The Bears were met with gusty conditions on an open Stowe Mountain course at the University of Vermont Carnival last weekend. Despite the wind, the men's team managed to take ninth-place finishes in both the freestyle and classic races, while the women returned with 10th in the freestyle and 11th in the classic competition.
The carnival, which began on Friday with the women's classic competition, saw Elissa Rodman '10 take 49th to finish in the top 50. Rodman was trailed closely by Sarah Glaser '11 for the 51st spot and Courtney Martin '09 in 52nd. Grace Hyndman '11 and junior Maresa Nielson rounded out the Bowdoin cohort for 54th and 56th, respectively.
On the men's side, the Bears did not have a propitious position at the start, but managed to carve their way through heavy traffic on the course to have strong finishes. First year Colman Hatton was the first Polar Bear to cross the line for 36th place. His teammate Niko Kubota '10 followed him for a 48th-place finish. Senior John Hall was the next to glide across the finish for 49th. Senior Forrest Horton and junior Nat Herz were the last Bowdoin finishers in 51st and 58th places, respectively.
The next day Horton took off in the skate sprint, placing 16th, the top finish for the Bears at the Carnival. It was also good enough to qualify Horton for the elimination rounds.
Walt Shepard '08 rounded out the top 30, which also qualified him for the elimination rounds. The rest of men skied in the consolation heat.
For the women, Rodman once again grabbed the first finish at 48th place in the skate sprint. Martin finished second for the Bears in 50th place. Glaser, Nielson, and Hyndman brought up the rear for the Bowdoin women.
Looking ahead to this weekend's race, the Bears have begun to prepare for end of the season competition. The team is tapering its training so that the racers will peak in time for its most important races.
"We've started to slow the volume of our training and now are focusing more on fast intervals, which should get us ready for the end of the racing season," Hyndman said. "With extra rest and beginning to taper our training, we should be able to pull together all the pre-season training to have even faster races. We've had several good individual races so far, but I think in the next couple of weeks we'll start to see even better team results."
This weekend, the men's and women's teams are heading to Hanover, N.H., for the Dartmouth Carnival.