Better Late than Never

Since the beginning, the HRT news team has always been on the very cutting edge of journalism and reporting.  In an age of 24 hour news cycles, live-timing, insta-photos and live feeds the HRT team is working tirelessly to pioneer the "week late" recap.  We try our best to report on happenings just as you are about to forget about them...

It was a big week to say the least.  the NYSSRA season wrapped up at Gore Mountain with a spectacular weekend at the Ski Bowl.  Expectations were low with a week of rain leading up to races but the team at Gore once again proved up to the challenge.  The course was amazing and both days had top caliber conditions.

Here is a quick recap of the races in CHAMPS BY THE NUMBERS:

18 - there were 18 more skiers in this year's NYSSRA champs than last year

366 - The number laps completed in the distance race

18 - Also the number of HURT athletes who ripped through the course in the distance race

61 - total number of athletes who started the distance race

2 - the place of the top finisher from HURT nordic.....nice to have B. Halligan back in GREEN!

6 - the number of HURT athletes in the top 12

18 - the number of natural snow flakes found on the champs course

2132 - the approximate number of flags and cones Sam Allison set up (...and then replaced after the wind) over the course of the weekend 

1 - number of U6 Champions from HURT.....WHOOHOO ANNA!!

7 - approximate number of gallons of blue liquid Steve sprayed on the course

7 - also the number of NYSSRA championship banners won by HURT!!

1 - number of times HURT has captured the Relay Championship Title! "Better Late than Never!"

18 - the number of hours that Halligan and Putman are going to spend working on their flag handoff.

 

1,000,000 - the number of thank you's owed to Gore Mountain

Thanks to everyone who made it a great weekend.  It was nice to have a good end to a challenging season.   Looking forward to our summer offerings.  There will be "big doin's" for HURT nation this summer....so stay tuned!

 And if you haven't shared it...#ActOnClimateNY.  

My Favorite Race

We here at the HRT newsroom have been asked in the past what is our favorite race to cover or ski at.  Is it the small community club race with local flavor? A high profile NY weekend like the Loppet? or the packed speed-fest of a Super Tour/Carnival/Eastern Cup?  In fact....it is none of these.  Hands down, it is the local nordic high school sectional races.

Really.

Why? (so happy you asked, otherwise this would be our lamest post ever, and that is saying something)

The four regular readers of this blog know that we have many athletes from many different high schools who race on the weekends under HURT colors.  They train at summer camp together, act as teammates and friends, and share a part in building our nordic ski community.  It doesn't matter if they are from Queensbury, Shenendehowa, Johnsburg, Saratoga or Scotia....they work together to improve as individuals and to help their respective high schools become more competitive and their section become more competitive.  Then comes sectionals!  As a spectator you see all the kids on their best form, after a year of work, putting it all on the line to grab one of the 12 coveted spots on the State Team and to bring the Sectional crown to their high school.  In my almost 20 years of being around sectional skiing, I have never seen a more unpredictable and exciting race.  You may think you can predict the day after studying a season of results, but there just is no way to do it.  Someone always gives a big surprise.   And it is even more exciting when mere seconds divide the places and single points can bring the title from one team to another.

These past few years it is even more exciting because it becomes so clear that a path to excellence in skiing can be found with a healthy relationship between high school skiing and club participation.  The old model of "high school only" or "club sports only" is old fashioned and unproductive.   And you don't need to have a trust fund to go to a ski academy either.  With coaches working together, and athletes learning to set goals and communicate effectively, athletes can get themselves some speedy speed and be darn-good at this sport.  Some stats to prove the point...

-Top 6 boys at Section 2 Sectionals - all HURT skiers
-8 of the 12 boys on the Section 2 State Team - HURT skiers
-9 of the top 15 boys went to 2015 HURT camp
-5 of the top 12 girls at Section 2 Sectionals - all HURT skiers
-Section 2 girls champ - Eliza Blood (HURT)
-Section 2 boys champ - Owen Putman (HURT)

All of us at the HRT newsroom and in the HURT community want to congratulate all of our HURT juniors who skied so hard this year.  It was not an easy year to be a nordic ski racer and you all deserve a lot of credit.  And thanks to all the coaches in section 2 who work so hard for their kids.  They work tirelessly to make so many great opportunities happen.  Congrats to Coach Salls of Shenendehowa on his first sectional win.  I have a special place in my heart for this current Shen team and the close battles with Queensbury these past few years.  Coach Allison and the Queensbury team continue to keep the bar sky-high for section 2 and they will have many more championships ahead of them.

