NENSA News
Will Solow is honored as the recipient of the Dave Quinn Award at US Junior Nationals
The Dave Quinn Award is awarded each year to one Junior National athlete. Each of the 10 divisions nominates one person, and then all 10 divisional cast one vote. The winner is announced at the final awards ceremony. This year, this honor was bestowed on one of New England’s own, Will Solow, of Heinsberg VT and currently a freshman at Colby College. The Dave Quinn Award recognizes that JN athlete who best exemplifies the ideals of the cross country sport that Dave Quinn expressed thought out his life. In addition to outstanding results, nominees should have special attributes such as love of the sport, leadership, overcoming hardship, worth ethic, etc. which make them unique.
Here is the lovely nomination presentation on Will Solow from his Colby assistant coach, and JN U20 mens coach, Jackson Bloch.
Good evening! I am so grateful to be given the chance to speak about tonight’s Dave Quinn Award recipient, Will Solow. In my one year coaching Will at Colby College, I learned as much about achieving excellence through character and happiness, as I may have ever previously understood. I don’t think Will knows this, though, and that is probably because these traits start with humility. Will never assumes his place in a situation, never takes his position for granted, and from this mindset springs unending gratitude for his opportunities. A grateful person, Will taught me, invests himself completely at every turn because he yearns to make the most of each chance. He doesn’t know when the next one is coming. And when you find yourself completely involved in the present with an uncompromising dedication to seizing the moment, you realize you are both closest to excellence and at your happiest. This is when magic happens. Will’s club coach told me that Will’s dedication to training and his balanced attitude led his team to choose him as captain his senior year, despite their coach never mentioning leadership or holding elections. They initiated it on their own out of respect for him. And after years of trying to make the Junior Nationals team in New England and following a post-graduate year in Sun Valley, Will finally is wearing the blue and green as a second year U20. He has four All-American finishes this week to reward his patience. As a first year student at Colby, Will, and I don’t know if I’m really allowed to say this… and I do know he’ll be upset with me when I do, had a perfect first semester academically.
What I haven’t said yet is that Will has dealt with degenerative hearing loss his whole life. He would never tell you that it affects him, but as his coach, at least, his roller skis seem doubly dangerous and I take extra care when we speak in order to communicate clearly. Like many individuals facing adversity on any scale, the adjustments Will has needed to make have thrown his opportunities into sharper relief, and he consistently uses this awareness to better himself and those around him. His perspective has made him an astonishingly selfless teammate. He has shared his belief that it is important to appreciate the value of skiing towards personal growth first, before considering the results. His dedicated, yet balanced approach, helped steady our team culture this year, which is no small burden for a first year to shoulder, whether he understood this role or not. And for me personally, Will’s integrity and drive is a consistent reminder to be grateful for the chance to squeeze the present for all it offers, regardless, or because of, what stands in the way.
Thank you, and congratulations Will
Eastern High School Championships Recap and Photos
The New England skiing community descended on Fort Kent, Maine this weekend for the final high school championship event of the 2019 season, Eastern High School Championships. Fort Kent Outdoor Center was our host for the weekend, and they pulled out all the stops with great grooming, fantastic course design, a well set up stadium, and the first Nordic Cross sprint ever held at EHSC! Teams from New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts made the trip north to race, and we were super excited to have guest skiers Elizabeth Anderson from Connecticut, and Sam Bosse from New Brunswick, Canada with us for the weekend as well.
The first event was the individual 5k freestyle race on Friday afternoon. All through the morning rain fell and the course was wrapped in fog, but luckily the rain stopped shortly before the first race of the day at 3:00pm. The snow was soft after the warm morning and the rain, but racers made the most of the snow and put down some fast times on the hilly course that wound its way out of the stadium and into the woods. Skiers went off in 15 second interval starts, which created a constant stream of finishers powering into the stadium. A large crowd of spectators was in attendance for the Friday afternoon races and it was great to hear the cheering and cowbells for each skier as they came in.
