Tag: SLU

EISA Regionals at SLU Carnival: Mooney, Taylor Continue Battle, Caldwell Returns to Top

The men’s mass start begins at the 2015 EISA Regional Championships (photo: Mt Van Hoevenberg)

Lake Placid, NY

Bright sun, perfect snow conditions and a torturous course with climbs around every corner: what more could you want to close out the regular season of EISA competition? Collegiate racers from across the area converged on the Olympic trails of Mt. Van Hoevenberg this past weekend for the EISA Regional Championships hosted by St. Lawrence University. While Regional performances were on the line, the events also served as a precursor to the NCAA Championships to be held on the same courses in less than two weeks time. Competitors were eager to test out the race course and measure their fitness as training narrows toward the final events of the season.

The men’s races were largely dominated by UVM and Dartmouth, and both events saw the return of Sophomore Paddy Caldwell to prime form after a few weeks back stateside following the U23 World Championships. The women’s field was again bested by Middlebury’s Heather Mooney and UNH’s Annika Taylor, who have battled back and forth all season.

The event schedule for the weekend mirrored that of the upcoming NCAA Championships: 5 and 10-kilometer freestyle individual-start races, followed by 15 and 20-kilometer mass start classical races.

Friday: 5/10km Freestyle

Cold conditions yet again, though sun and calm skies made for pleasant skiing as temps warmed throughout the day. The men’s race was a tale of two laps. The Ladies 5km race course is notorious for its climbing: one might describe the elevation profile as a glorified triangle, featuring sustained climbing with little recovery followed by a mostly non-technical descent back to the stadium. A flat lap lane in the stadium area provided only a brief mid-race respite for the men, who then had to set out once more into the woods to tackle the grueling climbs all over again.

UMPI racer Hilary Saucy begins the 5k freestyle on Friday (photo: Mt Van Hoevenberg)

After suffering his first freestyle loss of the season at the Middlebury Carnival, Dartmouth racer Paddy Caldwell returned to the top of the field on Friday, posting the fastest lap splits on both rotations around the course. He got the better of his closest skating rival, UVM’s Rogan Brown, by a whopping 37 seconds.

With the strongest race of his season, Dartmouth skier Jan Ketterson grabbed the final podium spot in 3rd.

Racers from UVM and Dartmouth ended up taking all spots in the top eight. Austin Meng of host St. Lawrence and Raleigh Goessling of UNH were the only two skiers to sneak into the top 10 among the sea of green suits with ninth and 10th place finishes, respectively.

With one lap of the tough course to test themselves on, the women’s race was no less daunting.

This second race came down to a familiar battle that has been playing out over race courses all season: Mooney vs. Taylor. With Taylor of UNH starting a minute behind her rival, the splits were in her favor, but on this first day it was Middlebury’s Mooney who took top honors, fending off Taylor by 16 seconds.

Despite the familiar scene in the top two spots, it was the women of UVM who truly dominated the majority of the top ten, taking places 3-6. Led by Stephanie Kirk’s podium performance, the Catamount women were a force to be reckoned with in the team score and certainly looked to be on top of their game when it counted.

UNH also put in a solid day. With Katrin Larusson inside the top ten and Maddy Pfeifer in 13th, the Wildcats followed the Catamounts in the team score and pushed the typically strong Middlebury women into third.

Saturday: 15/20km Classic

Conditions for classic racing could not have been better on Saturday, as a truly festive atmosphere surrounded the entire racing scene. The men faced four laps of the same daunting Ladies 5k loop, in sunny conditions warming from the single digits to the high teens.

A preview of events to come: SLU and UNH racers speed toward the finish past NCAA banners for next week’s Championship (photo: Mary B)

Dartmouth’s Paddy Caldwell tested the field early, opening a small gap before being absorbed in the stadium area and feed zone. It was during second half of the race that the pacing exam really began, as Caldwell accelerated into the climbs and emerged from the woods at the end of the third lap with a clear gap on his competitors. By the fourth lap Caldwell was out of sight of the field, and he cruised home uncontested for the win.

The chase pack consisted of around ten men, all UVM and Dartmouth racers save for Per Lindgren of UNH.

