NENSA News

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.

Congrats for making the 2022 New England Junior National Team!  Here is the link to the page to complete all the forms: https://nensa.net/jn-packetpayment/

Please be sure to complete all 7 items before this Thursday 2/24 at 9pm.  Thank you!

Questions:  Contact Amie Smith, NE Team Leader at [email protected] or Justin Beckwith, Competitive Program Director at [email protected]

We are honored that US Ski and Snowboard chose our NENSA Bill Koch Youth Ski League as the 2022 USA nominee for the FIS SnowKidz award! The vision of FIS SnowKidz is that “All children between the ages of four and fourteen should have the chance to experience the fascination of snow.” Other nominated programs include “Ski School Education Program” in Andorra, “Snow Moves!” in Finland, “Shred Kids” in Germany, “Moe’s Wintersport Club” in the Netherlands, “Mision Sandkids” in Peru, “My First Snow Day” in Spain, “Everyone on Snow” in Sweden, and “Simon Ammann Jump Parcours” in Switzerland.

Stay tuned for the Top 8 announcement from FIS SnowKidz on May 1st, 2022.

This summer NENSA announced increased emphasis and support of our Popular Race Series — with the the intention of increasing participation, bringing continuity to the Series, and highlighting member clubs throughout the East.  We also committed to adding Club Scoring to Eastern Cup weekend’s to better see the depth of clubs across all levels of NENSA’s competitive programs.  On the Popular side, twelve of the eighteen events are completed on the calendar — including Eastern Cups we are just over halfway through the season with fourteen of twenty six events held to date.  The first tab of Club scoring reflects the Eastern Cups and the second tab breaks out the Popular Races (which is similar to the historic club scoring).

If you look under Eastern Cup race tabs you can see breakdowns of the top five clubs by age group and gender for each race.

NENSA Ranking Pages
Scoring Rules

Popular events are the backbone of our racing community — while often low key affairs — you needn’t look too far to find spirited competition throughout the Series.  Most events have opportunities for any age of skier and we have updated Zak Cup scoring to include Senior (ages 20-29) as those our of future masters skiers!

To date 221 men and 86 women have competed in the Series — any skier who has a NENSA number is included in scoring.

There are a lot of great events in the second half of the calendar (listed below with clickable links to registration pages).  The Popular Series will wrap up with the Rikert Grand Prix hosted at the Rikert Nordic Center and Middlebury College Snow Bowl.  The Grand Prix organizers are excited to create a special three-event weekend that culminates with a hill climb and social scene at the Snow Bowl.  NENSA will be hosting year end awards for Zak and Club Cup and there will be the best raffle table of the season on Sunday, March 20th.  Stay tuned for an exciting lodging option on site at Breadloaf for the weekend!

Hard’ack Challenge – 2/19/2022 – Hard’ack Recreation Area

Craftsbury Marathon Ski Festival – 2/ 26-27 /2021 – Craftsbury Outdoor Center

New Old School Terrain Challenge – 2/27/22 – Stratton Nordic Center and Stratton Mountain School

47th Annual Mt. Washington Cup – 3/5/2022 – Bretton Woods Nordic Center

Lake Placid Loppet – 3/5/2022 – Mt. VanHovenberg

Rangeley Marathon and Burt Kettle Classic – 3/5/2022 – Rangeley Lakes Trails Center

Mansfield Nordic Club Relays – 3/12/2022 – Craftsbury Outdoor Center

Long Hall Loppet – 3/13/2022 – JacksonXC

Rikert Grand Prix – 3/18-20/2022 – Rikert Nordic, Middlebury College Snow Bowl

For New England and New York high school skiers, U16 Eastern Championships and Eastern High School Championships are some of the most exciting events of the year. U16 Eastern Championships (U16s) began modestly in 1992 and has grown into one of the highlights of the season for junior athletes. U16s this year will be held at the JacksonXC in Jackson, NH on March 12-13.

Eastern High School Championships (EHSC) is the premier event for high school and prep school racers in New England and New York. Athletes qualify for both championships through state qualifying races or rankings. Each New England state and New York can bring their fastest 24 boys and girls. EHSC this year will be hosted by Titcomb Mountain in Farmington, ME on March 19-20.

In recent years we have been lucky to have guest teams from both Midwest and Great Lakes Division join us at U16s. We are very excited this year to have them joining us again at EHSC! 

Qualifying events got underway over the past few weeks with Vermont and Massachusetts holding their qualifiers.  

Vermont’s qualifier event was held at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center on February 13th. The event featured a 3km classical race in the morning, followed by a 3km freestyle pursuit in the afternoon. Full photo gallery from Dave Priganc HERE.

Massachusetts held its qualifying race at Wahconah High School on January 24th, taking advantage of the school’s natural snow base.  Their event also was a pursuit format, with a 4km classical in the morning and 5km freestyle in the afternoon. 

NENSA and its partner venues are looking forward to hosting strong teams from all around the region at the Championship events in March!

For more information on the Championships please visit the links below:

NENSA U16 Eastern Championships  |  NENSA Eastern High School Championships

Results from the Vermont, and Massachusetts qualifiers can be found below:

Vermont Qualifier Results  |  Massachusetts Qualifier Results

New Hampshire will be qualifying their athletes based on a statewide ranking system first tested last season.  The system is similar to the US Ski & Snowboard National Ranking list, but is New Hampshire high school race specific.  Maine will hold its qualifying race on March 5th at the Sugarloaf Nordic Center.  New York has a hybrid system, where athletes can qualify through JNQs, the High School State Meet, or Empire Games results.  See the links below for more info on Maine, New Hampshire, and New York qualification.

