Finally Fall!

Reason no. 683 I love this team: We walk the entire way up the hill from Skoglund, our athletic complex, to the music building in full-on line amoeba form to keep warm. Plus, we're the people who are ridiculously excited to see a few snowflakes, even when they happen during cold, windy, wet intervals that make you "deserve a good race in the winter" according to our brand new coach, Kevin Brochman.
It's been a busy fall here at St. Olaf, and we've got a good crew of new and returning skiers on the team this year! The fall was a bit of a transition period as we figured out how to run the team without a coach - and tried to find a coach. With a great deal of much-appreciated help from Tom, our previous coach, and Jake, St. Olaf's alpine ski coach, we did pretty well for ourselves, and as mentioned above, we now have a coach to help make this team even better. Now, we're looking toward snow to see what the rest of this season brings!
First, an update on some of our doings this fall - we have had cross country races, soccer games, intervals, fall break training camps, time trials with Scholastica, lots of hours logged into the training program, and we'll have pumpkin carvings, time trials, cross country conference, and countless other adventures and events. Don't worry, we actually do attend classes in the middle of everything! To give a glimpse into some of our activities this fall, Mitchell tells us about the Strand time trial and fall break training camp (note: the timeline on this is somewhat outdated now due to this writer's failure to promptly post this update, and is not a reflection on Mitchell's math skills):

Let's Roll: Strand Time Trial
Two Saturdays ago marked the first race of the St. Olaf Nordic season! For the second consecutive year, St. Olaf skiers joined St. Scholastica in Duluth for a 5K/10K skate rollerski time trial. The course begins at Lester Golf Course, winds at a moderate uphill grade for 5K, flattens out for a few kilometers, and then shoots to the heavens at around 8K when skiers must summit the grueling Strand hill. Even after running a cross country race 18 hours before, Evan Kendall was the top St. Olaf finisher in 15th place (31:15.4). Close behind were Nate LaFond (16th place, 32:10.2) and Leif Hanson (17th place, 32:12.7). Rounding out the pack was freshman Chris Prokosch (20th place, 33:51.8), finishing his very first race for St. Olaf! Despite some impressive performances by the St. Scholastica men, no amount of testosterone was enough to out-ski Caitlin Gregg, who, under the guidance of former St. Olaf coach Tom Jorgenson, took down every man in the 10K race. St. Olaf skiers Ben Neubecker and Mitchell Miller, along with alumni Sophie and Zach LaFond-Hudson, were there to cheer and wave the St. Olaf flag from alongside the road.
A huge thank you goes out to Mr. and Mrs. LaFond for once again hosting us. We are eternally grateful for their warm blankets, apple butter, and fuzzy cat.
Before heading back to the Hill, we of course stopped for a dip in Lake Superior. Classic.
Mitchell, Chris, Evan, Ben, and Nate at Lake Superior
Fall Break Trip in Numbers and Pictures:
5 Terrific Teammates
Jeremy, Chris, Nate, Evan, and Mitchell
50 Marvelous Miles of Rollerskiing

66 Magnificent Minutes Chris Sat Bleeding in a Ditch

23 Killer Kilometers of Running on the Birkie Trail

253 Powerful Pushups during Aforementioned Run

54 Excellent Eggs

6 Perfect Pizzas at the Rivers Eatery
Jeremy, Mitchell, Evan, Chris, and Nate's eye

14 Exceptional Episodes of Seinfeld

46 Lovable Levels of the Tallest Domino Tower

4 Deluxe Days at Julia Gray's Cabin (Thank you Gray family!!!)

We've also attended several cross country races and soccer games,
Emma Lee, one of our alumni who is speedier than ever in shoes and on snow.
Evan
Jeremy
Mitchell
Piper
Ruth (in green as the goalie)
 Had our annual Nordic+Alpine ski team homecoming weekend picnic, which once again was hosted by the Wojicks - a huge thank you to them for all they do for this team!



The team!

Front row: Laura, Piper, Molly, Rose, Kristen (alumni), Nora, Sophie (alumni), and Gretchen (alumni).
Back row: Ellen, Danny, Mitchell, Leif, Jeremy, Nate, Emma (alumni), Zach (alumni), and Evan. 
 
And we have engaged in general shenanigans, including a multi-week full team game of Mafia. It's been a good fall, and we're looking forward to an early winter full of snow, getting our abroad teammates back, and plenty of skiing!
Leif and Nate
Our attempt at capturing the leaves + our faces...Molly, Laura, Nora.

Fall in Northfield

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dog Days

Image
     Seeing as summer is rapidly drawing to a close, it seems fitting that St. Olaf Nordic should offer an update on all of their summer adventures. In the absence of snow, we still manage to train (and even have fun!) in the dog days of summer. Our team is scattered all around the United States from the east coast to the west coast and our activities and training are just as variable.      Mitchell has been spending the summer at Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve in Maine as an assistant camp counselor. He has collected an impressive variety of nicknames from his campers, such as “fungi,” “fathead” (hopefully named for the minnow species), and “Sensei.” Although he misses his teammates, he has been managing to have fun and train by rollerskiing and hiking around Maine. Mitchell found Mark Trail on the backroads of Maine      Moving westward, several members of St. Olaf Nordic have remained in the general Minnesota area...
Read more

Wrapping Up CCSA

Image
For our last CCSA race of the season, the Oles took our largest team up to the infamous hills at Al Quaal, in Ishpeming, Michigan. Unfortunately, our attempts at intimidating the NMU’s and Green Beans with large numbers weren’t super successful and they still showed up in full force. Saturday’s races were mass start: a 15k skate for the women, and a 20k skate for the men.  It was a beautiful day, and more than a few of us went home with a sunburn!  Bri and Shelby took advantage of a great opportunity to race well, finishing 22 and 28, respectively.  The men were led by two fantastic freshmen, Tyler in 40th and Spencer in 44th.  Chris and Leif also made statements with their headwear choices: a sparkly red baseball cap for Chris, and a Pokemon had for Leif.  In their 2017 debuts Andrew and Molly performed well and we were glad to have them back from the Mediterranean.  I’d tell you where they were, but I wouldn’t want to get it wrong and make that the o...
Read more

USCSA's aka The Bend Blizzard

Image
This year, we traveled to Bend, Oregon for US College Nationals. We fought through altitude and more snow than we have ever seen in MN to 1) find the trailhead and 2) race! It was an absolute joy to see so much snow. St. Olaf killed it at USCSA’s with 10 top 10 finishes! As we all know, 10 is better than 6. Before the racing started, we got to explore the beautiful Smith Rock State Park. Brochman ran while we walked. We also took our first trip up to Mt. Bachelor and were met with more snow than most of us had ever experienced before.  Over the next week the mountain received about 4 feet of new snow, making for some soft conditions during the races.   The parking lot snow pile. No wonder we couldn't find the Nordic Center behind all that snow! Smith Rock State Park We finally found the mountains when the sun came out on the last day! The Women's and Men's USCSA Teams The first day of racing was the 7.5k classic individual start, which too...
Read more