March Madness!

We are now about 2 weeks into March Madness and well into the “Championship Season.”  Each of our athletes qualified for a championship series based on their season results to date.  The first series was the USSA J1/2 Eastern Finals at Okemo, March 4 – 6^th.  The girls competed in SL, GS, and a few stayed to strap on the long boards and race SG!  Congrats to Sarah Reilly as she captured the 2012 USSA J1/2 Eastern Finals SL Championship.  She also placed 3^nd in the GS right behind Sophie Leiter who finished 2^nd!

SL, March 4^th

Sarah Reilly – 1^st

Sophie Leiter – 5^th

Neza Stefanic – 12^th

Molly Danzig – 17^th

Caroline Armbruster – 38^th

Sam Dyar – 54^th

Colleen Cataldo – 64^th

SL Champ Sarah Reilly!

GS, March 5^th

Sophie Leiter – 2^nd

Sarah Reilly – 3^rd

Neza Stefanic – 15^th

Molly Danzig – 37^th

Caroline Armbruster – 54^th

Lucy Merriam – 57^th

Colleen Cataldo – 62^nd

GS J2 Podium

GS Overall Podium

Awkward Podium Hug...

SG, March 6^th

Sophie Leiter – 20^th

Neza Stefanic – 29^th

Sam Dyar – 40^th

Molly Danzig – 42^nd

Colleen Cataldo – 45^th

Caroline Armbruster – 51^st

On March 3^rd, Kelsey, Emma, and Linley flew out to Mammoth Mt., CA for J2 Nationals.  While we will get a full report from the girls on their experience out West, I have some exciting results to report!  As I said, it is amazing for our program to have 3 girls ranked in the top 20 for Eastern J2’s and have them qualify for J2 Nationals.  Getting there is much more than half the battle and once you are there, it is all about letting it rip and seeing what you can do against girls from all over the USA.  Kelsey Chenoweth had an amazing series to say the least… she was 2^nd in the SL, 4^th in the DH, 11^th in the GS (4^th second run), and when the event was all said and done, she was crowned the Overall J2 National Champion!

SL, March 7^th

Kelsey Chenoweth – 2^nd

Emma Sahn – 22^nd

Linley Shaw – 37^th

SL Podium

DH, March 8^th

Kelsey Chenoweth – 4^th

DH Podium

SG, March 9^th

Emma Sahn – 46^th

GS, March 10^th

Kelsey Chenoweth – 11^th

Emma Sahn – 45^th

J2 Overall National Champion

We also had a group of girls qualify for the Eastern NJR FIS Finals at Whiteface, March 11^th – 13^th.  We again saw some solid results as girls are continuing to improve upon the FIS point profile and rankings in the East.

SL – March 11^th

Courtney Hayden – 13^th

Denali Balser – 15^th

Hayley Armbruster – 19^th

Sloane Ross – 22^nd

Kelsey Higgins – 45^th

GS, March 13^th

 Courtney Hayden - 13th

Denali Balser - 17th (DSQ2)

Sloane Ross - 18th

Hayley Armbruster - 32nd

Waiting for the ferry

Over the weekend of March 10^th and 11^th, we had a group of girls take a road trip to NH to race a GS and SL at Gunstock Mountain in Gilford, NH.  MMSC was once again all over the podium, including a podium sweep of the SL for J2’s (if they had given J2 awards…)  All reports from the weekend were great and it was a nice opportunity for the girls to get out of VT for a weekend of racing against new competition on a new hill.

GS, March 10^th

Sophie Leiter – 8^th (3^rd for J2’s)

Sarah Reilly – 10^th

Caroline Armbruster – 21^st

Molly Danzig – 25^th

Neza Stefanic – 28^th

SL March 11^th

Neza Stefanic – 4^th (1^st for J2’s)

Sophie Leiter – 5^th (2^nd for J2’s)

Sarah Reilly – 6^th (3^rd for J2’s)

Caroline Armbruster – 12^th

Sam Dyar – 17^th

We are in the final push of the season with the last handful of USSA races, Eastern Cup Finals, and the Sugar SL on the horizon.  We just need Mother Nature to cooperate and give us some colder temps as we are not quite ready for winter to end…

Below are a couple of pictures from the Cranmore Open FIS SL...we didn't have a viable tuning set-up to scrape at the hotel so the girls improvised.  Thankfully it was a beautiful day!

The week of the Podium!

