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Rev. Elizabeth
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« : January 21, 2012, 05:51:02 PM » |
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(note; this article will also appear in the "Messenger.")
Mass starts are the most exciting form of racing. They are difficult to stage in cross country skiing. A long wide stadium area is needed and the trails have to be wide for the first kilometer. MMU has this setting at the Ethan Allen Firing Range and it made for excellent sport in their pursuit race on Friday night.
The varsity fields each had 120 skiers and it was visually spectacular to watch them double pole en masse across 300 yards before funneling into a woods trail. Both our boy and our girls teams doubled poled fiercely and were able to get close enough to the front of the pack to avoid most of the chokedown that midpack to late pack athletes were trapped in.
The top 40 skiers in each event were diverted after 4k into a corral area where they changed from classical skis and poles to skate skis and poles, the clock running throughout. The reminder of each field finished at this point and were scored only for the classical event.
Fairfax placed five girls in that magic top forty: Julia Snyder, Allie Minor, Mattie Hayes, Margaret Fitzgerald, and Austen Carpenter. They skied an additional 2.7k skate. Overall our team finished 3rd of 12 teams behind D-1 powers CVU and MMU. Our wax wasn't the best but these girls skied hard and skied well, working off each other, in a very impressive effort. If we can continue to improve then we will be a player at State meet.
Our men's team had an equally impressive effort, taking 4th behind much larger schools. The development of new skier, junior Travis Yandow, and the growth of second year skier Sam Lesnikoski, has been instrumental in the improvement of our boy's squad. They each finished just out of the top forty after being caught in a massive pileup 3k into the classical leg. Meanwhile Eric Newbury led the men, while Ethan Farmer and Eli Philips skied as a tandem for the entire race to capture our next two slots.They skied with their heads as well as with their bodies, necessary in a field densely packed and moving very very fast.
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