March Madness Update

Yes, it's been sometime since my last post. Again. However, seeing that today is the 20th Anniversary of Michael Jordan's first return to basketball, I will try to make a triumphant return with tonights post. The Bulls lost that game in OT, so hopefully this post ends up better than that.

The girls have been quite busy. Balancing school and skiing is always a battle during the season, and March is the true test. The girls have been going in many different directions and have likely spent more time on the road than in class.

After the long qualification season, all three girls qualified for a FIS Championship series. Sandra and Ashley qualified for U18 National Championships which were contested at Copper Mt., CO from February 24th through March 6th. Sandra started the series off strong finishing 10th place in the SL amongst the best U18's in the country! Both girls competed in the speed events and while their results weren't as strong as they had hoped for, they both gained some valuable experience competing at the National level. Ingrid qualified for the Eastern FIS Championships and competed in the SL and GS on March 8th and 9th. She had some impressive moments in each events and scored FIS results in both races! Despite a sizable mistake, her second run in the SL was some of the best skiing in a race environment to date!

Since her return home, Sandra has been running a crazy schedule. To give you a quick snapshot of what she will be up to (anything but school), here is it:

NorAm Finals (US Nationals DH), March 15 - 23 ~ 2DH Training, 2DH, SG, 2GS, 2SL
FIS Open Finals, March 24 - 27 ~ 2GS, 2SL
Eastern Cup Finals, March 29 - April 2 ~ 2GS, 2SG, 2SL
Sugar SL, April 4 - 5 ~ 2SL

For those of you counting, that is 21 starts in 22 days! After  some challenging weather at NorAm Speed Finals, they were only able to get one DH Training run and the US National Championship DH that Sandra finished an impressive 23rd!

While Sandra is racing on a daily basis for the remainder of the season, Ashley and Ingrid have been prepping for the Central Division FIS Championships held at Lutsen Mt. in Minnesota. They have been working the moderate pitch of Competition Hill, the top flats of SL Hill, and competed in the TGFS SL at Cochran's on the 18th. Well, Ashley was sick, but Ingrid had one of her best races of the season moving from bib 34 to finish 13th on the day. The girls depart for Minnesota on the 25th and will compete in 2GS and 2SL before flying home on the 30th to battle it out with the Eastern Region at Eastern Cup Finals on Main Street.

Although the season comes to a close in a couple of weeks, there is still a lot of racing to go. Combined, the girls still have 41 starts ahead of them. March Madness is in full swing!

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks...

Community Day at MMWA

With her frequent trips to the podium, Sandra is quite comfortable up there!

Former MMSC athlete Chris Mullin stopped by training to lend a hand.

Powder Day smiles!

SG Training

Okemo with a rare moment of greatness.

Ingrid getting nasty at Cochran's! (photo cred: RB)

Until next time...

"I found a fossil." ~ Kelsey Chenoweth

After receiving the text, "I found a fossil," from Kelsey a few weeks ago, accompanied by the following picture:

I decided it was time to resurrect the blog. While I could sit here and write a novel about what the girls have been up to since November, I will just give you a look into what has been going on this season. We have a different look team this year with only three athletes. We had four, but a semi-final soccer game claimed the ACL of Katelyn O'Toole, ending her season before it began. The team, dubbed 3's Company, is comprised of Sandra Schoepke, Ingrid Klinkenberg, newcomer Ashley Houser, and (entering his 5th winter at MMSC) Michael Nigro.

They are a special group.

The girls started the season off with an extended trip to Copper Mountain, CO. They worked hard on fundamentals for two plus weeks of skiing on perfect Colorado snow. The girls returned home to be reintroduced to school and having to sit in class for half of the day. However, the race season started soon after that, so their time in the classroom would start to be reduced as their number of starts increased. The girls have raced a challenging schedule from Canadian FIS Sports Expert Super Series, Eastern FIS Open Series, FIS Eastern Cup Series, and Eastern Intercollegiate Skiing Association FIS University Series. They have been competing against the strongest girls in the Eastern Region and have held their own. As we move into late February and March, the girls will head into their Championship season, they will be skiing against competition that more aligns with their peer group. Hopefully, the first half of the season will have prepared them to be relaxed in their competitions as they will not see stronger fields than they have at Eastern Cups and FIS University races.

Here are some picture highlights from the season thus far.

Day 1 on snow in Colorado

Team picture with Lori.

Hero snow

Sports Psychologist Dr. Jim Taylor spoke to our group in Colorado.

Ashley's first time helping set. Ever.

3's Company in Canada

Start at Val St. Come, QC Canada.

Canada. Pretty.

Above the clouds at Stowe.

3's Company and special guest/blog inspiration/Bates Superstar, Kelsey Chenoweth

Fearless Leader, Igor Vanovac, standing proud of his trail.

MMSC/MMWA Legends Alita Rogers, Sophie Leiter, and Linley Shaw at the Middlebury Carnival.

It is my hope that the resurrection of the blog will not end here. The blog is alive and well!

Hello? Is this thing on?

While I love the blog, after a strong start to the year in Vail, it seems to have gotten away from me this season!  There were so many great memories created this season and some fantastic experiences.  I am working on putting together a mass of pictures to bring the season, and the blog, to a close for the winter.  Thanks to everyone for an amazing season!

Here is a small taster of the photo's from the season...Enjoy!

