I just wanted to write a brief recap of the week so that
everyone could feel like they got to be a part of the excitement. It
was an absolutely incredible Nationals and we couldn’t
be more proud of our athletes.
A week before leaving for Nationals our team was struck
with what would prove to be our greatest challenge. All
but three athletes contracted the influenza virus. We
worried that we were beat before even leaving but we encouraged
the athletes to get lots of rest, drink lots of fluids and
get to the doctor at the first sign of fever. By the
time we left, many of the athletes were feeling better but
on the van ride, it often sounded more like a sick ward than
a group of ultra-fit cross-country skiers. We arrived
in McCall, Idaho on Saturday, March 5th and went out to ski
the courses for the first time on Sunday morning. The
site of the Nordic venue was Ponderosa State Park, a trail
system famous for hosting world-class nordic races. It
was clear that McCall had had a terrible snow year (a base
almost 6ft below normal), as the snow was dirty and littered
with everything from moss to ponderosa pine needles. Immediately
after hopping out of the van we realized that we had another
big challenge. We saw a group of athletes, already
out on the trails, wearing St. Olaf team jackets. St.
Olaf is a Division I NCAA team that usually does not compete
in our nationals. I looked at Christi and she said, “Things
just got a little more interesting!”.
The first race was held on Tuesday, March 8th. It
was a 1.5 km freestyle sprint. The course was incredibly
technical with one uphill that was so steep that it was fittingly
called ‘The Wall’. During warm-up we accompanied
our athletes out to the ‘The Wall’ and tried
to give them advice as to the best way to attack it. Many
athletes would climb half way up only to slip and slide back
down half the hill. Such a slip in this short race
could be a disaster with qualifying times only seconds apart. The
first round of the sprint is run as an individual start,
with one athlete starting every 30 seconds. The top
ten finishers from this individual start then progress on
to the mass start final. The women went first followed
shortly after by the men. Many of our athletes looked
strong and most successfully attacked ‘The Wall’;
we qualified four women and two men for the final. In
the final each athlete is assigned a lane and required to
double pole for a short stretch before breaking into a free
skate. In the women’s race, the cowgirls got
a good start, with Kristen and Kari Boroff immediately jockeying
for the top three spots. However, when they hit ‘The
Wall’, the girl in front of them fell and took them
down with her. Another Cowgirl, Erika Edgely, shot
on by and fell into second position. It didn’t
take long for the Boroff sisters to spring back into action
and by the top of the hill they were climbing their way back
into the top standings. By the time they crossed the
finish line, the cowgirls had claimed the second, third,
sixth and tenth spots allowing them to be the fastest team
of the day. In men’s action, the cowboys qualified
two into the final round, Joseph Howdeyshell and Riley Hopeman. Riley
shot out of the start and was immediately in fourth position. It
was clear that his skis were fast and that he was resting
behind the top three, waiting for the right time to attack. Although
a bit slower out of the box, Joe began weaving his way up
until he had claimed the seventh spot. As the athletes neared
the finish line, Riley put on a burst of speed and claimed
third position. These finishes coupled with an 11th
place finish by Adam Alspach allowed to the men to finish
in second position, beat only by St. Olaf.
The next day, we returned again to Ponderosa Park, this
time to compete in a very different race, the mass start
15 km freestyle. Although cool in the morning it warmed
up to near 60 degrees by midday. In distances this
long, and particularly on days this hot, athletes must take
at least one if not more feeds during the race. Each
athlete filled up one of more bottles with the electrolyte-containing
drink of his or her choice and we made our way to a small
downhill on the course where we could hand them their bottles
without them even having to break their stride. The
women kicked off the action. The start was clean and
Kristen Boroff immediately got in position to jockey for
the win. She tucked in behind the top St. Olaf skier,
Linn Dale of Norway, and drafted behind her through a series
of technical ups and downs. When Kristen got to us
for the first feed, she was looking strong and confident
and was letting Linn do most of the work. But after
she passed, soon came the second St. Olaf girl and then the
first Clarkson girl. Where was our second girl? But
soon Kari rounded the corner and in hot pursuit were several
girls for eastern teams as well as our fourth and fifth girls
Erika Edgely and Christine Robinson. In the second
lap, Kristen stayed strong, resting behind Linn Dale and
then on the last long uphill Kristen made her move. She
motored by Linn and made her break for the finish. Kristen
emerged from the trees in the lead but Linn would not give
up the win easily, it was a sprint to the finish and with
one last lunge, Kristen just edged out Linn getting her foot
across the line first. We could hear the announcer
say. “This will be a day that Kristen remembers forever.” and
indeed I don’t think Kristen has ever been so glad
that she has big feet. Kristen’s teammates were
in hot pursuit with Kari Boroff placing 6th, Erika
Edgely 10th, Christine Robinson 11th, Melissa Gangle 14th
and Ava Bell 17th. However, as a team St. Olaf had
had a better day, thus beating our Cowgirls by 8 points and
tying the two teams for the all around competition. Shortly
after the Cowgirls finished up, the men were off. Again
from our prime feeding spot we could hear the gun go off,
and then we waited … but as the pack rounded the corner
we saw the familiar white, brown and gold suite round the
corner. Riley was in the lead. He was hotly pursued
by a pack of about twelve men, one of whom was teammate Joe
Howdyshell. As we gave the cowboys their first feed,
they looked confident and strong. In the second lap,
a lead pack of four men began to separate themselves from
the rest of the field. In the pack were our own Cowboys,
Joe and Riley, as well as John Erickson of Cornell and Nathan
Erlandson of St. Olaf. As they skied by for the second
lap, we agreed that we had never seen such a strong lead
pack in a National’s race before. Any one of
the four men could take the win. On the final uphill,
John Erickson of Cornell made a move to separate the pack. Riley
fell back a bit and only Joe was left in the top pack of
three. All three men sprinted to the finish and the
final times were separated by only 4 seconds with Cowboy
Joe Howdyshell coming in third and teammate Riley Hopeman
finishing fourth. These Cowboys were assisted by their
teammates Collin McRann in 12th, Adam Alspach and Joshua
Peterson in 17th and 18th. Ben Miller and Brian Sebade
in 26th and 37th respectively.
