This past weekend, the team traveled to the Quarry Road
Recreation Area for the first Winter Carnival of the season, hosted by Colby
College. It was a long drive, nearly 6.5 hours by the time we arrived at the
venue Thursday night. We arrived to a shortened course and tough conditions,
with the area having been plagued by rain and mild temperatures the week
before.
On Friday, the women started off the season with a 5km
Classic race, two loops of the roughly 2.5km loop which still managed to
include some of the tougher sections of the original course. The first race had
some adverse conditions, with the hills being turned into a challenging mix of
sugary-slush. The results weren’t all that great in the end, with Chloe leading
the team in 84th place (21:46.6), and Silke right behind in 85th
(22:15.4). Julia rounded out our top 3 in 89th, coming in with a
time of 22:56.3.
A few hours later, the men’s race was a different story.
After the women’s race, the course was very different than the wax testing
area, and any kick we thought we would get while going uphill during our 10km
just wasn’t there. For many of us, it ended up being a 10km double pole. Add to
that the increasing temperatures during the race, and you end up with bad
times. Torin led the men in 79th place (39:26.8), with Cody Putnam
next in 84th (42:12.6) and Simba third in 86th (43:31.3).
Over the day, Chloe and Torin were our only two scorers, with one point apiece.
After Friday’s race, we knew that Saturday had to be a
different story. It was a 10/15km skate (so no wax to miss!), which meant 4-6
laps on course. Overnight, though, it had cooled off and left a nice base layer
of ice under the granular that was left from Friday. This made for some
interesting cornering and downhills.
In the women’s 10km, Silke led the group in 76th,
with a time of 34:50.2. Just under a minute behind, in 82nd and 83rd,
Julia narrowly edged out Chloe for the second spot (and carnival points), with
times of 35:45.2 and 39:49.5 respectively.
For the men, the course had been turned into even more of a
sugar/ice track, with over 400 laps already having been skied into the course. There were ruts, piles of snow, and tracks
still left from the classic race. Torin led for the second day, coming in 63rd
in 41:34.4. Isaiah was next, coming in 81st (45:38.1) and Boquist
third in 83rd (46:42.5). As a team, we tripled our point total, with
Silke and Julia each scoring points (2,1), and Torin scored 3 points for the
men.
Overall, both teams ended up in last for the weekend, with
alpine’s points bringing SMC up to 14th out of 16.
We are back in action this Friday at Jackson Ski Touring in
Jackson, NH for the UNH Carnival, starting off with the men in a 10km
Classic.
