Team Update by Ian Havlick

Oh Boy…So I guess I’ll fill in the gaps from our last post by Zoe. The disaster zone in my room (a lot of our rooms) pretty much tells the story.Empty duffel bag. Pile of books. Huge pile of dirty laundry. Cough drops.Gnarly wadded up tissues. Four different jackets. A humidifier. An empty coffee cup. Ski boots. Stinky race suits. Empty refrigerator. A long to-do list…lacking any tick marks or crossed off chores. But we’ve all been working hard getting things done.

It’s been a pretty busy couple weeks including a scenic drive to Bozeman, Montana and back. the start of the spring 2010 semester, classes, training, sleeping, and stressing out about a certain lab…due tomorrow…etc. But so far, so good, no one is complaining and we’ve been putting up some sick results.

Prior to the trip to Bozeman, the alpine team was hungry and ate up some buffaloes, lobos, pioneers, seawolves (?), and whatever animal UNR is, at the Utah Invite held at Park City Mountain Resort. TK and Eva led the way in the Alpine portion of the Utah Invite and absolutely threw down…along with great performances by everyone else.

Then it was off to Big Sky country. It was filled with ups and downs. More great races from TK, and Eva, and seemed like the week of freshman stepping up as well. Crested Butte native and freshman, ‘Miracle’ Max Lamb had some great results up at Big Sky. On the Nordic side of things over at Bohart Ranch, Didrik, Martin, Rolf , and little Miles showed up with game faces both days the on a steep and technical course. The girls also skied very well with highlights from Zoe and Smac. Despite these positives, the alpine men’s team lost a key player to a season ending ACL tear, and the Nordic team fought widespread illness. But as I type, my crippled roommate is icing, and elevating, and fired up. Ready to make the fastest ACL recovery ever.

Next, was a few days to rest, recover, get in a good interval session, and prepare for two tough days at Soldier Hollow, UT near Midway, as a potent Pacific storm charged eastward bringing the promise of warmer, snowier conditions to overcome. Eli was out testing early and often to try and get us the best skis possible. As race morning dawned the wet snow tapered off, but was replaced by an equally dreaded condition…. WIND. Strong, sustained winds plagued both the men’s and women’s races, shutting down any hope of skiing in the trademark bomber tracks the “SoHo” crew manicures meticulously. The high winds buffeted the racers with stinging snow, massive headwinds, and at times zero visibility. It felt more like a backcountry outing than a tame Nordic race. The kicker of it all was that it was still relatively warm, around 30-34ºF, the most tricky temperature range get kick wax to work well. Would it be hard wax? Klister? Klister covered with hard wax? Hairies? Zeros? …..CROWNS?!! Racers and coaches were scrambling to find anything that would kick but still glide fast in the ever-changing conditions. In the end, Utah had better skis than most, led by Miles, eager to prove Montana was no fluke, and skied to an impressive 3^rd place…on CROWNS (fish scale skis)!!! The sun came out for the girl’s race and made it a total suffer-fest as the entire field’s wax quickly offered little grip. It was a up to those toughest to persevere and Utah’s ladies definitely rose to the occasion, cheered on by some insane alpiners who missed class and made a HUGE difference with their rowdiness.

The second day came with a fresh coat of snow, a tough drive on snow packed roads to the venue and 3-4 laps of the Olympic 5km course to overcome, mass start style format. Light snow subsided and the sun broke through the clouds. The girls were first and we led by Zoe and Marta. For some, it was their first 15km skate ever and they handled it really well with good pacing and race smarts. The boys were up next in the warming conditions and started conservatively, as they had 4 (FOUR!) laps to take before crossing the finish. Martin and Didrik skied great races and skied in the lead collegiate pack for the whole race. Tom Smith really came in clutch for us with a $20 bill for gas money to get us there…and as the third scorer in such a tough race. The ‘piner’s showed their support as well, making it a huge team success with Nick ‘voice for ESPN’ Cohee on the loudspeaker, Thomas, Jaka, Wendy, alum Fabian Figi, and others-I-saw-double-vision-of-but-cant-remember-who-they-were giving feeds out on the course, and everyone else yelling their brains out. We wouldn’t have finished without you!

Special thanks to Barbara Yamada for the support, organization, and donuts in the timing building!

The momentum is rolling and we are on the rise!! Thanks for reading! (Didn’t mean to write such a long entry...ughhhh!)

here is a clip of Miles finishing at MSU Invite...