Everyone should probably take a moment to think about this: the Cornell men’s team has two current national champions on the roster. After John’s 15k skate win, Aaron Duphily won the 8.5k classic by a whopping 28 seconds on Friday. The 3×5K relay of Aaron “doof” Duphily (classic) Mark “the emperor” Delaney (classic) and John “wildman” Erickson on Saturday came in a close 2nd to Wyoming. Wildman closed a significant gap on Wyo due to harsh waxing conditions and was only inched out in a photo finish. An opposing coach was overheard saying “wildman is GOD!” as he flew through the finish lane. Overall, the men were proclaimed national champions and Wildman became the first Cornell skier in many years to hold the title of Individual Combined National Champion. Aaron finished 6th overall and Mark Delaney was 7th, only 1 point behind. On the women’s side, the 3×5K relay of Melinda McAleese, Sara Cohen and Sarah Hirsch finished 4th and Melinda placed 9th in the overall standings.

For more results and articles, go to:

http://www.fasterskier.com/racing4140.html

and

http://www.uscsa.com/nationals07results.php
–>

So the guys won, but I’d say the best part of the week was the amazingly close and high quality competition. A few examples from the most exciting week of racing I’ve seen or heard of:

-Two out of four of the guys races were won by inches.

-A different guys team won each of the four days and the overall team championship was decided by one point sepparating the same two teams who were one point apart last year.

-A different person won the men’s race every day and the overall was decided by two points.

-New snow at just near-freezing temperatures made the 3×5 k relay an epic struggle (59:53 for the winning men and 1:13 for the winning women) where only waxless skis were working.

-70 points out of the overall lead, the UMPI girls threw down to win the relay by over 2 minutes 38 seconds. They won not just because their star skier had the fastest skate leg, but because their other two girls (neither had cracked the top ten all week) put them in the lead after the first two legs.

Now a little about the excitement on the Cornell side:

Mark won himself 7 cases of beer by upsetting Matt Delaney, the eventual sprint champion, in the sprint qualifier. He proved it wasn’t a fluke by staying in the top 10 all week.

Aaron came back from a dissapointing sprint (and a bruised foot) to have a great skate race and destroy the field in the classic race by nearly half a minute.

Steve raced so well at altitude that we’re pretty sure he matches up better against the Wyo guys at 9000 feet than he would down at sea level. (I’m not joking.)

Even though he had bad luck with racing at altitude, Alex is such a classy guy he didn’t complain once about it once. That was the most impressive feat I saw all week.

Melinda was the only girl enjoying her self at the top of the big hill at the end of the relay. She had the third fastest split and either the fastest or the second fastest of anyone without waxless skis.

D-dub finished a great season by racing well all week. Even though she had THE worst pair of skis in the entire relay she didn’t give up.

Sarah rolled out the intensity for her last race. We all agreed her tempo kicked up more than a notch or two up the last big hill in the relay.

–>