Vail - Days 5 & 6

We finally moved into the lane space at Vail and the ladies were given the opportunity to try out the new skis in a GS setting.  We set two sections of apex GS and they did a great job throughout the session.  It is difficult to begin with when it is the first session in gates, or brushes, and having to turn where someone else wants you to turn.  The first few runs were definitely a learning experience but as the session went on, they all made progress.  After training, they took a team trip to the movie theatre in Vail to see the latest Hunger Games movie.

Vail lanes

Bottom of the training lanes at Vail

Add caption

Today, the girls had their scheduled day off.  Lori moved their study hall to the morning and then the ladies were able to go cruise the town of Vail for the afternoon and not have an evening study hall session.

Courtney, Michelle, and Sandra traveled to Loveland for the first of four NJR's.  Today, they raced GS after the men's NorAM on the same hill.  To say the hill was firm would be an understatement.  Much like the first day of training is challenging, the first race is always a mix of emotions from nerves to excitement.  All three of them had solid days with Michelle throwing down a fast second run finishing 17th, Sandra skiing in her first FIS race and having a solid performance moving from bib 69 to finish 22nd, and Court finishing the day in 13th with her best GS result ever, scoring a 66!  Tomorrow they will race GS at Loveland following the men's NorAM.  The rest of the girls will be training GS at Vail, building upon the apex GS from Friday.

Top of the Loveland GS

Bottom of the Loveland GS

Vail - Days 3 & 4

We have had two more successful days on snow.  The conditions are still absolutely perfect at Copper.  Yesterday, the majority of the group continued on their GS progression, working on balance and being stronger in the top of the turn.  On the new GS ski, it is vital that the athletes create edge angle in the top of the turn in order to get early pressure.  The ladies have made some great progress and many of them are finding more stability in the new, longer skis.

Today, we were greeted at Copper by quite the snow storm.  The Vail Pass closed for a couple of hours shortly after our arrival due to road conditions.  Even with the fresh snow on top, they were able to continue to be productive on their final day of free skiing before moving into lane space at Vail.  We ended up cutting our day off at noon for fear that the Vail Pass would close again, leaving us stranded in Copper.  We returned to Manor Vail around 1:00pm and the girls we given the afternoon off to do as they pleased without a structured dryland or stretch.

We have three girls who will be racing out here November 23rd through the 26th as they spent two weeks out here training late October.  They spent the last two days training SL preparing for the races.  Yesterday, they trained at Vail with three girls from Ski Club Vail and today they joined Stratton Mountain School at Copper for more SL training.  They will be representing MMSC in a NJR series at Loveland, wish them luck!

Tomorrow, we will be staying at Vail and bringing our skills to lanes.  We will start with some apex GS to continue with the progression of creating edge angle, and pressure, above the gate.  It is always challenging the first day it is dictated to you where to turn, but I suspect they will all have success throughout the morning of training.  However, it is being predicted that we will receive a possible 16 inches of snow, or more...in which case we will be powder skiing at Vail!  Don't feel too badly for us...

Copper from the highway

Top of the Vail Pass

Training lanes at Vail

Vail Trip! Day 1 & 2...it's good to be back!

The season is upon us, which means we have traveled West to seek a quality surface to start the season.  We have not been disappointed.  For the first two days, we have made the 25 minute trek from Vail to Copper to do some technical free skiing.  The snow has been unbelievable.  That might be an understatement, but I can't think of another word to describe the conditions.  On top of the perfect snow, we have had two bluebird days with temps in the mid-30's, so it has been a great start to the year.

For most of our ladies, yesterday was their first time on the new radius GS ski.  We started the day with a 6:30am warm-up jog and dynamic stretch.  The jog somehow turned into a sprint...reminiscent of our first day out here with Dougie Clark a couple of years ago!  Breakfast followed the warm-up and then we departed for Copper at 8:15am.  While it took a couple of runs to become familiar with the sport as well as the new skis, by mid-morning they were ripping around Copper as if it was February.  We spent the morning just making laps as a group, trying to get many miles in the first day while working on some technical skills to help them get their brains focused on skiing again.  In the afternoon, they were able to go free ski on their own and enjoy the perfect combination of weather and snow.  We skied from 9:15am until 2:15pm, making somewhere in the range of 14 to 16 runs.

Today, we spent the better part of the morning working on balance.  The ladies worked hard through the drills and reintroducing themselves to some important skills.  They endured a 45 minute one-ski drill run and all saw some great improvement.  After lunch, they partnered up and chased each other around the mountain.  It is great for them to follow each other so closely, trying to stay in their partners tracks and turn where they turn. After a couple of runs, they were cut loose to free ski for the final hour and 15 minutes.

Tomorrow, we will continue with a GS progression, unless we have a powder day!  It is snowing right now, so we can hope...

6:30am warm-up

Copper Mt., CO

All smiles with the weather and snow!

View of the training lanes at Copper

France Camp - Final Day!

Today was our last day on-snow and it was phenomenal!  The surface may have been the best surface we have had yet.  The girls switched gears and moved into slalom for the final day.  After a couple of freeski runs, they jumped right into gates to have some fun before returning to the USA.  They were skiing with boys who have points in the teens, 20's, 30's and 40's for the day and they were quite inspired.  As the day progressed, they all started to ski very well and were pleased with their performance after a camp primarily focused on GS fundamentals.

After skiing, we went back to Venosc to hike to a waterfall.  The hike was not very long but was demanding in spots and the end result was worth it!

Tomorrow morning we fly home and by morning, I mean we are loading the bus at 4:30am...we will see you all soon!