Canadian Nationals Day 4

Another beautiful, sunny day in Mont Sainte Anne! We had a great day on the race course with some awesome performances from our team in really hot weather and tough, super soft snow conditions. It’s tough for everyone of course, but those who tend to race best are the ones who can capitalize on the tough conditions and find a way to ski smartly and stay positive. Racer of the day goes to Kate Kerin for putting together a really smart, well paced race to finish 21st overall in the junior girls race! Kate put her head down and really raced the 10k – pacing it well, yet skiing aggressively. One of Kate’s goals going into the race was to start off somewhat conservatively, given the heat, and focus on her technique, then pick up the pace. She did a great job with executing her race plan – and that got her to a great result. Given that Kate had pneumonia earlier this winter and missed several Eastern Cup races becomes of her illness, it’s awesome to see her bounce back from that and ski well in March. Nice job Kate on a great race!

Kate on her first lap of her 10k.

Corky deserves a big high five as he was our only guy to race in the 15k today. He skied very well and ended up 107th in a field that included Alex Harvey, Devon Kershaw and other top Canadians fresh off the World Cup.

Katharine was once again the skier to beat in the juvenile girls race (J2s). She wore the leader bib, started dead last and laid down the fastest time by 15 seconds to win the race. Nice going!

Pippin heads out of the start and onto the race course. Pip was a little wobbly at the finish from giving it everything she had, but after a few cups of water and some Gatorade, she was bouncing around and smiling like her typical self. : )

Katharine heads through the stadium on her lap.

Mac (above) and Calvin (below) skied a 7.5k race today for the junior boys (J1) race. Calvin took 27th and Mac was 73rd. As you can see from Mac’s picture, it was definitely “bib weather”. : )

Calvin just found out that he’s been accepted to St. Lawrence! Congratulations to him!

Mollie was our last racer today – she did her 10k at 2:30pm after roughly 500 people had already skied the course and temps were climbing into the 60s. Good thing Mollie is tough as nails. : ) She finished 66th overall in the open women’s race and the 19th junior overall! Very impressive.

Sunny day at Mont Sainte Anne! Not a cloud in the sky.

Pretty nice way to spend a day – racing and cheering on your teammates. (From left: Corky, Katharine, Mac, Calvin).

There were lots of American racers out on course today. Tim Reynolds from the Craftsbury Green Team.

Mike Sinnott from Sun Valley.

Patty J from Middlebury.

Dylan McGuffin from Craftsbury Green Team.

Lief Zimmerman from BSF.

Bryan Cook from the Craftsbury Green Team.

Dartmouth alum Nils Koons.

Justin Freeman.

Simi Hamilton (USST/Sun Valley).

Sverre cheering Corky through the stadium.

Dartmouth/GMVS alum David Sinclair had a heck of a race today – 12th overall, 1st junior.

Fritz Horst (UVM/SMS alum) catches a ride with Devon Kershaw!

SMS alum Pat O’Brien from the Craftsbury Green Team.

Mollie’s cheering section: Sverre, Kate, Mac, Calvin, & Corky.

Izzy Caldwell (Dartmouth/SMS alum)

Megan Kiligrew (Dartmouth/SMS alum)

UVM (above) and Craftsbury (below) ladies work together coming through the lap lane.

There were some pretty fast Canadians racing today. The World Cup squad landed in Quebec City at 10:30 last night and then showed up this morning to race. It was very cool to see them ski and to see how proud the Canadians are of their National Team skiers.