSA logo
2) Quincy Massey-Bierman – Craftsbury – U18 – “2020 Happened” App Gap T
3) Hattie Barker – Mansfield Nordic – U18 – “2020 Happened” App Gap T
Junior Men
1) Finn Sweet – Craftsbury – U20 – Anti-Freeze SuperPuff with NENSA logo
2) Charles Martell – Mansfield Nordic – U20 – “2020 Happened” App Gap T
3) Fin Bailey – SMS – U16 – “2020 Happened” App Gap T
Upcoming Rollerski Races to come – please note The Maine Event is already on the calendar for October, 25th.
Kait Miller · ·
We are very excited to announce that App Gap 2020 is happening! It will come as no surprise to anyone that the format will be quite different than in previous years to ensure safety during this global pandemic. App Gap 2020 will take place between Aug 22 and 30 with multiple small physically distant in-person invitational rollerski races up the Gap for local clubs and a virtual event that is open to our whole NENSA community. While we would love to host an in-person App Gap for everyone, we simply cannot safely do that in this environment and we want our summer/fall events to be safe and successful so we can provide more opportunities this winter. We appreciate your understanding and hope you are excited to compete in the Virtual App Gap Challenge. There will, of course, be sweet prizes and the nature of a virtual event means anyone can participate regardless of their location! There are three virtual rollerski participation categories and we will be rolling out a team competition within these categories as well so stay tuned!
Climb in Time (single effort): how much elevation can you gain in 30mins (15mins for BKL)?
Climb over Distance (single effort): how much elevation can you gain over 7.5k (2k for BKL)?
Climb the Whole Time (multiple efforts): how much total elevation can you climb between Aug 22 and 30? Can you climb Mt. Everest (29,029ft)?!
Register for the Virtual App Gap here.
Current NENSA members get a discount on registration and this will be our first event that we utilize SkiReg’s data entry and leaderboard platform! We hope that wherever you are, you can get out on your rollerskis and start climbing! Please reach out to [email protected] with questions.
AWARDS: Stay tuned to @nensa_nordic and Facebook for updates on Awards. Prizes for all ages from Cabot Creamery, EnjoyWinter (Swenor, Bliz, and Anti-Freeze Face Tape), Swix, and more.
Preston Noon · ·
During the month of July NENSA was thrilled to feature and promote an outstanding virtual event to benefit the Maine Outdoor Wellness Center in honor of Roy Varney, an outstanding Maine athlete who tragically lost his life in a farming accident.
There were 111 participants by the month’s end. Participants ranged across Maine, from York to Camden, across categories, outside of Maine that reach spread out to Yukon a mere 3700 miles, or a 64 hr. drive. That team The Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club nearly passed our own staff here at NENSA. It would be remiss to also not mention Mt.Blue who had a great showing. Torin La Liberté from Clarkson University set a blazing 3:16/km pace for the Rockstar (71.19km) category. Leif Harvey from Cumberland, Me rolled through the 7.1km Rollerski a hair over 21 min, then also took the 1:11:19 distance TWICE at 0:03:02/km!
All of this wouldn’t have been possible without Gloria Varney who chose to make Art is tribute to Roy. You can read her full post HERE, and Thank You Willie for #butterfly
Finally Jenny and Sharon Wilbraham both had a neck and neck amazing times running through over 71k on a bike loop.
You can see results HERE which includes images and tracking data. Weekly prizes included a raffle for SKIDA face masks and special goodies from Untapped Natural Athletic Fuel. These raffle winners were:
Week 1 – Skida Face Mask – Peter Minde, Peru Nordic
UnTapped Maple care pack – Dustin Williamson, Leavitt High School
Week 2 – Skida Face Mask – Ellen Chandler, Jackson XC
UnTapped Maple care pack – Brian Sprague, Mansfield Nordic Club
Week 3 – Skida Face Mask – Emily Cartwright, Cumberland County Nordic Club
UnTapped Maple care pack – Fred Call, Bethel Outing Club
Week 4 – Skida Face Mask – Thomas Lewis
UnTapped Maple care pack – Clara Sandberg
There were six categories in this Virtual Event. Each included generous prizes supplied by our supporting sponsor SIDAS and here are the lucky winners:
Rockstar – Sidas Heated Vest – Jenny Wilbraham
Speedy Repeater – Sidas Heated Gloves – Sadie Skinner
BKL/Rec: Sidas Hat & Buff Combo Pack – Saphrona Stetson
1:11:19: Sidas Custom Insoles – Brian Sprague
Art for Roy: Sidas Drop in Insoles and Gel Products – Gloria Varney
Run/Bike/Ski: Sidas Drop in Insoles and Gel Products – Nico Giangrande
Additionally $888.00 was raised in entry fees to benefit the Center, last week Dustin Williamson accepted a check on behalf of the Maine Outdoor Wellness Center. We especially want to thank all the participants that put in the miles for Roy.