Our second event of the weekend was a 7.5km classic mass start race. The course started out with the same 5k loop from the day before, before adding on a short 2.5km loop that ended up back in the stadium. The mass start races were full of excitement with the crowd of skiers all flying off of the start line together, closely packed. In the boys race we saw a few crashes on the way out of the stadium. A lot can happen over the course of 7.5k, and in both the boys and girls races, there was a lot of excitement as the skiers jockeyed for position on the climbs and descents!
As Saturday afternoon rolled around you could feel the excitement start to rise in the stadium area. It was the event that everyone had been waiting for – the Nordic Cross Sprint! The course was a 1.1km loop with a drop jump, banked turn, slalom gates, rollers, and the famous bicycle pump. Skiers went off in waves of 4 and competed head to head to make their way through the course with the fastest time while navigating the agility features. This is an exciting new discipline of skiing that rewards good balance and all around athleticism as much as pure aerobic ability.
Skiers send it off of the drop jump
Saturday evening the teams made their way over to Fort Kent Elementary School for a banquet, awards ceremony, and raffle. The organizing committee had wooden medals and homemade whoopie pies for the top 10 skiers in each individual race, as well as carved wooden plaques for the overall winners.
Sunday morning dawned cold and partially cloudy, it was a big change from the warmer weather over the previous two days and it was clear that the snow would be fast for the 4 x 3.5km mixed gender, mixed technique relay. States fielded teams of 4, made up of 2 boys and 2 girls. The relays started out with a boys classic leg, followed by a girls classic leg, then boys skate, followed by girls skate. It was exciting to stand in the tag zone and watch the skiers navigate the sea of people to find and tag their teammates. The mixed relay is an awesome team building race, with skiers relying on their team to put in the work on their respective legs of the race. The crowd was going wild with cheers for this event, and it was a super fun way to wrap up our weekend of racing in Fort Kent!
After the relay, teams and spectators gathered for the relay podium awards, as well as the overall team awards. The Graham Taylor cup was awarded to the team that scored the most points over the course of the weekend, and this year that honor went to Team Vermont.
NENSA would like to extend a huge congratulations to all of the skiers that competed with us at Eastern High School Championships this year – it’s an honor to be able to witness high school ski racing at such a high level! We’d like to thank our hosts and organizers at the Fort Kent Outdoor Center, all of the amazing volunteers who made the weekend go off smoothly, our sponsors for supporting an active skiing community in New England, and all of the parents and coaches who support our New England athletes!
For full results and photos from the weekend, please see the links below. All photos used in this post were taken by Dave Priganc.
Eastern High School Championships Results
Eastern High School Championships Photos by Dave Priganc
Here’s your latest issue of KickZone eNews ~ March 14th Edition
Recaps from U16 Championships, Junior Nationals freestyle race day and classic sprint race day recaps from Alaska, WC Masters Recap from Norway, Mansfield Nordic Club Relay Recap, Kikkan is coming to Sleepy Hollow 3/20 and so much more! Enjoy! https://conta.cc/2F1wRz8
NENSA Masters Shine at World Cup Masters in Norway!
A number of NENSA Masters traveled to Norway this past week to participate in the Masters World Cup happening March 8th – 17th.
NENSA received word that Trina Hosmer (Stowe Nordic) had triple GOLD podiums in her M9 Women’s age group for winning the 10k skate, 5k classic, and 15k classic races! WOW! Bob Gray (Putney Ski Club) got a bronze in the skate 10k race and Dave Johnston (Brattleboro VT) won a silver in the 15k skate, and gold in the 10k skate. Also Mary Heller Osgood (Putney Ski Club) USA relay team (age 60-70) got a bronze medal and Trina Hosmer’s relay team (age 70-80) also won a bronze.
Full results can be found at WM2019.com.
On their rest day, Trina and Dave Hosmer took a fantastic tour up in the mountains. They report it was a perfect day and they even groom way up there! They next all leave for Lillehammer where most will participate in Birkebeinner ~ an exciting and fun schedule for those Masters this past week!