Notes From the Coach: Senior Nationals

I started writing this in the Phoenix airport, of all places, on the way back from US Nationals at Soldier Hollow in Utah. It's a strange feeling to have skied in 11 degree weather on perfect corduroy not 6 hours ago, and now look out the window to see dusty red mountains and transplanted palm trees. Definitely made us wish we could find a way to transplant St. Olaf out to Midway and not have to leave the frosty mornings and perfect skiing among SoHo's twisted scrub oak and sagebrush. 

Nora and I (Tom) left MSP on Sunday the 30th and spent a couple days getting comfortable with the conditions at SoHo. Elise flew in from Wyoming on New Year's Day, just in time for the first race, a classic sprint on Wednesday. 

Nora, in short, absolutely crushed it in the sprint. She qualified in 55th overall, good enough for a 9 seed in the junior heats. She used a monster double pole and some very smart tactical racing to ski her way through her quarter and semi into the A final along with some of the other top junior skiers in the country. With some other juniors in the senior heats, she finished the day as the 17th junior skier. Pretty impressive. 

We stayed in a (huge) condo at the Homestead Resort, just 15 minutes from Soldier Hollow. We had a full kitchen and enough sleeping space for probably 10 people. We took full advantage of the space to have Gustavus over for a couple nights to help make dinner, and later in the week we drove out to their cabin to make lasagna and fail at figuring out how to make the VCR play Die Hard 3. It was nice to have so much space to spread out, but it would have been nicer to have filled some of that space with Paige, who had to stay home to continue her battle against mono. 

In Friday's 10k individual start skate race, Elise used her experience racing at altitude to ski a very smart race, controlling her pace on the first lap and turning things up the second half to finish just outside the top 100 overall, despite a fall on a tricky corner. Nora experienced some breathing problems in the cold dry mountain air, but both she and Elise finished very close behind some very fast skiers. 

Between races we found a great little restaurant in Midway called the Cafe Galleria, which makes some great wood-fired pizzas and an outstanding breakfast, where pretty much everything (toast, french toast, and sandwiches) is made out of (really good) bagels. 

Last on the schedule was a very interesting 5k mass start junior women's race on Sunday. Both Nora and Elise started fairly far back in the chevron, a tricky place to be with so many racers and so short a distance. Both stayed out of trouble in the ensuing chaos, and continually moved up through the pack throughout the race to finish 35th and 45th respectively. 

Ultimately, it was a great week of skiing and racing at one of the best venues in the country. The main goal for both Nora and Elise was to get some experience skiing alongside the country's fastest skiers at a national level. By the end of the week, we felt a little more like we belonged there. We hope to translate this experience into a higher level of confidence over the rest of the season and into next year's Nationals. 

Next up: an alumni/friends/dual meet with GAC at Battle Creek on Saturday January 12th. Free will donations to Friends of St. Olaf Skiing or the DJ Tengdin Endowment would be gratefully accepted! Hope to see you there.

 - Tom

 SENIOR NATIONALS RESULTS
Classic Sprint
10K Skate
5K Classic

(Photo set to come later)

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