We’re finally back after a marathon of 48 hours with only 10 hours of sleep, most of it in small 1 hour chunks. Talk about jet lag...
Anyway, here is the wrap-up from the week. I wasn’t able to get to the computer after Wednesday thus this late message.
We had a day off on Thursday and had a great day going down to Portland, visiting a lighthouse and eating lobster. Then we were back for the skate race on Friday morning.
Finally the weather was starting to cooperate and we had some decent 20 degree temperatures and stable snow. The women lead the day and once again Katie Turner lead the girls. Katie is a dominant classic skier and usually doesn’t do well in skate but Friday was a great exception. She flew around the trail right into a top 10 finish of 9th! She was followed closely in 10th, by 4 tenths of a second, by Erin Hammer. In 11th and 12th, just 16 and 19 seconds back came Marie Cartwright and Liz Turner. Karyn Liebsch and Mae Peterson finished 18 & 19 for the cowgirls. It was an amazing pack race that showed potential for the women’s team for next year, only Katie and Mae will be graduating and Marie and Karyn are freshmen. The cowgirls finished a great 3rd place as a team.
For the men’s race the weather warmed considerably and caused a panic rewax of their skis. Despite some of the athletes getting their skis less than a minute before they started they also skied extremely well in an incredibly strong men’s field. John Kirlin skied to his 3rd first-team All-American finish in 4th place, just 5 seconds out of 3rd. Brian Sebade had a great day finishing in 12, only 1 minute out of the top 3 and 10 seconds out of the top 10! Brian was followed by Jacob Peterson 19th, Nicholai Smith 20th, Justin Kinner 30th, Michael Fitzgerald 31, Patrick Richards 34 and Adam Karges 36. It was a tough day for the men in an extremely competitive race that had 20 men in the first 2 minutes! The men also skied to a 3rd place team finish, just a few points behind Clarkson. This team will only get stronger with only Brian Sebade graduating and Justin, Michael and Adam being freshmen!
The relay was a great day for racing. After raining most of the night on Friday it cleared up and was a balmy 35 degrees. The relay format is for teams of 3 each doing 5km. The first leg is classic and the last two are skate. The women were able to field two full relay teams and they were pumped to end the week on a good note. The first leg for UW team 1 was Mae Peterson and for UW team 2 Liz Turner. Mae and Liz worked together for most of the race and help on to the leaders throughout the entire race. This was an amazing feat since this leg had multiple women who placed in the top 10 in the classic race. Mae handed off to Katie Turner who stormed around the course and caught 2nd place Clarkson. Katie had the 5th fastest skate time of the day! Liz handed off to Karyn Liebsch who held her own well and managed to hold on to 4th place. Katie handed off to Erin Hammer who held on tight to 3rd place holding off all comers. Marie Cartwright races hard and had a fantastic leg, the 6th fastest for the day and despite a huge surge from University of Maine, Presque Isle, Megan Tuossaint who dominated the skate race the day before. The UW women’s teams finished 3rd & 4th in the relay making a fantastic finish to a great week!
The men’s relay had the same format. Brian Sebade started for UW team1 and Justin Kinner for UW team 2. 2 km into the race Brian decided the pace was too slow and took the lead from the pack. Unfortunetly after he did he fell into a soft spot in the trail and lost 20 seconds getting out. This gave the pack a huge lead and St. Olaf started to break away. Seeing his team mate on the ground Justin sprinted to the front of the pack and tried to slow it down, to give Brian and chance to catch up. The tactic worked and by the finish Brian capped an amazing 4-year career of racing by pulling with 2 seconds of winning the leg of the race and finishing 2nd. It was trully impressive! Brian handed off to Jacob Peterson who managed to stay in contact with the leaders for the entire 5km. Justin handed off to Michael Fitzgerald in 3rd place. Michael skied extremely well. Jacob turned the reigns over to John Kirlin to who shot out on the course like a man possessed. He soon caught Clarkson and went by him and then went after St. Olaf. By this time St. Olaf had a 26 second lead and proved to be a little too far, the race came down to Clarkson and UW. John stormed up the last hill with Clarkson hot on his heals and after 15km of racing and 3 people the race came down to a photo finish, which Clarkson won by 2 inches! Despite losing the photo finish this it was a truly amazing race for all the men and John Kirlin had the fastest skate leg of the day. Check out the youtube video of the finish of the relay - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW-8m6UJXHQ UW team 2 also finished extremely well with Nicholai Smith managed to pick up multiple places for a great 7th place finish!
It was an extremely difficult week on really tough trails and in horrific conditions, rain, sleet, freezing rain, snow, etc. The athletes skied amazing and really hung in there, even in their tough races. Despite the tough week the women placed 3 people in the overall rankings, Katie Turner 7th, Liz Turner 9th and Marie Cartwright 10th. The men also did amazing with John Kirlin finishing 3rd overall and Brian Sebade finished 9th overall. Jacob Peterson just missed the top 10 and finished 11th. Throughout the week there were 17 All-American finishes and 5 Overall All-Americans. Both men’s and women’s teams were 3rd, behind St. Olaf and Clarkson. There were 8 Academic All-Americans: Mae Peterson, Katie Turner, Erin Hammer, Marie Cartwright, Karyn Liebsch, Jacob Peterson, Adam Karges and Michael Fitzgerald.
On the whole it was a fantastic week of racing and these athletes made UW proud!
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