It's been a busy week...

At the end of my previous entry, the girls were headed to Okemo for 3 FIS Devo races - 1 GS and 2 SL's.  For some of the girls, it was their first chance to break into the higher level FIS races.  For the U18 athletes, it was their first set of qualifiers for U18 Nationals with the SL's counting as qualifiers.  The first race was the GS followed by the 2 SL's.

FIS Devo GS, January 16th

Courtney Hayden - 30th

Elly Bengtsson - 44th

Sophie Leiter - 46th

Alita Rogers - 52nd

Emma Sahn - 56th

Linley Shaw - 58th

Sarah Reilly - 78th

Caroline Armbruster - 80th

Neza Stefanic - 87th

Sarah Rowse - 90th

Molly Danzig - 97th

Lucy Merriam - 99th

FIS Devo U18 Nationals Qualifier SL, January 17th

Kelsey Chenoweth - 5th

Alita Rogers - 13th

Denali Balser - 34th

Courtney Hayden - 36th

Linley Shaw - 39th

Elly Bengtsson - 43rd

Sophie Leiter - 46th

Molly Danzig - 89th

Sarah Rowse - 90th

Caroline Armbruster - 95th

Sarah Reilly - 99th

FIS Devo U18 Nationals Qualifier SL, January 18th

Kelsey Chenoweth - 1st

Alita Rogers - 7th

Denali Balser - 21st

Emma Sahn - 26th

Lucy Merriam - 39th

Elly Bengtsson - 42nd

Caroline Armbruster - 54th

Sarah Reilly 56th

Sarah Rowse - 65th

Sophie Leiter - 72nd

Molly Danzig - 74th

Kelsey's FIS Devo Victory

Our U16 team members travels to Burke for a U16 GS on January 21st and a VARA Open GS on the 22nd.

NVC U16 GS at Burke, January 21st

Sandra Schoepke - 4th overall

Katelyn O'Toole - 18th 2nd run

VARA Open GS at Burke, January 22nd

Sandra Schoepke - 9th, 3rd for U16's

Katelyn O'Toole - 13th, 7th for U16's

Alita, Kelsey, and Elly competed at Okemo for 3 days of Eastern Cups with 1 GS and 2 SG's.

FIS Eastern Cup GS at Okemo, January 23rd

Kelsey Chenoweth - 19th, 3rd for U18's

Alita Rogers - 41st

Elly Bengtsson - 48th

FIS Eastern Cup SG at Okemo, January 24th

Elly Bengtsson - 33rd

Alita Rogers - 36th

FIS Eastern Cup SG at Okemo, January 25th

Kelsey Chenoweth - 11th
Elly Bengtsson - 25th
Alita Rogers - 45th

After the Eastern Cup's, we took a large group down to Killington for a VT Cup GS.  This may have been the longest race I have ever been to...we didn't load the van to drive home until 4:40pm!  They started late, had some timing issues, a power outage, and then took their time getting awards out.  The awards however, were sweet, literally.  They handed out Slopeside Syrup to the top 3 in each age group, sending up home with plenty of syrup...

USSA VT Cup GS at Killington, January 27th

Kelsey Chenoweth - 1st

Sandra Schoepke - 3rd, 2nd for U16's

Emma Sahn - 4th, 2nd for U18's

Sophie Leiter - 5th, 3rd for U18's

Katelyn O'Toole - 9th, 3rd for U16's

Linley Shaw - 10th

Sarah Reilly - 27th

Sarah Rowse - 41st

Molly Danzig - 50th

Caroline Armbruster - 52nd

Lucy Merriam - 59th

U18 Podium Sweep!  Kelsey 1st, Emma 2nd, Sophie 3rd

Sandra 2nd and Katelyn 3rd on the U16 Podium

This week we are continuing with a GS block until we jump back into SL before heading to Bromley and Pico for back-to-back VT Cup SL's over the weekend!  Sandra and Katelyn will be racing in the 3rd NVC race of the season on Sunday with a GS at Stowe.  Kelsey and Elly will be heading off to Sugarloaf for Speed Week with 2 SG's and 2 DH's scheduled over the week.  Until next time...