First, I realized that I forgot to update the status of Emma and Linley as far as J2 Nationals qualification.  They are in!!  We will be sending 3 girls to compete at Mammoth.  They leave on Saturday for 10 days of training and racing with the best J2's in the USA!

We had a solid week of training and racing.  Some athletes competed in 3 races in 4 days, starting at Suicide 6 on Thursday, Pico on Saturday, and Killington on Sunday (Sugarbush attempted to host a GS Sunday but canceled due to too much snow).  We had some great results throughout the team and managed to collect some serious hardware as well!

VC SL at Suicide 6, 2/23

We had some great skiing at Suicide 6 for a midweek VC SL.  We had 7 girls finish in the top 15 and all of our girls finished in the top 24!  We had Hayley on the Overall Podium and Sophie on the J2 Podium and after a mistake first run, Court came down and won the second run!

Hayley Armbruster - 3rd

Lucy Merriam - 4th

Sophie Leiter - 6th (3rd for J2's)

Courtney Hayden - 7th (won 2nd run!)

Sarah Reilly - 8th

Kelsey Higgins - 10th

Issy James - 14th

Colleen Cataldo - 19th

Caroline Armbruster - 24th

Sophie on the J2 Podium

Hayley on the Overall Podium

VC SL at Pico, 2/25

The Pico VC SL was another great day for the MMSC girls.  We are starting to see some consistent, quality skiing in the races as we roll into March.  Kelsey took home the victory by well over a second and Denali finished in 3rd overall.  Emma made it onto the J2 Podium in 3rd and we had a large group of girls finish in the top 30!

Kelsey Chenoweth - 1st

Denali Balser - 3rd

Emma Sahn - 5th (3rd for J2's)

Lucy Merriam - 12th

Linley Shaw - 13th

Kelsey Higgins - 16th

Sophie Leiter - 17th

Issy James - 25th

Molly Danzig - 27th

Neza Stefanic - 29th

Sarah Reilly - 31st

Bess Teague - 36th

Caroline Armbruster - 40th

Sam Dyar - 49th

Jamie Johnson - 63rd

Emma and Kelsey on the J2 Podium

Denali and Kelsey on the Overall Podium

Denali's new look...

FIS Open SL at Killington, 2/26

We had some great 1st runs by most of the girls and some issues second run.  However, we also had some great results by a good portion of our girls as well.  Kelsey tied for the victory, her first FIS win!  Emma was again on the J2 Podium, and Lucy Merriam started 58th and finished 14th after a 6th place 2nd run!

Kelsey Chenoweth - Tied for 1st

Emma Sahn - 7th (2nd for J2's)

Lucy Merriam - 14th

Sloane Ross - 16th

Sarah Reilly - 27th

Issy James - 30th

Molly Danzig - 47th

Neza Stefanic - 49th

Kelsey and Emma on the J2 Podium

Kelsey on the Overall Podium

On Monday, the coaches headed up to Main St. to do some repair work on the fence after the 30+ inches of snow over the weekend.  The trail looked amazing and you would not believe how wide it is from Crosscut 2 to Crosscut 3.  In the picture below, you will see a few bamboo in the snow...that is where the fence line usually is before Crosscut 3...look at how faraway the fence is!

Dougie feeling good after a solid day of fencing!

Today, the girls were able to let loose and ski powder all morning which was perhaps the best mental training we could ask for.  There is nothing better than being able to head out on the mountain after a fresh 6+ inches and have fun!  The coaches we fixing the fence in between powder runs, but we definitely go our turns in today!

We are hosting 2 Women's Eastern Cup GS races this week...or at least we are hoping to host them.  The forecast is calling for another 12 inches of snow Wednesday night into Thursday.  Some are expecting another 2 feet at the mountain!

Not giving up on once a week...

As you may have noticed, my once a week blogging goal has not been attained...yet.  I plan to start fresh today, and get back to once a week!  We have been quite busy as you all know with training and racing.  We have had athletes racing all over the state at different level races and we have had some great results across the board!  We have had a number of our athletes improving their point profile which shows the hard work they have been putting in.  I apologize if I missed anyone in the reporting of results, there were a lot of names to comb through!

