Tuesday, March 16, 2010

HURT skiers at Eastern HS Championships

Congratulations to Will Frielinghaus, Austin Huneck and Brian Halligan who competed in the 2010 TD Banknorth Eastern HS Championship race in Gilford NH. Will skied to a very impressive 4th place overall in the Men's Freestyle race. Austin and Brian, as j2's, skied to 94th and 96th respectively.

In the Freestyle sprint Will finished 14th, Brian 105th and Austin 109th. Finishing things off in the classic race Will was 10th, Austin 71st, Brian 104th. Great way to finish off the season for these guys! Well done. See you all on rollerskis!

Full results here: http://www.nensa.net/results/index.php?io_view=events.show_results&event_id=722

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

J2s lead HURT assault on New England

(press coverage provided by Adam Luban who is vying for a full time spot on the Oscar, Golden Globe, Tony and MTV VMA award winning "HURT skiing and other stuff" media team)

This past weekend saw skiing of epic proportions led by some of HURT’s finest. The J2 triple threat of Brian Halligan, Adam Luban, and Austin Huneck spearheaded HURT’s invasion of New Hampshire for the Eastern J2 Championships AND Invitational, with waxing support coming from HURT master wax tech and klisterer extraordinaire Heidi Underwood. Not to be outdone, E. Luban and T. Huneck took advantage of their time in New Hampshire to do the Ski to the Clouds, otherwise known as THE RACE UP MOUNT WASHINGTON!!!
The adventure began with a brilliant strategic move by The Director. He sent his charges, under the care of his disciple, trip director Rob Hinsdill, over Lake Champlain on by ferry. You may remember that Peru Nordic also traveled Champlain by ferry during their Craftsbury escapades. By riding the ferry HURT liberated the Greater Lake Champlain Metropolitan area of the dark specter of heavy metal and destruction that had befell its citizens for these many weeks.
Racing began on Friday the 5th with a 5k freestyle for the J2s. Theirs was a loaded, top-heavy field; complete with teams from Idaho, Washington, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Quebec. Austin, Brian, and Adam took advantage of a fast and hilly course with several treacherous curves to place 1st, 2nd, and 4th for New York. Huneck took 29th place overall on the day.
Saturday dawned with tricky waxing conditions and two looming classic races. After extensive testing of their combined 271 pairs of Fischer Carbon Lites, the HURT boys made the wax recommendation to New York’s expert service men and woman. Using a still to be revealed klister mix, A. Huneck cruised to a 19th place overall and another top New York finish. Halligan and Luban finished 51st and 66th, exposing a bit of classic weakness. Though The Director could not be reached for comment, he was reported to have said “TOO MUCH…#&@$ BIATHLON!”
The Director’s brilliance really showed during Saturday’s afternoon sprint. In a stunning, yet insightful move, h directed the tech team to apply griptape down the entire skis of the juniors, thus ensuring they would not ski too well and raise alarm in New England about New York’s nordic prowess. This move was done with an eye to the future, as The Director is reportedly planning to build a covert HURT training center deep in the White Mountains of NH, and wants his team to be completely under the radar. The Director also told the boys to ski as a team, which they accomplished beautifully. Halligan led a HURT crew separated by only 8 seconds, taking 78th place. Huneck and Luban followed, taking the coveted aluminum and cubic zirconium medals of 87th and 94th place.
While the younger crew was racing, the elder Huneck and Luban scouted out Mt. Washington from a large hill near the J2s’ venue. When asked to comment, all Luban could muster was “Wow.”
Sunday was saw racing by both the young and the old(er.) Halligan and Huneck led New York’s A relay team to a solid 12th place. A. Luban threw down the fastest New York time of the day, clocking a blazing 5:10.4 in the 2k skate, earning in 13th place in his leg. Meanwhile, the big boys were skiing up Mount Washington. In a field headlined by Torino Olympian (and coach of the HURT J2s) Justin Freeman and Jacked Up Old Man, E. Luban and T. Huneck, finished 4th and 6th in the 50-59 age group.
Though Hurt TV does not have a license to film in New Hampshire, it has subcontracted with a local company to bring you some picture and video of these races. Look for it on the blog soon, but be patient, because it is a long drive between here and NH. HURT would also like to extend a special thank you to all the coaches and parents that made the J2 trip possible.