After having a day of rest on Thursday. The Pokes
came back ready to fight for the win in the 8.5 km individual
start classic race. Today the men started the action. After
several days of high temperatures during the day and low
temperatures at night, the course was basically a ice-skating
rink. The men would have to navigate down steep hills
and around sharp corners on rock-hard, nearly transparent
snow. To add to the difficultly of the day, classic
skis had to be kick waxed with several layers of ultra-sticky
klister. Riley was one of the first athletes out of
the gate but he did follow a very strong athlete, Sam Morse
of Clarkson. Riley shot out of the gate and skied technically
well and hard for the first few kilometers. However,
on the big uphill, several kilometers from the finish, Riley
was down to Sam by 4 seconds. Upon getting this split,
Riley shifted into another gear and started ripping up the
uphill and by the time Riley finished he held the leading
time, beating Sam by 22 seconds. Now Riley had to wait,
wait to see if his time would hold up as other athletes crossed
the finish line. Teammate Joe Howdyshell finished hard
and slid into third position behind Riley and Sam. Soon
after came Nathan Erlandson of St. Olaf, just barely taking
over the third spot and pushing Joe into fourth place. But
still, so far, Riley had posted the fastest time of the day. Teamate
Adam Alspach finished, turning in a strong performance. Shortly
after Adam crossed the line, Olliver Garrison of St. Olaf
emerged from the trees and was ragging toward the finish. We
all held our breath; would he beat Riley’s time? He
ripped through the finish line and we waited for the time
to register. And finally, his time came in at 22:20.7,
nearly 20 seconds slower than Riley’s winning time
of 22:03.7! After all the finishers were in and final
results were out, the Final Cowboy Finishes were Joe Howdyshell
in 5th place, Adam Alspach in 11th place, Collin McRann and
Ben Miller in 15th and 16th positions and Joshua Peterson
and Brian Sebade in 30th and 37th. These fantastic
performances from the Cowboys allowed them to finish second
as a team, only five points behind St. Olaf and hotly pursued
by Clarkson only three points back. By the time the
women’s classic action began, snow temperatures had
warmed up to 0ºC and the snow was turning into sloppy
slush. The first woman out of the gate was our own
Erika Edgely; she was followed shortly by the Boroff sisters
and Melissa Gangle. Later out of the gate for the Cowgirls
were Christine Robinson and Ava Bell. The cowgirls
all skied hard through the first couple of kilometers of
the race and hit the large uphill ready to start tearing
up the course. It was clear, after climbing up the
first stretch of the long uphill that our team was the only
team that had excellent kick wax! Everyone of the women
ripped up the hill and at the midway split, the cowgirls
had 2nd, 3rd, 7th and 11th.position but this would not be
enough to beat the strong St. Olaf women. We gave each
cowgirl a split and told them that their wax was better than
anyone’s. They ragged up the hill, skiing better
than any other team and all we could do was hope! After
all the competitors had passed, we returned to the start/finish
area to some deliriously happy Cowgirls. They had gained
time in the last couple kilometers and Kristen and Kari Boroff,
Erika Edgely and Melissa Gangle had finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th
and 7th allowing us to steal the victory in another day of
competition!
The final day of competition was a relay event. Teams
of three athletes each complete a 5 km course, tagging off
to one another between legs. The first two athletes
use the classic stride and the third competitor uses the
faster freestyle technique. The morning was cool and
we (the coaches) arrived by 6 am to begin testing klister. Our
job was complicated by the fact that it started to rain causing
the tracks and the glister to freeze. The athletes
were tired, the intensity of the week beginning to wear on
them. The women knew that if they could beat St. Olaf
in the relay, they would win the all-around. Although
we insisted that it didn’t matter which team won, that
we were so proud of them for winning two of the three individual
races, I know they were still nervous. The races began
with the women’s relay and Kari Boroff skiing the opening
classic leg. She motored very quickly around the fast,
5 km course and came in with the lead. She handed off
to teammate Erika Edgely with the other teams in hot pursuit. Erika
skied an excellent leg, but St. Olaf’s Linn Dale, who
had won the previous day’s classic race by over a minute,
was like a tornado that went ripping by to take the lead. By
the time the second hand-off took place, the St. Olaf women
were more than a minute ahead. Kristen Boroff skied
the final leg for the Cowgirls and she ripped around the
course in a blistering time and proudly let her teammates
to a strong second place finish. In the men’s
relay, Joe Howdyshell led off for the team. He immediately
settled into the pace of the top three teams, and when he
made the hand-off to Adam Alspach, the team was in second
position. Adam skied a strong second leg, jockeying
with Clarkson for second place. Finally Adam handed
off to Riley and the team was in third. Riley skied
a hard race to bring his team to a strong third place finish,
beat only by St. Olaf and Clarkson.
Both the men and the women were second in the all around
and we could not be more proud of our athletes.
They
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