Fall Frolics

             The past couple months have been a busy time for us skiers – and wow, how did nearly two months go by? – but they’ve been full of solid, good training and plenty of other activities. From cheering on our teammates who run cross country in the fall, to egg tosses in the dark and talent shows, to testing week, fall has certainly been full!
            Captain’s practices started right off the bat in September, introducing everyone to the mad combination of juggling classes with sports and all our other activities. After a few weeks of settling in, we had a team talent show at the Wendell Berry House, where Allie is living this year, and along with two person egg-tosses and introductory mad libs, this was a great time to meet all our first-time skiers and learn a bit more about everyone on the team.
            Later in the fall, our team also went to cheer on the cross-country teams at the St. Olaf invitational – quite a few skiers run in the fall, and the teams did very well! Photos of some of our runners are below. We also watched a couple of the home games for women’s soccer, where Ruth is the goalie. It’s always a blast to go out and cheer at other teams’ events, not only for the excitement of the games and meets, but also to see our school do so well and watch our teammates. We can’t wait until they join us in the winter, though!

Evan (photo courtesy of St. Olaf)

Mitchell (photo courtesy of St. Olaf)

Stuart (photo courtesy of Tom)

Syver (photo courtesy of Tom)

Kristen (photo courtesy of St. Olaf)

Piper (photo courtesy of St. Olaf)

Cheer squad! Nora, Liza, Laura.

            Official practices started in October, when we finally got to train with Tom again, and we kicked it off with the much-anticipated testing week. A full week of testing, including running and rollerskiing time trials, technique work, and strength and agility tests, certainly started us off with a bang! As hard as it is, though, testing week is always a great time as we first get to see where our summer training has put us, and then later in the season repeat the tests to watch just how much everyone on the team has improved. And the time for repeating testing week is drawing near...

Post time trial! Back row: Nora, Graham, Jeremy, Dan, and Leif. Front row: Laura, Allie, Nels, Amelia, and Laura.

            We had our annual homecoming weekend golf tournament and picnic with the alpine skiers the next weekend, where some delicious chili and other treats were eaten and some of our fantastic alumni joined us – it was ridiculously exciting to see them. A huge thanks to Professor Wojick and his family for hosting us once again! And a giant congratulations to Sophie and Zach, two of our wonderful alumni, who just got engaged a few weeks ago! They’re some of the best people you’ll ever meet, and we’re incredibly happy and excited for them.

Homecoming picnic! Back row: Tom (coach), Zach (alumni), Evan, Kristen, Nora, Dan, Liza, Emma (alumni), Mitchell. Front row: Sophie (alumni), Amelia, Kelsey (alumni), Shelby, Allie, Laura, Piper, Amy.

           That’s a quick recap of our fall thus far. Over fall break, some of the team did a training camp up in Hayward, which Jake will cover – it seems like they got some pretty fantastic training in and threw a lot of fun in the mix too. In other assorted news, Evan, Piper and Nora went to see Kikkan Randall at FinnSisu and got a pretty sweet poster for the wax room after fall break, and conference for cross country comes up next weekend. If you want to look super stylish while outside this fall and winter, we also recommend the new St. Olaf pom pom hat, made by the company run by another fantastic alumni Paige and her mom. You can order here. We’ll see you out there cheering for the Oles!