UVM Carnival and other happenings

It's always fun to watch the big dogs battle it out at the UVM Carnival every winter.  The athletes bring an incredible amount of intensity to their runs and show the joys of success as well as the agony of defeat.  The Eastern Intercollegiate Skiing Association (EISA) brings together the strongest college teams in the East to compete in a series of Carnival weekends as athletes try to qualify for the NCAA Championships.  They bring so much pace to the hill it is great for our young athletes to see such a high level of skiing as well as cheer for some former MMSC/MMWA athletes, not to mention two of our own, Kelsey and Alita mix it up with the best collegiate skiers in the East.

UVM Carnival GS, January 11th

Kelsey Chenoweth - 14th

Alita Rogers - 51st

UVM Carnival SL, January 12th

Alita Rogers - 20th

Kelsey Chenoweth - DNF1

Below are some shots from the early morning lift ride Friday for the UVM Carnival.

The rest of the girls spent the weekend prepping for the upcoming FIS Devo Series at Okemo.  They had a very productive block of SL training Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then a short tune up today.  Their races begin tomorrow with a GS followed by the 2 SL's which are U18 Nationals qualifiers.

Our two U16's who are skiing with us full-time, Sandra and Katelyn, had their first Northern Vermont Council (NVC) race of the season at Cochran's.  They both skied very well for all three runs, yes it is a three run race!  They did a great job focusing on their skiing, rather than the result.  However, at the end of the day they did give awards for the top 10 combined, below are the results for all 3 runs and the combined.

Cochran's NVC SL Run 1, 2, 3, and Combined, January 13th

Sandra Schoepke - 3rd, 4th, 6th - 2nd Combined

Katelyn O'Toole - 17th, 22nd, 20th - 15th Combined

Hopefully we are finished with the January thaw and we can proceed with Winter!  Til next time...

The season is in full swing...

We have been quite busy since the Cochran's night SL.  We were finally able to get some GS training on Main Street, although we battled some days with high winds and brutally cold temps which made things a bit challenging to say the least.  Second session at the academy started shortly after New Years and we have settled into our daily schedule.  The last two days have brought mild temps and sunshine which has been great for GS training.  It is amazing to see the girls rip down Main Street when we have quality light.  Today was a perfect example.  Our day started as a bluebird day with grippy snow, letting the girls feel comfortable and push their own limits on Main Street.  However, about halfway through our session the clouds rolled in, leaving us with very flat light and brought out some different tactics.  We are so lucky to have Main Street be our home because when you can still be productive even when the light is flat on such a challenging hill, we are certainly headed in the right direction.  We are moving back into a SL block as some of the girls prepare for the FIS Development Series at Okemo next week, while others are prepping for back to back Vermont Cups at Bromley and Stratton.

We sent three athletes to the Stratton Eastern Cups where they encountered extremely poor snow conditions.  We won't talk about the GS results...but we did have a couple of bright spots in the 2 SL's.  During that time, the rest of the girls were competing in VT Cup SL's at Smugglers Notch which included a podium sweep for U18's:

Stratton Eastern Cup SL, January 5th

Alita Rogers - 15th, 1st for U18's

Courtney Hayden - 40th

Denali Balser - DNF2

Smuggs Vermont Cup SL, January 5th

Kelsey Chenoweth - 3rd, 1st for U18's

Sophie Leiter - 6th, 2nd for U18's

Linley Shaw - 8th, 3rd for U18's

Sandra Schoepke - 10th, 1st for U16's

Molly Danzig - 15th

Caroline Armbruster - 16th

Katelyn O'Toole - 24th, 3rd for U16's

Sarah Rowse - 25th

Sophie, Kelsey, and Linley - U18 Podium Sweep!

Sandra and Katelyn on the U16 Podium

Stratton Eastern Cup SL, January 6th

Alita Rogers - 19th, 1st for U18's

Courtney Hayden - 30th

Denali Balser - 43rd

Smuggs VT Cup SL, January 6th

Kelsey Chenoweth, 1st, 1st for U18's

Sandra Schoepke - 3rd, 1st for U18's

Lucy Merriam - 6th, 3rd for U21/SR's

Elly Bengtsson - 7th, 2nd for U18's

Sarah Rowse - 29th

Elly and Kelsey on the U18 Podium

Sandra on the U16 Podium

Lucy on the U21/SR Podium

Wednesday night at dryland we had the second gym contest of the year with a jump rope contest.  We had one qualifying score where the athletes jumped rope for 1 minute.  The top three moved onto the finals:

Molly Danzig - 180

Courtney Hayden - 177

Kelsey Chenoweth - 164

Alita Rogers - 156

Denali Balser - 140

Caroline Armbruster - 137

Sandra Schoepke - 116

Neza Stefanic - 114

Linley Shaw - 107

Sophie Leiter - 100

Lucy Merriam - 95

Sarah Rowse - 93

Elly Bengtsson - 91

The Finals

Molly Danzig - 196, Champion

Courtney Hayden - 168, Runner-up

Kelsey Chenoweth - 160, 3rd Place

Jump Rope Podium - Molly 1st, Court 2nd, Kelsey 3rd

Next up for races: Alita and Kelsey qualified to compete in the UVM Carnival Jan 11/12, and then all U18 and U21 athletes will be headed to Okemo for a Development FIS Series at Okemo Jan 16/17/18.

Who needs a T-Bar or a rope tow when you have a snow cat!

Well, we finally got some snow...and lots of it!  We have had some snow pretty much daily for the last few days which has made the mountain look fantastic.

Alita took a tumble training before break...taking advantage of the fresh snow for a soft landing!

I must report on our first "gym challenge" that occurred just prior to break.  We were doing a jumping workout using the hurdles in the gym requiring athletes to be powerful, have flow with their jumping, and land softly and quietly like a ninja.  After the workout, we had a Ninja Competition.  Judges Lucy and Michael were tasked with sitting with their backs to the hurdles and score the athletes by who was most quiet.  Atop the podium was Sophie Leiter, followed by 2nd place Alita Rogers, and 3rd place Sandra Schoepke.

After break, we returned to Stowe and received over a foot of snow!  In most cases this would be fantastic, however we were at Cochran's for the annual Holiday Night SL.  If you haven't been to Cochran's before, it is not ideal for powder skiing.  It actually turned out to be not so ideal for racing with the heavy snowfall, the T-Bar broke during the day before the race, and then about halfway through the girls first run, their rope tow decided it was finished for the night.  The Cochran's being ever innovative fired up their groomer, loaded athletes into the cage on the front and pulled athletes behind with a rope and we had a successful night thanks to their determination to host their race.  We had athletes have some quality runs and post some solid results, including the top 3 U18 finishers.

Cochran's Holiday Night SL, December 27th

Alita Rogers - 4th, 1st for U18's

Courtney Hayden - 6th

Kelsey Chenoweth - 9th, 2nd for U18's

Elly Bengtsson - 11th, 3rd for U18's

Emma Sahn - 17th

Lucy Merriam - 21st

Molly Danzig - 23rd

Caroline Armbruster - 29th

Ingrid Klinkenberg (U16) - 30th

Sandra Schoepke (U16) - 33rd

Sarah Reilly - 35th

Denali Balser - 36th

Katelyn O'Toole (U16) - 37th

Neza Stefanic - 43rd

Bryce Zicarelli (U16) - 45th

Eliza McKown (U16) - 49th

A great race in some challenging conditions!

We also are on Main Street now!  Following break and the Cochran's Holiday SL, we spent the morning putting up B-Net on Main Street.  It seemed to be done in record time, taking us just a little over 2 hours to complete the job, thanks to all of the athletes for helping!  This gave the athlete the opportunity to get on their GS skis and do some free skiing in a safe venue.  Today we attempted to train GS...however Mother Nature had other ideas giving us high winds, some serious snow drifts, and a very non-productive morning.  We will be returning to Main Street tomorrow for GS training, then to SL for the MMSC Cruise into the New Year Race, then back to Main Street in the afternoon for an afternoon session.  Below are a few pictures from the morning of fencing...

Just getting started

View from Crosscut 3

The next blog post will be in 2013, Happy New Year!

Where is the snow?!

Well, as I write this weeks blog post, we actually did get a few inches of snow!  However, the forecast is calling for rain...actually tomorrow's forecast is, "A mix of rain and freezing rain in the morning...changing to all rain."  It certainly has been a bit of a struggle for the ski resort of the northeast thus far but had a great two days racing at Sugarbush and Stratton over the weekend.  Alas, we will continue to be productive with the terrain provided and keep building on the great start to our season.

Before I get into the weekend results, I must report on the party the Danzig's hosted for us on Friday night.  The provided us with some amazing chili, cornbread, and salad while the girls were able to decorate some holiday cookies.  It was a fantastic night, thank you Danzig's for opening your home to all of us and providing such a great feast and festive cookie decorating!  Enjoy a few pictures from the evening...

