Mid-season Update from John

The Merriconeag nordic team has remained focused the last few weeks, despite the difficult snow conditions at Pineland, our home training venue.  Even with the lack of snow and cold days we have found skiing opportunities at local golf courses and have not yet missed a scheduled race.  On the 15th we traveled to Stark's Hill in Fryeburg for a WMC freestyle race.  Forrest and Samantha lead the team with a first and second respectively, and both the boys' and girls' teams finished in second place.  Tucker, Graham and Zach also scored for the boys, and for the girls, Fiona A., Lily and Carlin all scored.  The following Monday it was back to Stark's for a holiday Relay Race featuring a Boys' and Girls' four person relay, as well as an open race.  The boys and girls both came out on top - the boy's team of Tucker, Graham, John, and Forrest bested a field of seventeen teams, the second MWS boy's team of Zach, Dylan, Davis and Lars finished ninth.  Samantha, Lily, Fiona A, and Carlin topped the girls field.  Fiona L. and Emma were our finishers in the open race having good results of 17th and 22nd place.

This past Saturday we traveled to Rumford for the historic Sassi Memorial Race hosted by the Chisholm Ski Club.  This race always draws a large and talented field from around the state.  This year we had a cold but pleasant day of racing at Black Mt, the boy's and girl's teams both finished in fourth place, a very solid showing against the strongest teams in Maine.  It is a good sign for the school when this result is not a surprise and the name of the school is being recognized around the state for a solid Nordic program. In the J2 class qualifying race, Forrest had a very strong race in fifth place, followed by Tucker in ninth.  Both will represent the school and Maine at the NE J2 Festival later this winter. Dylan and Davis also placed well in the J2 race in 36th and 49th respectively.  Graham and John had very strong open races in 17^th and 31^st place, followed closely by Zach in 44th and Lars in 81st. These results are impressive given the large field of 228 finishers.  On the girls side in the J2 race, Fiona L. and Emma both had solid races in 33rd and 56th place.  Fiona's place was not far off from the girls J2 team, and both are improving every practice. In the girls open race, Fiona A. skied to a very impressive 17th over all in a field of nearly 200. Samantha has had a very solid year finishing near the top in all her starts and was named an "honorable mention skier of the week." Unfortunately she was not at 100% physically and had misfortune in a couple of falls, leading to a 28th place - a very solid finish place although I am sure we will see more in upcoming races. Carlin was next in 35th, also a good finish but not what she is capable of in classic, better wax and dialing in the prep will pay off before year end.  Lily was the final scorer in 48th place, a good job in classic for her. Next up is this week's WMC race at Libby Hill in Gray.