p class=”MsoNormal” style=”text-indent: 0.5in; “We’re having a great time up here in Presque Isle, despite being in the middle of nowhere! The drive up went smoothly regardless of the multiple bathroom stops. Coach Boobar fueled his driving with a humongous whoopee pie. It was roughly the size of his face… We’ve spent the last couple of days previewing the course and enjoying ourselves in the sun. It feels like Truckee here even though we’re on the opposite side of the country! One thing we’ve noticed about our New England coaches is their superior driving skills; they’ve definitely showed up those Mid Westerner drivers. ( Check out pictures below).o:p/o:p/pp class=”MsoNormal” style=”text-indent: 0.5in; “span/spanToday was our premiere day of racing and there was nothing but great news to report except for the temporary demise of our J1/ OJ girls van because of the hours of blasting music! The team woke up to another beautiful sunny day for the sprints. Guided by Pete Davis’s excellent announcing, the prelims went smoothly; 10 out of the 12 New England J2s qualified for the heats with the first place of the prelim going to SMS’s Heather Mooney. The J2 girls ended up with a New England podium sweep in the heats with Corey in first, Heather in second and Maddie in third. New England dominated again in the OJ/J1 category, with 8 of the older SMSer’s making it to the heats. The speedy skiing didn’t stop there, Isabel Caldwell went to take gold for the J1 girls and Gage killed it coming in with a close 3suprd. /supThe boys had a great showing as well, Skyler got second in the OJ boys even though he broke 2 poles in the A final! SMS Alum Chase Marston was third/pp class=”MsoNormal” style=”text-indent: 0.5in; “Bridger was skied into and onto by another racer in the semi’s so he was allowed in to the A final and ened up an impressive 6supth/sup for J1 boys. But the most exciting results of the day had to be the OJ boy’s sweep with 10 in the top 13! All together it was a very successful day in spite of the red faces coming in from lack of sunscreen!/pp class=”MsoNormal” style=”text-indent: 0.5in; “Special Note: Walker Bigelow(SMS) Had the performance of the day, hands down. He barely made the JO team. Goes on to qualify 28th, wins his quater!, then finished 11th overall the country!/pa onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xxDw1qNK1JA/S5ZGRpvIK9I/AAAAAAAAAkM/-i7_V286e6k/s1600-h/P3060006.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xxDw1qNK1JA/S5ZGRpvIK9I/AAAAAAAAAkM/-i7_V286e6k/s320/P3060006.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446618068426435538″ //adiv style=”text-align: center;”The hotel has a really nice meeting room for the coaches. Jordi, sms alum and Boys JO coach admires the Alaska Cup./diva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xxDw1qNK1JA/S5ZF02_aRRI/AAAAAAAAAkE/iXXRBVriJds/s1600-h/P3050001.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xxDw1qNK1JA/S5ZF02_aRRI/AAAAAAAAAkE/iXXRBVriJds/s320/P3050001.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446617573768185106″ //adiv style=”text-align: center;”A 9 hour drive some times requires some fuel./divp class=”MsoNormal” style=”text-indent: 0.5in; “br /br //pa onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xxDw1qNK1JA/S5ZDDD-nh1I/AAAAAAAAAj8/TJiUgCEGut8/s1600-h/photo.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xxDw1qNK1JA/S5ZDDD-nh1I/AAAAAAAAAj8/TJiUgCEGut8/s320/photo.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446614519237805906″ //adiv style=”text-align: center;”We love the sweet parking/divdivbr //divdivbr //divdivbr //diva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xxDw1qNK1JA/S5ZCiryTR9I/AAAAAAAAAj0/yJ2IsmV70x8/s1600-h/IMG_0162.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xxDw1qNK1JA/S5ZCiryTR9I/AAAAAAAAAj0/yJ2IsmV70x8/s320/IMG_0162.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446613962987882450″ //adiv style=”text-align: center;”Heather won the prelim and second in the finals/divdivbr //diva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xxDw1qNK1JA/S5ZCOrLsAQI/AAAAAAAAAjs/RDhZUcMpXMI/s1600-h/IMG_0165.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xxDw1qNK1JA/S5ZCOrLsAQI/AAAAAAAAAjs/RDhZUcMpXMI/s320/IMG_0165.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446613619228541186″ //adiv style=”text-align: center;”Skyler second with two Broken poles, Chase third with a hole in his leg from pole going into his quad during the semi’s/diva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xxDw1qNK1JA/S5ZB_0vnQfI/AAAAAAAAAjk/McUJHXKSTfM/s1600-h/IMG_0160.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xxDw1qNK1JA/S5ZB_0vnQfI/AAAAAAAAAjk/McUJHXKSTfM/s320/IMG_0160.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446613364097106418″ //adiv style=”text-align: center;”Izzy and Gage on the Podium/div!–StartFragment– p class=”MsoNormal” style=”text-indent:.5in”br //p !–EndFragment–div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4680416899705879324-1698147131403046329?l=smsxc.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div