As I said, we had a group of girls head to Sugarbush this past Saturday and Stratton on Sunday for a pair of USSA GS races.  It was very impressive to see the girls jump into their first GS competitions of the year and each athlete came home with something to smile about when it was all said and done!  Saturday gave us a day of sunshine and some career best results for the girls.

USSA VARA Open GS at Sugarbush, December 15th

Elly Bengtsson - 12th, 2nd for U18's, career best 79.06

Neza Stefanic - 14th, 3rd for U18's, career best 82.36

Sophie Leiter - 17th, career best 94.48

Molly Danzig - 21st, career best 103.69

Sarah Rowse - 26th, 112.42

Caroline Armbruster - DSQ2, it must be noted that somehow they didn't see Caroline miss the 2nd to last gate and she showed up on results, scoring a career best 103.11, and she asked to be removed from the results.  Way to go Caroline, you are a great ambassador of MMSC and MMWA!

Sunday the girls raced a VT Cup GS at Stratton in our first wintery conditions of the season.  It was cold, windy, snowing, all of the stuff we love about ski racing!  We also had the chance to spend some time with Erin as she is working at SMS now.  She is pretty happy in her new place but certainly expressed how much she missed all of us, we miss you too Erin!

USSA VT Cup GS at Stratton, December 16th

Sophie Leiter - 10th, bested her result from the previous day scoring a 93.84

Neza Stefanic - 13th

Elly Bengtsson - 16th

Caroline Armbruster -23rd

Sarah Rowse - 26th

Molly Danzig - 27th

We have a group of 5 girls racing at Sugarloaf Tuesday through Friday in 2 Eastern Cup SL's and 2 Eastern Cup GS's, good luck!  Keep your fingers crossed for some snow...

It's good to be home...

After a long camp in Vail, CO, we have finally settled into our weekly schedule at home.  We have had the opportunity to get in some great SL training this past week on SL Hill.  While the snow is thin in spots, it is still very good.  We spent the week working on two different sections of SL Hill; from the start to the knoll, and from about halfway down the pitch to the bottom.  It has been fun to see the girls get back into SL and make some serious progress in one week.  With race after race being postponed, it gives us even more time to continue to develop as well as increase our mileage before stepping into the starting gate.

We did send a small group of girls to the Sunday River FIS Open Races on December 8th and 9th.  Courtney Hayden turned in a career best result on day 1 moving all the way from bib 70 to finish 26th, scoring a 55.16!  On day 2 Emma Sahn finished 2nd for U18's, way to go girls!

FIS Open SL at Sunday River, December 8th

Courtney Hayden - 26th

Sophie Leiter - 58th

Emma Sahn - 70th

Kelsey Chenoweth - DSQ Run1 (8th on the run...missed the last gate!)

FIS Open SL at Sunday River, December 8th

Emma Sahn - 26th (2nd for U18's)

Kelsey Chenoweth - 58th

Courtney Hayden - DNF2

Sophie Leiter - DNF2

All smiles out of Emma on the U18 Podium!

I had the opportunity to bring Sandra, Katelyn, Grant, and Trent to the U16 Fundamentals Camp at Burke December 9th - 11th.  I was extremely impressed with the ability level of the U16 athletes in the Eastern region.  It will be fun to have those athletes start to filter into the USSA race circuit as the season progresses.

Looking up to the start of SL Hill

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SL Hill pitch

Vail - Day 10

The final day on-snow has come to a close and the packing has commenced.  Michael and Andy are already 3+ hours into their trek back to VT!  For the final day, we made a move to SL and the athletes seemed to enjoy the change of discipline.  We had four different sections in our lane: an apex SL, a stubby SL, and mix of stubby and full gates, and a full gate section.  It was fun to see them jump right into SL and see some early success.  Fatigue from a long camp seemed to set in a bit earlier today and the track deteriorated a bit quicker than usual.  However, everyone finished on a high note and they all came up for one last free run at Vail to close out the 2012 camp.  I am sure the athletes have mixed feelings about heading home tomorrow, but I know I am ready to get back home and into our regular schedule.  I fully enjoy my time here for our camp, but it is hard to beat our set-up at home!  We are VT bound tomorrow morning and I leave you with a couple of pictures from today as well as one Sandra took yesterday at the World Cup.  I failed to mention that in between runs the "Go-Pro Bomb Squad" parachuted into the finished coral, pretty sweet to watch!

Great shot Sandra!

Halfway down our lane looking towards the top

Halfway down our lane looking toward the base