VC SL at Suicide 6, January 28th

Sloane Ross - 6th

Hayley Armbruster - 7th

Kelsey Higgins - 9th

Denali Balser - 11th

Neza Stefanic - 21st

Molly Danzig - 30th

VC GS at Killington, January 29th

Sloane Ross - 4th

Linley Shaw - 8th

Hayley Armbruster - 11th

Sarah Reilly - 23rd

Neza Stefanic - 31st

Molly Danzig - 35th

Sophie Leiter - 44th

EC SL at Cranmore, January 29th

Kelsey Higgins - 38th

Issy James - 39th

VC SL at Bromley, February 4th

Lucy Merriam - 9th

Neza Stefanic - 18th

Molly Danzig - 19th

Sophie Leiter - 21st

Sarah Reilly - 24th

Colleen Cataldo - 37th

Jamie Johnson - 38th

VC SL at Pico, February 5th

Lucy Merriam - 4th

Neza Stefanic - 7th

Molly Danzig - 9th

Sarah Reilly - 19th

Jamie Johnson - 36th

Colleen Cataldo - 40th

EC SL at Middlebury, February 5th

Hayley Armbruster - 48th

Sloane Ross - 50th

Kelsey Higgins - 58th

Issy James - 61st

Denali Balser 69th

NJR GS at Sunapee, February 9th

Kelsey Chenoweth - 24th

Sloane Ross - 52nd

Emma Sahn - 59th

Hayley Armbruster - 62nd

Denali Balser - 63rd

Kelsey Higgins - 70th

Issy James - 79th

Bess Teague - 84th

NJR GS at Sunapee, February 10th

Kelsey Chenoweth - 33rd

Sloane Ross - 36th

Courtney Hayden - 48th

Linley Shaw - 49th

Denali Balser - 51st

Emma Sahn - 61st

Hayley Armbruster - 66th

Kelsey Higgins - 71st

Issy James - 76th

Bess Teague - 77th

VT State Championship SL at Okemo, Feburary 11th

Sarah Reilly - 11th

Lucy Merriam - 13th

Hayley Armbruster - 14th

Neza Stefanic - 17th

Molly Danzig - 19th

Sam Dyar - 37th

After dinner, we were able to catch a pretty sweet fireworks show!

VT State Championship GS at Okemo, February 12th

I must preface these results by letting you know that February 12th was "The day MMWA became ill!"  We were prepared to race the State Championship GS and but managed to lose a majority of our girls (along with Dougie and Michael) to the nasty stomach bug!  Those that managed to stay healthy and raced...

Sarah Reilly - 9th

Molly Danzig - 24th

Sam Dyar - 31st

NJR SL at Proctor, February 16th

Kelsey Chenoweth - 5th (3rd for J2's)

Denali Balser - 16th

Emma Sahn - 17th

Linley Shaw - 28th

Courtney Hayden - 32nd

Hayley Armbruster - 39th

Kelsey Higgins - 65th

Sophie Leiter - 69th

Issy James - 70th

Bess Teague - 83rd

Lucy Merriam - 87th

Neza Stefanic - 92nd

Sarah Reilly - 93rd

Molly Danzig - 107th

J2 Podium

NJR SL at Proctor, February 17th

Kelsey Chenoweth - 4th (3rd for J2's)

Emma Sahn - 25th

Linley Shaw - 33rd

Hayley Armbruster - 36th

Kelsey Higgins - 59th

Bess Teague - 76th

Sophie Leiter - 77th

Sarah Reilly - 81st

Molly Danzig - 88th

J2 Podium

After the second day at Proctor, they announced the Eastern Team to J2 Nationals at Mammoth in March.  To select the team, they scored each NJR race for J2's using World Cup Points.  They then use the athletes best 3 results from the series; 1SG, 1DH, 2GS, 2SL.  From that list, they select the top 15 girls to represent the East.  Kelsey Chenoweth was the 3rd ranked athlete on the list which means she will be headed to J2 Nationals!  Emma Sahn (1st alternate) and Linley Shaw (4th alternate) still have a shot of getting in to the event and we should know very soon.  To have 3 girls (4 with Alita) be ranked in the top 20 J2's in the East is incredible, great job girls!

J2 Eastern Team with alternates to J2 Nationals

As I mentioned before, we have had athletes improving their point profiles throughout the last month and a half but I must mention our biggest point improvement in one list thus far...Molly Danzig has dropped her SL points by over 43 points in the last month, bravo Molly!

We are less than two weeks away from the crazy month of March and it is shaping up to be a great one!

Once a week...so far, so good!