Lindgren yo-yo’ed off the chase pack at first, but as the group seemed to realize Caldwell would be uncatch-able they appeared to back off and begin a more tactical race for the remaining podium spots.

Those spots were eventually won by Jorgen Grav (UVM) in second and Fabian Stocek (DAR) in third, setting up another battle of green suits in the team score. By a narrow four-point margin it was Dartmouth who took the win over the Catamounts. The men of Williams College capped a strong season by placing third.

The women’s race broke apart as well, with racers stringing out and shifting position throughout the three laps of competition. At the front it was again Heather Mooney and Annika Taylor duking it out. Among a swarm of cheering fans and teammates, it was Taylor who emerged victorious in the final race of the EISA season.

Good friends and training partners this past summer in Truckee, California, Taylor and Mooney are good friends and were quick to congratulate each other on great races and a great EISA campaign, as both seniors capped their Carnival careers with dominant seasons.

In a close finish for the final podium spot, the Panthers picked up another strong result from Kelsey Phinney who, along with Stella Holt, helped the Middlebury women to the top team score of the day.

The UVM women were unable to match their dominant performance of the day prior, and fell to third in the team score behind Taylor and her Wildcat teammates.

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Results for the entire weekend can be found via BartTiming

With the EISA season ending on Saturday, UVM earned their fifth-straight overall EISA Championship Victory. Also of note were the presentations of both the EISA Service award and EISA Coach of the Year award. Former long-time Williams head coach Bud Fisher received the EISA Service award, while UNH’s Cory Schwartz was recognized as EISA Coach of the Year.

The 2015 NCAA Championships, hosted by St. Lawrence University, will be held March 11-14 in Lake Placid. For more information, please visit the official event website by clicking HERE

March 2, 2015
Wednesday Workout: Olympic ‘Bounding Loops’ with SLU

SLU skiers Isaac Wright (l) and Calvin Swomley bound up a hill on the Ladies’ 5 k loop at Mt. Van Hoevenberg. (Photo: Adam Terko)

The following workout comes from Adam Terko, assistant coach of the St. Lawrence University nordic team and a regular eastern-collegiate contributor for FasterSkier. No snow? No problem. Terko and his team did this bounding workout in October. Submit your favorite workout or one from your team to info@fasterskier.com with the subject line: Wednesday Workout.

***

Just because a nordic trail doesn’t have snow on it doesn’t mean it can’t be used to maximize ski-training potential. A hard bounding workout with poles, done on the same terrain you race on, develops not only aerobic capacity and strong muscles but confidence and familiarity with a particular course. That was the goal with our Ladies’ 5 k bounding workout last weekend at Mt. Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y.

This session was based on a hard bounding workout our team often does on the trails of Higley Flow State Park, our main ski trail network close to campus. Recently we had a training weekend in nearby Lake Placid, where SLU will be hosting the 2015 NCAA Championships this spring.

We decided to do our “bounding loop” session on the Ladies’ 5 k course, so-named because it was the course used for that particular event in the 1980 Olympic Games. Consequently, it will also be used for the classic races at NCAAs. It is a notoriously difficult trail that features many large climbs strung together.

The Workout:

– Warm up with 30-35 minutes easy running, ending with 8-10 minutes of ski-walking and other dryland classic simulation drills

– Place “Start/Stop” cones on uphill sections to indicate when to bound hard

– Run 3 laps of the Ladies’ 5 k course, with bounding poles (or 6-10 laps around a 2 k loop)

– Between bounding sections (indicated by cones), jog at a reasonable pace

– Cool down with 20-25 minutes easy running

Both on-time and rest time are set distances, therefore as the workout goes on, the body will have a harder and harder time recovering between bounding sections. While most of the bounding sections will be on uphills, sometimes Coach Townsend and I will place the Start/Stop cones sadistically over the crests of hills or around corners that lead into steeper hills in order to encourage athletes to push themselves when they least want to, or when they least expect it.

Sometimes Coach Townsend and I will place the Start/Stop cones sadistically over the crests of hills or around corners … to encourage athletes to push themselves when they least want to, or when they least expect it.

Homologation profile of the Ladies’ 5k course at Mt. Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y. (Photo: ORDA/FIS)

It is important to maintain good bounding form throughout the workout: this means efficient and powerful body position, explosiveness on the bounding initiation, and ‘float’ on the glide phase. I like to yell pseudo-aeronautic terms like “airborne!” and “flight time!” and “lift-off!” to the athletes while they bound to remind them to push hard enough to get air time.

