Colby Carnival

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 84^th place (21:46.6), and Silke right behind in 85^th (22:15.4). Julia rounded out our top 3 in 89^th, 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 79^th place (39:26.8), with Cody Putnam next in 84^th (42:12.6) and Simba third in 86^th (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 76^th, with a time of 34:50.2. Just under a minute behind, in 82^nd and 83^rd, 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 63^rd in 41:34.4. Isaiah was next, coming in 81^st (45:38.1) and Boquist third in 83^rd (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 14^th 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.