At the end of last week, Alita and Kelsey traveled to Okemo for a pair for FIS SG's.  They had some solid results over the two days including a 13th place overall finish for Alita in the first SG and a 6th place overall finish for Kelsey in the second SG, 3rd for J2 athletes!  Unfortunately, Alita fell during the warm-up portion of the second SG and sustained a season ending knee injury.  She tore her ACL, her meniscus, and has a fracture of her patella.  Injuries are a huge bummer but are part of the sport.  She is handling the injury with a great deal of maturity and is already looking forward to getting on snow this summer.  Give her a pat of the back and hope for a speedy recovery!

SG1

Alita Rogers - 13th

Kelsey Chenoweth - 22nd

SG2

Kelsey Chenoweth - 6th (3rd for J2's)

Saturday evening, we went to Sloane's house for another wood fired pizza party.  Sloane's father, Bob, is quite the pizza artist as he continually came out with exotic pizza's!  I must say my favorite was the cheddar and apple pizza, what a great combo!  Thanks so much to the Ross' for hosting us and to everyone that provided appetizers and desserts!

On Sunday, we had a Vermont Cup GS at Stowe.  It is always nice to race at home, stay in your own bed, and be familiar with your surroundings.  Also, I am not sure if you noticed, but MMSC puts on a great race!  It was a beautiful day full of sunshine and no wind.  It was a strong field with the entire Middlebury College Ski Team racing.  Congrats to everyone on a great day!  The sunrise in the morning when we went up to set the course was amazing...yes, we get on the lift that early!

Stowe VC GS

Kelsey Chenoweth - 2nd (1st for J2's)

Denali Balser - 12th

Kelsey Higgins(MMSC PG for the month) - 16th

Emma Sahn - 17th

Linley Shaw - 18th

Hayley Armbruster - 22nd

Sarah Reilly - 23rd

Sophie Leiter - 32nd

Issy James - 34th

Molly Danzig - 38th

Neza Stefanic - 41st

Sam Dyar - 42nd

Caroline Armbruster - 44th

Colleen Cataldo - 46th

Kelsey atop the J2 podium

Kelsey 2nd place overall

Somehow, we haven't quite endured enough terrible weather so it poured all night making training today not possible.  The girls were in the gym from 8:30 to 10:30 and then we had some mental training with Dr. Topher Harlow.  Well, maybe not from Dr. Harlow but he did utilize some information from Dr. Jim Taylor.  We have decided to start incorporating some mental skills into our weekly training.  Today's topic: Overcoming Frustration.  Ski Racing Magazine has Dr. Taylor, former ski racer, write for them in a segment titled, "Inside the Ski Racing Mind."  We watched his video about overcoming frustration and discussed at different times throughout the video.  It is our hope to continue with weekly sessions trying to help the athletes prepare mentally for both training and racing.

If you are interested in seeing some of Dr. Taylor's "Inside the Ski Racing Mind" articles, you can find them at the link below...

Inside the Ski Racing Mind Archive

We will have a busy weekend with athletes racing a VC SL at Suicide 6 on Saturday, a VC GS at Killington and/or and Eastern Cup SL at Cranmore on Sunday!  Til next time...

Has it really been 2 weeks?

I know, I know, it has been far too long.  Well, I guess I am just a bit busy this time of year and although I set the lofty goal of a daily blog, I will now revisit that goal and adjust...  I will now try to do a once a week blog update.  Seems a little more reasonable.  We have so much to catch up on I am not sure where to start.  We have had some great training days, some difficult weather, a few races sprinkled in and lots to report.

First, we had a fantastic pasta social at the Danzig's!  We enjoyed tasty pasta, delicious desserts, Roy the Dog, and some very entertaining charades!  Thank you to Molly and her family for hosting us!

We had a weekend of SL's at Smuggs that seemed to be marred by the sickness that swept through the academy as well as some difficult conditions and some trouble finding the finish.  Of those that did finish...

Day 1 at Smuggs

Kelsey Chenoweth - 4th (2nd for J2's)

Emma Sahn - 6th (3rd for J2's)

Denali Balser - 7th

Neza Stefanic - 32nd

Sarah Reilly - 34th

Kelsey and Emma on the J2 Podium

Day 2 at Smuggs

Sophie Leiter - 7th

Emma Sahn - 13th (Won 2nd Run)

Molly Danzig - 21st

We then had a group of athletes head to Stratton to compete in the next set of Eastern Cup races with 2GS's and 2SL's.  The conditions were ideal for attacking from the back however, you needed to have your skates sharpened...yes it was basically a skating rink for the two GS races.  It was an impressive field with the majority of colleges tuning up with one last series before they began their college carnival season.