Looking forward to seeing you in Lake Placid.

Here are some of our favorite shots from sectionals (editors note....yes, these photos were pirated from our great moms' pages on facebook and yes, we did neglect some of our professional duties because we were glued to Coach Underwood's live timing feed from Underdog Racing.  We wish we could have been there.)

A lot of HURT'in in this group

Continuing to repeat as fastest girls team and best out-fitted (Mulshine shout-out)

Section Champ

A lot of HURT'in in this group

Manzella!

Anyone interested in a 2017 prediction?  

Jumpin' on the podium at ESG's

One of the factors that has made HURT nordic a truly tough team to overthrow in the club championship points series is athlete depth in multiple fields of racing; a that fact was truly on display at the 2016 Empire State Winter Games.  Back in 2015, it was a heavy-loaded HURT masters group that amassed a huge point tally, nabbed massive hardware and carried the weekend for the team.  This year, the Masters team was much smaller than usual (although still boasting some very solid age group talent from Ed Luban, Chris Yarsevich, Tim Huneck, Jill Koziol and Eric Hamilton) and it looked like the door might be open for The-Club-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named to steal winning points, especially on their home turf.  

It was not to be thanks to the army of HURT juniors that rallied to stomp all over the ESG podiums. It was a massive display of current and up-an-coming talent. 

It began with the Friday prologue...HURT juniors (having just finished a rescheduled Section 2 relay hours earlier) set fast times on the course sent several skiers into the Saturday sprint heats.  Fastest time on the day went to Owen Putman's 3:16 followed closely by A. Huneck's 3:19. Brian Beyerbach showed he is rising sprint talent with a top 5 overall finish as a U16, toppling some hefty U18 names in the process.  In the heats on Saturday it was Owen and Brian who stood 1-3 on the men's podium. On the women's side Anna Wiedmann nabbed a top 5 finish and was the top U16.  

In Saturday's freestyle women's 5K U16 race HURT placed 4 juniors in the top 10 with Anna being joined by Julianne, Meghana and Maddie.  In the 5K U16 boys race HURT went 1, 2, 3 and that was nearly matched in 10K men's race as HURT put 4 in the top 10 (three of those were U18's)

Sunday saw Brian back on the podium in the top spot with Bryce Beyerbach and Alex Fragomeni both in the top 6. All our top performances were supported by many other solid points-earners over the weekend  Nathaniel Kinkaid, Justin Caron, Nino Manzella, Daniel Manzella and Thomas Wiedmann all walked away with points on the weekend and helped HURT win the points weekend. 

We look forward to seeing our juniors wrap up their high school season at Sectionals and States in the coming weeks and many of the ski on into the post-season at U16's, Eastern High School Championships and Junior Nationals.  

Our Master's will have one more chance to flex their strong team muscles at the NYSSRA-Nordic Championship Weekend at the end of the month.  We look forward to seeing you on your local man-made gerbil-wheel until "winter" arrives (that's right....we still haven't lost hope :/)

Enjoy the pics from the ESG weekend! Full results and times are found here: http://nyssranordic.org/results/

Brian storming the freestyle course

Dan Manzella charging the jumps hill

 A lot of green and gray on that podium

Eric Hamilton locking down the M9 podium

U16 girls DEPTH! 

