UPDATE Monday 2/6 12 noon: The combined Eastern Cup/Dartmouth Carnival race on Saturday 2/11 will be held at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center in Craftsbury VT (along with the Friday 2/10 Dartmouth Carnival races), instead of Oak Hill in Hanover NH. Sunday’s Eastern Cup race on 2/12 will remain at the Holderness School in Holderness NH.
Start times for Saturday’s EC/Carnival races will be delayed to 11am start for the open men, 12:30pm start for the open women/U16 girls, and 2pm for the U16’s boys, to accommodate teams/athletes who have hotel reservations closer to Hanover NH, and can not change rooms.
Thank you all for your patience and understanding on having to change venues to find snow and best accommodate the race formats for the Dartmouth Carnival/EC weekend ahead.
Registration is OPEN on SkiReg.com until Weds. 2/8 at 5pm.
NENSA News
Eastern Cup #3 Weekend Recap ~
A fabulous weekend of racing was had at Rikert last Saturday and Sunday for our Eastern Cup #3 ~ THANK YOU to the Rikert Nordic Center staff, organizers and multitude of wonderful volunteers, from so many different clubs around NE, who all came together to put on great races!
The weekend recap ~ Saturday’s classic sprint race podiums: For the Men ~ 1st Daniel Streinz, Mountain Endurance; 2nd Antoine Briand, CNEPH/SKIBEC; and 3rd Joey Foster, Team Hardwood. For the Women ~ 1st Sophie Carrier-Laforte, CNEPH; 2nd Heather Mooney, Craftsbury Nordic; 3rd Carly Wynn. For the U16 boys ~ 1st Joshua Valentine, Gunstock Nordic; 2nd Olivier Leveille, Orford; 3rd Will Koch, SMS. For the U16 girls ~ 1st Laura Appleby, CSU; 2nd Charlotte Ogden, SMS; and 3rd Olivia Cuneo, GMVS.
For Sunday’s freestyle distance races: U16 boys 5k: 1st place went to Joshua Valentine, Gunstock Nordic; 2nd place to Matthew Moreau, CSU juniors; 3rd place Will Koch, SMS. For the U16 girls 5k: 1st place was Abigail Streinz, OSI; 2nd place, Laura Appleby, CSU juniors; 3rd place Lillian Bates, Dublin XC. For the 10k women’s race: 1st place went to Carly Winn; 2nd place went to Sophie Carrier-Laforte, CNEPH; and 3rd place went to Heather Mooney, Craftsbury Nordic. For the men’s 15k, it was a Canadian sweep: 1st place was Joey Foster, Team Hardwood; 2nd place to Zacha Cristofanilli, CNEPH; and 3ed to Nicholas Beaulieu, Orford.
CRAFTSBURY OUTDOOR CENTER NEWS~ 2017 MARATHON
Press release from Craftsbury Outdoor Center January 29, 2017:
We had over 500 skiers toe the line for the 36th annual Craftsbury Marathon, presented by Fairpoint Communications. True to the spirit of the event, we had competitors who were putting on a bib for the first time to 4-time Olympians: the Marathon is a celebration of skiing in New England, a celebration of winter!
Racers completed 1, 2 or 4 laps of the challenging 12.5k course, with prizes for overall and age/gender groups.
In the BKL 1 Lap, Orion Cenkl and Miley Bletzer led the group home. 2 lap BKLers were paced by Charlie Purcell of GMVS and Ava Thurston and Quincy Massey-Bierman had a battle as they tied after 25k! Vermont High Schoolers completed 1 lap, with U32’s Stephen Looke taking the win on the boys’ side, and his teammate Emma Curchin winning for the Raiders on the girls’ side.
1 Lap men were all bested by Leo Paul Grandbois, of Biathlon Estrie. Notable too was the finish of Dan Cnossen, 2014 Paralympian. The sit-skier was second to Grandbois, on a course that features way more climbing and descending than any over course Cnossen would face in international competition. The 1 lap women’s event was won by GRP skier Kaitlynn Miller.
Recently crowned 30k classic National Champ Ben Lustgarten took the men’s 25k event handily, while Canadian Sheila Kealey took the win for the women.
4-time Olympian and New Hampshire native Kris Freeman took the win by 6 minutes over his Ski and Snowboard Club of Vail teammate, Tad Elliott. It’s Freeman’s 3rd win at the marathon, and the granite stater accomplished this victory double-poling, on skate skis. Mansfield’s Nordic’s Emily Stitt’s women’s 50k win made up in dominance whatever it may have lacked in finish drama. The former Middlebury College skier lead the women home in 3:08.
Thanks to everyone who joined us, and thanks to our generous sponsors:
Fairpoint Communications
Concept2
Outdoor Gear Exchange
Boulder Nordic Sport
Cross-Country Skier
Click here for RESULTS
Seed Lists are now posted for Rikert Eastern Cup Weekend
Seed lists are now posted on the VTCM EC#3 page for both the Saturday sprint qualifiers, and the Sunday distance races.
New England Women’s XC Ski Day in Bethel 2017
Over 150 women gathered at the Bethel Village Trails in Bethel, Maine for clinics for all abilities, lunch, an inspirational speaker, a wax clinic, raffle, and a chance to connect to the community of fabulous women in New England this past Sunday. This was the 16th Annual New England Women’s XC Ski day, which is held at a different venue in New England each year. This day is organized by NENSA and made possible by L.L. Bean and Swix.
The day is also made possible by 20 volunteer instructors, many of whom are former high-level racers, and some who are former Olympians. These women volunteer to teach clinics from beginner to racer, and have come back to Women’s XC Ski Day year after year as instructors. There were also 12 additional volunteers from the Bethel area, who came to help with registration, and lead tours around the trails for those interested.
During lunch, Kristina Sabasteanski, 2 time Olympian in Biathlon, and Director of the Veterans Adaptive Sports and Training, spoke about her trials and tribulations on her path to the Olympics. Her personal story of ups and downs was inspirational, as was as hearing about her important work with VAST. Another highlight at lunch was a few videos from the women of the USST, sending a shout out to all those who were at Women’s XC Ski Day!
This year the benefit organization, Sexual Assault Prevention and Responses Services, received a portion of participants entry fee. They also keep the entire proceeds from the raffle of the one-night stay for two donated by The Bethel Inn Resort raffled off as the grande prize.
Many thanks to our wonderful instructors, The Bethel Inn Resort as the host hotel, The Bethel Village Trails and their staff, L.L.Bean for donating the instructor jackets, Swix for the official Women’s Day hats, all our ski vendors, and of course the volunteers! Thank you to Midge Eliassen for the beautiful photos of the day.