GS1

Kelsey Chenoweth - 59th

Alita Rogers - 79th

Linley Shaw - 108th

GS2

Alita Rogers - 54th

Kelsey Chenoweth - 58th

Denali Balser - 73rd

Linley Shaw - 95th

Hayley Armbruster - 99th

Issy James - 105th

The SL races offered a nearly equal opportunity to move up in the field with similar conditions...under the 8inches of fresh snow they received!  The athletes worked hard to help prepare the hill and the SMS crew did a great job to pull of both days with some challenging weather.  Both Alita Rogers and Emma Sahn scored career results with Alita scoring a 45 and 44 point race and Emma scoring a 76 point race!

SL1

Alita Rogers - 13th (3rd for J2's)

Emma Sahn - 38th

Denali Balser - 54th

Courtney Hayden - 59th

Issy James - 91st

Alita, 3rd place J2's

SL2

Alita Rogers - 12th

Emma Sahn - 49th

Linley Shaw - 75th

Alita, 1st place J2's

We then headed to Sugarbush for the MLK Day Race and had some great results!  After an hour delay to start the race, the athletes rallied to the finish.

MLK Day GS

Sloane Ross - 7th

Courtney Hayden - 9th

Emma Sahn - 16th

Linley Shaw - 18th

Sarah Reilly - 23rd

Sophie Leiter - 25th

Neza Stefanic - 35th

Molly Danzig - 42nd

Denali Balser - 44th

Caroline Armbruster - 50th

Sam Dyar - 51st

Colleen Cataldo - 61st

Over the last couple of days we have taken our GS skiing back to basics to try and reinvent the turn.  We seemed to be getting away from the fundamentals we started with and needed to revisit some basic, key elements to having some success in GS.  I must say, we had a phenomenal day training today!  Each athlete made progress in their GS skiing today and we are fired up to continue with GS for the next couple of days leading up to the VC GS at Stowe on Sunday!  Below are some random pictures from the last few days.

I can't remember if I have posted this picture or not but...Sunny Stowe?

SG Training on Main St.

SG Training on Main St.

SG Training on Main St.

SG Training on Main St.

GS Training 1/19

Just a bit cold for 8am...

Cochran's Night SL, GS, and back to school!

On December 30th, we took the team to Cochran's for the 1st Annual Cochran's Holiday Night SL.  For many, it was their first opportunity to put the last month of hard work both in the gym and on the slopes to the test.  It is never easy getting in the start gate for the first time of the season and all athletes handle it differently.  Some can channel their nerves into aggression, while others get a little tentative with the idea of racing for the first time.  It was a cold evening that only got colder as the night progressed, thus, I do not have many pictures... sorry!  All in all, we had some great results and solid skiing.  The coaches were all proud to see how well the team is skiing and are excited to think about the direction we are headed.  It was nice to have Igor at the race to see all of the girls compete.  He could not have been more thrilled with how they skied and was really proud to have them representing the club.  Excellent job everyone, keep working hard!

Alita Rogers - 3rd (1st for J2's)

Kelsey Chenoweth - 4th (2nd for J2's)

Denali Balser - 5th

Emma Sahn - 6th (3rd for J2's)

Courtney Hayden - 7th

Linley Shaw - 8th

Hayley Armbruster - T13th

Sloane Ross - T15th

Sophie Leiter - 22nd

Lucy Merriam - 25th

Sarah Reilly - 41st

Neza Stefanic - T47th

Caroline Armbruster - T47th

Molly Danzig - 53rd

Colleen Cataldo - 55th

Jamie Johnson - 74th

J2 Podium

Winter break has come to a close.  On the final day of break, we finally had some quality GS training.  We are fortunate the mountain has allowed us to take over Perry Merrill Monday-Friday of this week.  While we would much rather be ripping on our trail, Main St., Perry Merrill is in reality a better venue to hone our GS skills.  The moderate terrain allows the athletes to get up to speed but not have to battle the aggressiveness of Main St.  On New Year's Day, the coaching staff along with the help of some UVM athletes and coaches went up and lined the trail with 60 rolls of fence.  With the cold temps this week, we will finally have the opportunity to focus on GS and try to figure some things out!

First big fencing day of the year!

The finished product

Day1 of Perry Merrill GS

For those of you that could see the mountain this morning, you will agree that the sunrise on the mountain was incredible!  For those of you who didnt see it, check out the picture below taken by Emma's dad...