HURT Juniors are the season bright spot

While things may have hit rock bottom for much of the HURT Masters team (yes....I am writing this on my bike trainer), the HURT juniors continue to provide some bright spots for the 2015-16 ski season.  Just this week, we've added new blood to the HURT ranks: Julianne Burns, Meghana Caron, Maddie McGill and Alex Fragomeni all pledged their souls to the Green and Gray and many HURT juniors represented team colors this past weekend at the Super Tour races in Lake Placid.  Bids for the Junior National Team, EHSC team and U16 team were on the line

The weekend fit nicely with the pattern for the season....warm temps and manmade snow. The staff at the ski jump complex and all the organizers at ORDA did an amazing job preparing the jumps to hold the full weekend of top caliber racing.  The weekend ended up being spectacular for racing.  Coach Tomb and Coach PK even enjoyed getting elbow deep in red klister.

klistering like a boss

After strong performances by HURT skiers on both Saturday and Sunday, many juniors have automatically qualified for the postseason trips.  Congrats to all the kids that have been able to ski so well in a season filled with so many hurdles.  Full points list and all qualified athletes can be viewed here.  Qualification standards can be seen here.

Junior National Team qualifiers:
Brian Beyerbach
Dan Manzella
Seamus Tomb
Owen Putman
Nino Manzella
Aaron Huneck
Sarah Duclos

EHSC Qualifiers
Brian Beyerbach
Dan Manzella
Seamus Tomb
Owen Putman
Nino Manzella
Aaron Huneck
Casey Tomb
Adam Chrzan
Will Davis
Mikey Halligan
Eliza Blood

U16 Championships
Brian Beyerbach
Dan Manzella
Seamus Tomb
Casey Tomb
Anna Weidmann
Julianne Burns
Madison McGill
Meghana Caron

This coming weekend is a great chance to get the whole team together (masters and juniors alike!).  Empire State Games is in Lake Placid and the races will be back again at the jumps.  The weather can't and won't get us down. Any race changes will be broadcast at www.nyssranordic.org. Hope you make it to Lake Placid!

The following week is Sectional Championships and HURT Nordic looks to pack the State Team for Section 2!

The fight for our sport

Avid readers of this blog know that this forum is not a place for particularly serious commentary.  More often, it is a place for....

a) reading about NYSSRA ski news that you already know about because we are often days late on race reporting and sharing pictures (all of which you have already seen on other peoples tweet-o-gram accounts and facebook pages)

b) quasi-parodic reports mimicking our favorite fasterskier articles and contributors.

c) a place to amp up the Peru vs. HURT rivalry so that on the ranking of "greatest sports rivalries" of all time we can fall somewhere between the great minor league hockey rivalry between the Fort Wayne Komets and the Quad-City Mallards, and say....Bills vs. Jets.

However, for just a moment I would like to talk some serious.

This has been a tough winter.  It is clear that the future of our earth's climate presents boom or bust winters for most of our country.  Last year, we give slight sympathetic sighs as we looked at headlines showing dry peaks of the West and then clipped into our skis for our 100th day on snow and 1000th kilometer.  This year we see and feel the struggle.  Ski businesses are struggling, livelihoods are threatened and for some our skis have been barely scraped.  It is easy to give up on nordic skiing and racing in a season like this.  Nobody would blame you for an instant. But that is giving up on the fight.

This past weekend (and during the past couple weeks) I had a chance to see what makes our nordic ski community amazing.  There are a lot of people who are fighting for our sport.  While the pictures below may be focused on the spandex-clad performers, the true champions are as follows:

-Mike Pratt, Sam Allison and every single groomer and Gore Mountain staff members at the Ski Bowl in North Creek who are committed to helping support the high school nordic skiers and citizen racers in NY.  They are committed to providing a venue for skiing.  They blew snow, pushed it, shoveled it, groomed it, adapted the course, flagged the stadium, listened to feedback, and helped make the last two weekends of racing happen and made many other high school training and racing opportunities possible....at a loss.  This is a group of folks committed to our community and I want to thank them.  I thought that when I drove over last Saturday from Vermont at 5am I would be the first one there....I was wrong. Champions.

-Steve Tomb is a guy who has an endless vat of enthusiasm and creativity.  He wants to make great opportunities for kids on snow and he doesn't know the meaning of "no."  I am proud to be able to work with him from time to time, Section 2 is so lucky to have him lead that core of coaches, and HURT is lucky to have him on our team. Champion.

-Bob Underwood.  The guy is hobbled (not for long!) and supposedly retired and yet he has dedicated himself to timing, organizing, and running the best possible events for the nordic community.  His persistent drive cannot be understated and should not go under-appreciated. And he is still going to beat you in a ski race this winter. Champion.

