Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Championship Series!

Things were pretty crazy for the past week and a half with championship series going on for our athletes.  U18 Nationals continued at Mammoth, Eastern Junior FIS Finals were at Stowe, and U16 Eastern Championships were at Sugarloaf.  We had some fantastic results at each championship as the girls represented MMSC/MMWA very well!

At the U18 Nationals, Kelsey and Alita wrapped up their series racing in the GS, DH, and SG.  All reports from the GS were that it was on a painfully flat hill with extremely soft conditions.  Kelsey and Alita had some issues with their day with Kelsey finishing 26th and Alita DNF'd second run.  In the DH, Kelsey missed out on the Gold by just 3 tenths of a second but earning the Silver Medal.  Alita, who admits DH is not her thing, toughed out the nerves and finished 37th.  In the final event of the championships, the SG, Kelsey had a very respectable 11th place finish, moving up from a start number of 20.  Congrats on a great series!
Kelsey on the DH Podium
At the Eastern Junior FIS Finals, we had some very exciting results and one very exciting crash.  On day 1, Elly came ripping into the Horsebarn Pitch jump and ended up crashing through 2 layers of B-Net and ended up under the Sensation lift!  All things considered, she was ok!  She ended up with a pretty good concussion, a ride to Fletcher Allen, and a chipped tooth or two.  Quite possibly the most difficult part of her crash was the fact that she had to spend the afternoon with me!  We are very thankful that she is ok and she returned to snow today!  Sophie Leiter was not phased and raced the SG the next day, moving from start number 40 to finished 17th!  The rest of the girls competed in the GS and SL over the weekend...

Eastern Junior FIS Finals at Stowe, March 9th

Courtney Hayden - 6th
Denali Balser - 11th
Emma Sahn - 27th
Sophie Leiter - 41st
Linley Shaw - 44th
Caroline Armbruster - 47th






For the SL, we saw some challenging sets and a couple of our girls stepped up in a big way!  Check out the bib number for our girls and the places they finished.  That is some serious moving up!

Eastern Junior FIS Finals at Stowe, March 10th

Linley Shaw bib 35- 3rd, 2nd for U18's and she WON the second run!
Lucy Merriam bib 45 - 8th
Neza Stefanic bib 66 - 12th

Linley on the SL Overall Podium

Sandra competed at the U16 Eastern Championships and had a very successful series.  She placed in the top 10 in all events.  Her results were as follows: SG1 - 4th, SG2 - 10th, GS - 5th,  SL - 3rd.  Due to her outstanding results, she was one of 10 Eastern U16's to qualify for the U16 National Project in Park City, taking place in early April.  Way to represent, Sandra!


Vermont Cup Finals took place this past weekend and a group of girls went to Killington to compete in the SL Finals...

VT Cup Finals SL at Killington, March 17th

Kelsey Chenoweth - 1st
Lucy Merriam - 14th
Neza Stefanic - 18th
Sarah Reilly - 19th
Ingrid Klinkenberg - 30th
Molly Danzig - 33rd
Sarah Rowse - 40th

Kelsey wins...again.

We are entering the final push with only a handful of races to go.  Kelsey left for Squaw Valley, CA today to compete in US Nationals.  She will race in the SG, GS, and SL, good luck Kelsey!  Alita, Emma, Court and Denali will be racing Thursday/Friday in the Eastern Cup Finals GS's at Sugarbush.  Alita will continue on to race in the Eastern Cup Finals SL's at Waterville over the weekend.  The rest of the U18/U21 girls will be heading to Whiteface this weekend for two FIS Devo SL's.  Sandra will headed to Sugarloaf for the U16 AM/CAN over the weekend.  Good luck to all!

I leave you with one final picture from training on Monday.  We had a bluebird day, no wind, and a spectacular surface...




Friday, March 8, 2013

Denali Balser is the World's Best Skier!


Yes, it is true!  As many of you probably saw on Sports Center, Denali Balser is the 2013 World's Best Skier!  She had an amazing come from behind victory after finishing 3rd on on the 1st run.  Emma Sahn was poised to take the title but had an unfortunate DNF 2nd run.
World's Best Skier at Bromley, March 2nd

Denali Balser - 1st
Lucy Merriam - 4th
Elly Bengtsson - 7th
Sophie Leiter - 8th
Neza Stefanic - 17th
Molly Danzig - 19th
Sarah Rowse - 22nd
Caroline Armbruster - 24th
Linley Shaw - 27th

World's Best Skier
While Denail was being crowned World's Best Skier, Sandra was at Sugarbush racing in the final weekend of U16 VT State Championships.  She finished 3rd in both GS races over the weekend and ended up finished 2nd in the Overall State Championships with scoring taking place over the course of 2 SL's and 2 GS's.  She is off to Sugarloaf for the U16 Eastern Championships, racing SG/GS/SL from March 7th - 11th.

