Last weekend the Cornell team traveled to Prospect Mountain in Vermont for Clarkson’s carnival. The weekend included a 15k classic race, 10k skate race, as well as the famed “3-legged race.” Also Cornell continued the tradition of making Valentine’s cards for the skiers on the other teams. This year’s cards were certainly just as original and no cleaner than years past.

The first race held Saturday afternoon was a grueling 15k (actually shortened to 12k) classic race. Due to several inches of snow falling throughout the day the conditions were soft and slow. The consensus from the team is that we waxed a little too warm for kick and had great “running skis,” but the glide was a bit too slow. On the men’s side Brian Macpherson had a good showing coming in 7th with Andrew Courtney following in 8th place. Owen Skinner came in 15th, Chris Mui in 17th, Robert Penney in 29th, Patrick Nadeau in 33rd, and Mike Blazejewski came back to ski racing with a 37th place finish.

Several of Cornell’s top female skiers took the weekend off, but Jess Marion skied well to finish 11th, Bridget Hass continued to improve with a 13th place finish, Dakota Stranik came in 15th, Julia Schoen in 17th, and Lisa Hollywood in 25th.

Sunday’s 10k skate race was a huge improvement over Saturday’s results with Cornell coming within 2 points of beating Clarkson(and would have won with skiing a total of 4 seconds faster) . Brian Macpherson had a huge race coming in 2nd place, 1 second behind winner Stefan Bibb. Andrew Courtney also had a great race coming in 4th place, 3 seconds behind Clarkson’s first skier. Owen Skinner skied well coming in 10th place, Chris Mui finished close behind in 12th, Patrick Nadeau came in 19th, Robert Penney was 28th, and Mike Blazejewski came in 35th. Mike’s dad helped the team wax the night before and gave them rocket-fast skis.

On the women’s side Bridget Hass finished strong in 9th place, Jess Marion in 11th, Dakota Stranik in 14th, Julia Schoen in 18th, and Lisa Hollywood in 24th.

In the 3-legged race Brian Macpherson and Clarkson skier Sarah Gardner dominated the competition. Andrew Courtney was really glad not to break a pole this year (of course Melinda wasn’t there to fall on it). The costumes for the 3-legged race were quite impressive, especially a Paul Smith’s skier as one of the “300″ characters wearing a cape and a speedo… he really froze.

Next weekend is the divisional championships at Notchview, MA, the last race of the seasonal before Regional championships.

Results here:
15k classic: Men Women

10k skate: Men Women –>

On February 2nd and 3rd the Cornell ski team traveled up to Lake Placid for their yearly Carnival. The main races of the weekend were a 10k x 10k pursuit, skate on Saturday and classic on Sunday. Saturday afternoon also featured a 3×2x1k sprint relay.

Even with the monster ice storm the previous evening, the grooming crew at Mt. Van Hoevenberg did a great job breaking up the ice and setting up a great race course. In the first leg of the pursuit Andrew Courtney came in 6th place, Chris Mui had a huge race coming in 7th, and Owen Skinner came in 9th. In the 2nd leg Andrew caught the skier in front of him to finish 5th, and Chris and Owen came in 9th and 12th, respectively. Rich Benware, a grad student at Cornell, came back from a long hiatus from ski racing to finish 17th overall. Patrick Nadeau also finished in 21st overall for the Big Red. Having his first ski race ever was Anshul Kumar, who had a great time out on the snow.

For the women’s team Cornell had a strong showing with Melinda Mcaleese and Beth Esponnette finishing 3rd and 5th in the skate race. Then in the classic race Melinda held on to 3rd while Beth moved up a spot to 4th overall. Cornell skiers Emily Lyons and Allie Mouche finished in 9th and 13th place overall. A few Cornell racers only raced the classic portion due to some “technical difficulties” on Saturday. Bridget Hass, Julia Schoen, and Lisa Hollywood finished in 9th, 14th, and 18th place in the classic leg.

In the sprint relay on Saturday Owen Skinner, Chris Mui, and Andrew Courtney came in 5th overall while the women’s team of Beth Esponnette, Emily Lyons, and Emily Lyons came in 3rd.

Many thanks go to the Benware and Mcaleese families, who hosted the team on Friday and Saturday nights. –>