During the later stages of the workout, keeping an eye on technique is even more important. Being a looped trail, if you are unable to maintain the correct form and intensity it is just a matter of cutting the workout a loop short (or multiple loops short, depending on your number of loops and the distance of each).

When done in the fall, along wet ground and through a rainy environment, preferably around the time of a sunset, this session has a very ‘Northern Scandinavian’ feel. It is distinctly old school in its materials and execution, and distinctly painful in its aftermath.

For those looking to re-create this workout, a set loop anywhere with multiple hills to climb and descend will work fine. A ski trail works best, but rolling fields or parks can be just as useful. Lap numbers vary based on the length of the loop and how much intensity you are looking to get in.

In the case of Ladies’ 5 k, a loop was anywhere from 24-30 minutes, with just over half that time being at intensity. At Higley Flow State Park, the loop we use for this workout is about 2 k long, and therefore most end up doing anywhere from 6-10 laps.

SLU skiers Erin Perryman (l) and Kate Mulcahy (r) midway through one of many climbs on the bounding loop. (Photo: Adam Terko)

SLU skier Kyle Curry digs deep late in the workout. (Photo: Adam Terko)

November 12, 2014
St. Lawrence Carnival Preview

Lake Placid, NY: EISA coaches and athletes return from racing and training around the country to compete in Lake Placid at the St. Lawrence Carnival. For a second year in a row EISA racing starts with the St. Lawrence Carnival. All of the races this weekend are NCAA Qualifiers.

Alpine races at Whiteface Mountain include a Friday Giant Slalom and a Saturday Slalom. The Giant Slalom will he held on Thruway/Drapers Drop and the Slalom will be held on Drapers Drop (trail map).

Nordic races at Mt. Van Hovenburg include a Friday 5/10km Classic and a Saturday 10/15km Freestyle. All Nordic races are individual start. The 5/10km Classic is on the 2km loop at the Olympic Jumping Complex course . Saturday’s 10/15km Freestyle race will take place on the Biathlon Trails at Van Hovenburg.

Travel Information: Please keep in mind that the Crowne Point Bridge is not in operation. This may add time to your travel. Alternate routes include ferries.  Click here for info on Lake Champlain Transportantion Ferries.

**Please note that there have been updates to the Nordic Events this weekend. The Friday Classic races have changed venue. The races have been moved to the Olympic Jumping Complex. The Classic races will use the Nordic Combined course 2km loop.

Nordic start times have also been modified- Saturday and Sunday races both start at 9:30am

Results/Start List/ Full Schedule

Schedule

Thursday, January 13th
12:00-5:00 pm    Nordic race course inspection
7:00    pm   Alpine & Nordic Coaches Meeting       Crowne Plaza Hotel

Friday, January 14th
10:00 9:30    am   Men’s 10K Classic (5x2km loop) *
9:30    am   Women’s Giant Slalom 1st run
10:30   am   Men’s Giant Slalom 1st run
11:30   am   Women’s 5K 6km (3x2km loop) Classic   *
1:00   pm   Women’s Giant Slalom 2nd run
1:45   pm   Men’s Giant Slalom 2nd run
4:00   pm   Alpine Coaches Meeting   NYSEF Building, Whiteface Mt.

Saturday, January 15th
10:00 am    Women’s 10K Freestyle *
9:30 am   Men’s Slalom 1st run
10:30   am   Women’s Slalom 1st run
11:30 am     Men’s 15K Freestyle *
12:30   pm    Men’s Slalom 2nd run
1:15   pm   Women’s Slalom 2nd run

All Alpine Races are NCAA Qualifiers and Nordic Race with a * are NCAA Qualifiers.

Location: Lake Placid, NY

Alpine| Whiteface Mtn

Slalom Race on Draper’s Drop

Giant Slalom on Thruway/Draper’s Drop

Nordic| Location Update: Olympic Jumping Complex– Classic Race Women 6km (3X2km loop) Men 10km (5X2km loop)

Mt. Van Hovenberg Freestyle Race on Biathlon trails

January 13, 2011