Monday, March 1, 2010

CHAMPIONSHIP RECAP

The wild 2009-10 NYSSRA Championship weekend came with a bang...or a dump, or a slop, or a deluge...whatever you want to call it...it was big and it was wet and would be the story of the weekend only trumped by the events that transpired on Sunday. However, Saturday's 17.5K Freestyle Mass Start race was held despite the soft conditions and snow/rain that blanketed the course at Saratoga Biathlon. (An amazing job was done by everyone at SB to pull it off! Thanks!) While Paul Allison pulled away from the deep and speedy field it was RNR who placed three in the top five and flexed their powerful nordic muscles over the field. It was only Peru's Santor who was able to crack the RNR blockade. Like the Swedes in Vancouver, it was Peru who employed smart team tactics using Rose and Kobak to launch Santor. They gave fits to Seyse and Maynard with their highly calculated accelerations and decelerations.
On this day, HURT skied strong, but struggled to really respond. With their team director absent and unfocused due to massive points controversy that saw his own personal points wiped away by NYSSRA, the HURT boys struggled with ski selection and wax. The weight fell on the shoulders of Luban, Kvam and Tornianen to turn in some strong times. While some of HURT skiers struggled with wax selection in tricky conditions (what the HELL is Fastwax Bronze anyway?) It was Luban that found the right flex, rill and wax and skied for the best HURT time of the day. Kvam, despite missing the butter, found some form of old to place ahead of the surging Tornianen. He was unable to respond time and again to the surges of the strong open class but left feeling he might have some ammunition for Sundays relay. Strong efforts were turned in by Yarsevich, Burt, A. Luban, Carol Fisher, Farry, Clarke, Tetlow and Tim and Austin Huneck. For the most part, HURT left scratching their heads, rethinking their relay order and desperately wanting to call Zach Caldwell.

Then good fortune struck....

Tides turned around 9:00pm Saturday night when MDH sent an email out to the HURT team saying he left his skate ski boots out of town. While initially this seemed to be trouble, it moved the dominate MDH out of the skate relay spot on Team 1 and moved his powerful double pole to a classic leg. This left the Team Director with a tough choice....Kvam or Tornianen? Knowing Tornianen has a beast of a classic sprint over Kvam... and seeing Kvam edge out Tornianen on Saturday made the call to give strength to both squads. Kvam: HURT 1...Tornianen: HURT 2.

Gray clouds (metaphorical and literal) cleared and Sunday's relay saw Good triumph over Evil. While initially it looked like HURT was destined to toe the line against Peru, DOMINANT classic legs by Yarsevich and Tornianen launched skaters Kvam and Tetlow into a position where they could skate easily to a 3rd and 4th place finish being left behind only by the speed and depth of RNR. Although, Kvam was left in a position to tangle with Maynard from RNR, poor fitness and a miscalculated corner left HURT out of the top 2.

The weekend ended with HURT receiving the NYSSRA Champions Banner for earning a massive amount of racer points over the course of the season. Congratulations to all HURT members who had a hand in adding to the total. We are already thinking about ways to add to the total, recruit new skiers, add strength and speed and prepare to bring ALL the titles from West to the
East.



HURT end of the season AWARDS are as follows:

Most likely to break a boot, lose a boot, lose a jersey and duct-tape a sneaker to a 2 x 4 to ski: MDH

Most likely to get mono from kissing the NYSSRA banner: Kvam (see photo above)

Most likely to be shunned for mocking a cripple: T. Huneck (see movie below)

Best baseball cap while skiing: (ITS A TIE) Farry and Tornianen

Best video work for HURT Television: THE KINGSTON HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS

Best Baked Goods and Best Brewery: Chris and Rachel Yarsevich

Best cheering section (the wave): A. Huneck, The Director, B. Timmerman, A Luban, Brian Halligan (see Empires)

Best Attitude: Rene Clarke (keep on keepin' on!)

Best excuse for poor race results: Tetlow "its the fat"

Best lesson in Grooming: Bob Underwood "turn this thing and press that thing and your good to go"

ENJOY THE SEASON END TO HURT TV....see you once rollerskiing starts!!