Weston, MA. — The Eastern Mass BKL club survived blizzard Nemo and hosted an inspired, if compressed, one day nordic ski festival for teams from New England and New York on February 10th. The race, hosted at the Weston Ski Track, featured freestyle sprints in the morning and classic races in the afternoon. The skiers, organized by their region, marched into the site to the music of fife and drum and a musket volley by the Minutemen. Upper Valley resident Peter Graves gave the proceedings a very Olympic tone as he announced commentary for the races and Norwich’s Mike Holland, an Olympic ski jumper in the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games, introduced many young nordic athletes to ski jumping over the course of the day.
The morning freestyle sprint races started with the third- and fourth-grade sprints over a 400m course and Ford Sayre skiers Evan Nichols (3rd, 1:35.2), Erik Blix, Spencer May, Jack Lange and Matt Walsh all skied well. In the girls race Elsa Bolinger came in a strong sixth at 1:45.9 with Katie Davis and Eloise Silver-Vanmeter also racing. The fifth- and sixth-grade sprint was 750m and Hanover’s Andy Rightmire had a very speedy top ten finish (9th; 2:46.3). Daniel Bandler and Peter Burnham also had strong races. The girls race was a scorcher with Norwich’s Ingrid Miller placing second in 2:49.5, one tenth of a second behind the winner. Greta Bolinger, Cassandra Nichols, Lucy Glueck, Kennedy Lange, Grace Dietz, Margot Davis, Hannah Chipman, Liz Rightmire and Shannon Walsh also competed. Norwich’s Kirsten Miller won the girls seventh- and eighth-grade sprint covering the 750m in 2:13.2; Sarah Spencer of Ascutney finished 16th at 2:43.7. Hanover’s Adam Glueck finished fifth in 2:10.9 in the boys seventh- and eighth-grade sprint with Stefan Cole, Jack Burnham, Arturo Johnson, Adam Mendelsohn and Malcolm Silver-Vanmeter had strong finishes
The afternoon classic races started with the first- and second-grade girls who skied 1 km with Ford Sayre skier Ann Rightmire finishing second. Sara Glueck (5th) and Imogen Dietz (17th) of Hanover also had top finishes. In the girls third- fourth-grade race over 2 km, Elsa Bolinger of Lyme finished 4th in a time of 9:52.2. Eloise Silver-Vanmeter (Thetford, 11th, 11:18.7) and Katie Davis (Lyme, 17th, 11:45.3) also had strong races. Evan Nichols of Lyme finished 7th in the boy’s third-fourth-grade race with a time of 9:41.6. Spencer May, Jack Lange , Erik Blix and Matt Walsh also raced well.
In the girls fifth- and sixth-grade 3 km race, Ford Sayre skiers made a very strong showing with Greta Bolinger (2nd, 13:09.6), Ingrid Miller (4th, 13:16.9), Lucy Glueck (5th, 13:47.4), Cassandra Nichols (7th, 13:57.8), Kennedy Lange (12th, 14:21.3), Hannah Chipman (13th, 14:23.6), Grace Dietz (20th, 15:14.2), Shannon Walsh (23rd, 16:06.8), Margot Davis (29th, 16:30.9) and Liz Rightmire (30th, 16:32.1). In the boy’s fifth- and sixth-grade race, Andy Rightmire (6th, 12:39.3), Patrick Osborn (13th, 14:06.4), Daniel Bandler (15th, 14:15.3) and Peter Burnham (30th, 16:11.1) all had strong races over the 3km course.
The girls seventh- and eight-grade race covered a 4 km distance with Kirsten Miller finishing 3rd with a time of 15:41.1. Alexandra Schaffner (11th, 17:00.2), Ann Osborn (13th, 17:08.4), Sara Spencer (26th, 18:59) all raced well in a field of 57 skiers. In the final race of the day, the boys seventh- and eighth-grade 4km race Adam Glueck had a very strong third place finish in 13:52.9. Jack Burnham (26th, 17:31.5), Stefan Cole (27th, 17:42.2), Arturo Johnson (28th, 18:01), Adam Mendelsohn (32nd, 18:47.5) and Malcolm Silver-Vanmeter (34th, 19:11.4) had good races for Ford Sayre in a field of 46 skiers.
For more photos of the event, go to: http://losborn.smugmug.com/share/FordSayre