Maine  |  New Hampshire  |  New York

Woodstock Sweetheart Race:

Skiers gathered for classic racing at the Woodstock Inn & Resort Nordic Center.  Klister was a common theme to the day, as well as warm temps and brilliant sunshine.  Each age group race began with a mass start.  The Lollipop skiers kicked off the morning’s races, followed by boys then girls for grades 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8.  The young skiers made their way around short loops near the stadium.  Up through grades 3-4 was a single lap race, while the 5-6 graders did two laps and the 7-8 graders doing 3 laps.  The course was super spectator friendly with roughly 3/4 of it visible from the start.  Most of the spectators lined the start, then ran up the bank to watch as the skiers approached the largest climb on the course.  When not cheering on their friends, many of the younger skiers could be seen hitting the jumps just past the start.  The youth skiers were very excited to race, most were at the start at least 10min early ready to go.  A few were so eager that they helped setup the finish whiskers and flags!

The nice weather continued into the afternoon, but accompanied by some strong breezes as colder weather began to return.  The adults race was also a mass start, with a short prologue around the youth course, before winding through the rolling woods trails on a three loop 15km course.  The warm temps made from some interesting waxing decisions.  Some skiers commented that “they had really fast skis on the downhills,” or that they “regretted the last minute panic layer of wax.”  They all agreed that the sun had made any snow out on the gold course or the stadium very slow.  In the end most were happy they raced and had the chance to be outside in the beautiful spring-like weather!  Prizes on the day included custom thermoses and cups with the Woodstock Nordic Runners club logo.  Very delicious treats were donated by the Woodstock Farmer’s Market.

Results

Rankings

Mansfield Skiathlon:

The winter weather rollercoaster kicked in Saturday night with temps diving back into the single digits.  The cold temps turned yesterday’s soft snow into boilerplate ice.  Sleepy Hollow’s crew and their trusty PistenBully were up to the task — spending extra hours crushing the surface to create a speedy but edgeable track.  And if the dual technique format of the the Mansfield Skiathlon wasn’t enough, master terrain builder, Eli Enman sent the entire field through their “Kids Fun Park,” which has some strict rules — it’s for everyone — and despite the firm conditions all competitors successfully navigated the series of three whoops with alacrity.  Some of the competitors even had the wherewithal to lighten up and enjoy some air.

The day started with a “What the Heck, I’ll Try It” category.  None other than Bob Gray, our fabled M11 master skier and two-time Olympian toed the line solo, reminding us of the beauty of our lifelong sport and the inspiration one can find at a Popular race on any given day.

The full version of the Mansfield Skiathlon is a continuous pursuit with skiers sending six kilometers on classic skis before changing into skate gear for another six.  Skiers set up their skate gear before the race in self assigned boxes.  Sleepy staged a beautiful mini stadium with v-boards — creating a fun version of an event often only seen major championships.

Twenty four men and nine women contested the adult event.  Each race began with a slight downhill mass start — making for excitement from the start.  The fields separated nicely, giving skiers lots of room to navigate the fast snow and enjoy some high speed racing.

The afternoon was filled with Bill Koch races — like the adults they followed the pursuit format and enjoyed the terrain features.  Over seventy youth skiers, from Lollipop to eight grade pushed themselves on the fast course.  It’s particularly interesting to watch skiers navigate the terrain whoops under the fatigue of a race effort — it’s something like the demands of shooting in biathlon.

Link to results and more photos on the Mansfield Nordic Club website.

Link to some video footage of the Mansfield Skiathlon.  (third slide)

The Mansfield Nordic Club and their robust volunteer base put on a fantastic event and its clear why so many skiers not only develop amazing ski skills in Northern Vermont, but also a love for cross country skiing.  If you haven’t visited Sleepy Hollow or done a Skiathlon — make that a priority for the 2023 winter!

Check out all the latest news in this weeks issue of KickZone ~ enjoy!

https://conta.cc/3oBcboY

• Diggins Wins Bronze on Historic Night for U.S. Cross Country
• SWIX Responsible Waxing project ~ including 4 chances to win $1k-$5k in SWIX wax ~ a drawing each week this month of February.
• Recap of an incredible weekend of NENSA Eastern Cup, US Ski & Snowboard Supertour and UVM Carnival racing in Craftsbury last weekend
• Dublin XC is looking for volunteers for the final Eastern Cup in Dublin NH 2/19-2/20
• Get ready…starting tomorrow you can purchase NENSA’s brand new custom fabric SKIDA hats & neck warmers and support NENSA too!
• Cross Country Skier (magazine) Tour de Trail ~ Join them in Lake Placid this weekend for free demos, fun and a raffle!
• Responsible Fluoro Wax Disposal at the BKL Festival
• From our Partners & In the News:
• From U.S. Ski & Snowboard ~ A must see video of Julia Kern giving a tour of the US Wax Bus and life on the road. Plus, recaps of the Olympics XC Skiathlon and Sprint races.
• From SIDAS: 5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT BODY TEMPERATURE REGULATION
• Ode to the New England Ski Community from GRP/Salomon athlete Michaela Keller-Miller