State Championship GS podium

VT State Championship Overall Podium
This week has consisted of more drills and free skiing.  The coaching staff has been trying to prep the trail for the upcoming Eastern Junior Finals as well as making sure we have a quality surface for the remainder of the season.  They were on the hill until 2am both Sunday and Monday nights watering the hill with snow making hoses.  It is not nearly as glorious as it sounds, trust me.  On Monday, we watered from about 5pm until 2am!  Needless to say, it has been a long week but now we get to showcase our athletes and program as we host the Easter Junior Finals starting March 7th and running through March 11th.




Alita and Kelsey are currently at Mammoth competing in the U18 National Championships.  After a major schedule change due to weather, they raced SL on March 5th.  Alita had a solid performance finishing 6th in a very competitive field.  All reports are that Kelsey was having a ripping 2nd run before taking a tumble a couple of gates from the finish.
Nice jackets, goooooo Bumble Bees!
The girls are involved in a championship series of some sort for the next 5+ days so please send them your good vibes!

Friday, March 1, 2013

Rabbit, Rabbit...

It is hard to believe that we are finishing up February and entering the final full month of the season.  With March comes "March Madness."  Not just the NCAA Basketball Championships, but the madness that is ski racing in March.  Athletes will be traveling all over New England with hopes of finishing the season with some solid results.  Over the course of the last week and a half, we have been continuing with a couple of different progressions.  In SL, we pushed the girls hard in short section training courses.  Each course was unique in vertical distance, rhythm  length, and terrain.  In most of the sections, the girls were to go as hard as they could to continue getting comfortable going fast and many of them made great changes in their skiing over the 4 day block.  In GS, we have continued to push the technical free skiing with drills and training on moderate terrain.  We were also able to get in two very productive days of SG training before the snow came in mid-day Wednesday.

The girls headed to Proctor Academy to race two FIS Open SL's on February 21st (night race) and 22nd.  Many of the girls had some of their fastest FIS moments, posting great individual runs!  Some saw success over the 4 individual runs and the overall.  The coaching staff was very pleased with the way the girls performed in a high level racing environment.

FIS Open Night SL at Proctor, February 21st

Kelsey Chenoweth - 1st
Alita Rogers - 3rd, 2nd for U18's
Elly Bengtsson - 21st
Emma Sahn - 25th
Denali Balser - 28th
Linley Shaw - 29th
Sophie Leiter - 45th
Sarah Rowse - 54th

Overall Podium - Kelsey 1st, Alita 2nd

FIS Open SL at Proctor, February 22nd

Alita Rogers - 1st
Emma Sahn - 14th
Linley Shaw - 17th (5th second run!)
Elly Bengtsson - 30th
Sophie Leiter - 32nd
Caroline Armbruster - 41st
Molly Danzig - 43rd
Denali Balser - 46th
Sarah Rowse - 47th

Overall Podium - Alita 1st
Sandra Schoepke traveled to Killington for the first weekend of U16 State Championships, competing in 2SL's.  They raced the girls on the challenging trail, Highline.  With soft conditions, it made for two difficult days of racing.  Sandra skied well on day 1 but had some issues and had to hike.  On the 2nd day, she executed her plan well and finished 2nd overall.  She races this weekend at Sugarbush in the final weekend of U16 State Championships with 2GS's.

For dryland Thursday, we were invited to go sledding on Inspiration and off the side of it.  There is quite the natural jump and we all got in a nice core workout from all of the laughing!  We finished off the night with two races down Inspiration.  In race one, it was a "sled"away victory for Kelsey, followed by Denali and Lucy in 2nd, and Sarah rounding out the podium in 3rd.  In race two, Sarah teamed up with Neza for the victory, and we had a tie for 2nd between Kelsey and the team of Harrison, Katharine, and Topher (YES!)  The prize giving ceremony has not yet taken place so photos are not available.

This weekend, majority of the girls will be headed to Bromley for a VARA Open SL to see if they can be crowned the 2013 "World's Best Skier."

Kelsey and Alita will be headed to Mammoth on Sunday for the 2013 U18 National Championships where they will compete in DH, SG, GS, SL, and Parallel SL from March 4th through the 12th.  GOOD LUCK GIRLS!

Below are some pictures from free skiing this week...




Court deep in thought...contemplating her next run.