-The high school coaches.  It is hard to coach a group of high school students in nordic skiing without snow.  It is hard.  They are endlessly creative and flexible and willing to go to the greatest lengths to help their kids succeed and to get them to ski races.  Champions.

-Parents and volunteers.  At this past Queensbury invitational I was witness to a host of capable and enthusiastic parents who stepped up to time, guide, record and start the racers throughout the day.  And those that weren't working were doing everything they could to create an amazing nordic ski environment for the kids. They are all-in for nordic skiing.  Champions.

It is because of these people that I believe in the fight for our sport and for our community.  I just need to work on setting up my "go-fund-a-rally-me" page so I can trade my hybrid-but-not-quite-there Prius in for a Nissan Leaf so I don't continue to be part of the problem. (Oh, and another go-kick-a-start-me page for R&D to make environmentally friendly high fluoro wax. Oh, the priorities...)

 #winterpleasecomeback


Yes.....we did include some pics from the Queensbury Invy....'cause it still is a ski blog.  Results are here too....but you've already seen those.

HURT's Eliza Blood skiing to a podium spot in the JNQ.

Talk about parent support! One of the best!  (and she snaps good photos too)

The race set-up was world-class. 

HURT's B. Beyerbach skis along a spectator-lined course.  

We made it happen! Mega Relay survives rough winter

The winter gods have been unkind to the NYSSRA race schedule. But in the wake of nature's bad behavior came a whole lot of elbow-grease and can-do spirit.  Thanks to the folks at Gore Mountain and the hard work of Steve Tomb, Sam Allison and others in the North Creek area we were able to pull of a great 6 hour Mega-Relay.  The race brought 60+ skiers together, on a challenging 2K loop in relatively balmy weather.   It ended up being a great event for all....and as always...the margins of victory were tiny in all race fields.

Thanks to everyone who brought the amazing food to the potluck.

Full results can be found here: http://nyssranordic.org/results/

Great day at Ski bowl for xc racing!

Only 5:59 to go!

Chris Y storming up the climbs

Snow guns on full blast to make the ski bowl THE place to be for skiing so far

HURT's newest batch of young guns preparing to battle with reigning Peru champs

The winning group of boys with their coach (from Peru no less...)

With or Without Snow

Even though the disappointing weather pattern and news of the Season Opener cancellation HURT nordic is finding ways to keep skiing and preparing for another great season.

1) HURT Youngins' - Hurt nation is looking to draft young and build for the future.  Chris Y is starting a BKYSL program in the Saratoga area.  So if you know of a little one looking to have fun on snow, check out the details here: http://www.hurtnordicskiing.com/hurt-laydzbkysl.html

2) Bolstered Roster - HURT had some big acquisitions in the last couple weeks that will help the retooled HURT team make another run at the points banner.  We are real excited to welcome John Salls, Maddie McGill, Sydney Herrick, Callie Flynn, Nino-Dan-Anna Manzella and Bill and Sue Blood to the competition roster.  Some solid youth talent in this bunch plus some highly coveted points in the Senior and Master categories

3) Junior Clinic - While most of NY was eating another round of cookies and contemplating going on a 40 degree bike ride, HURT was out hosting a junior skate clinic at the Ski Jump Complex in Lake Placid.  In partnership with Section 2 coaches and ORDA, HURT held a day clinic that had kids rollerskiing, bounding, skiing on snow and getting some solid technique instruction from some of the best coaches in the area.  With almost 60 kids in attendance it was a great day of ski training and community building.  We were pumped to see such enthusiasm in a winter that has started out so poorly.  Check out out facebook page for the full round of photos.  Here are some of our favorites. 

little warm-up before the action

straight chillin'

ripping the roller loop

technique and transitions

that's right....that is snow

"So....how does this white stuff work? what do we do?

body position is key

...and fast feet

Dave trying to look like things are organized

more body position

agility and games

 While racing doesn't look like it will happen too soon, we are pumped for nordic anyway!  Special Thanks to all the section 2 coaches and ORDA coaches that volunteered their time.  Thanks to ORDA for working with us to get our kids some on snow time and thanks to all the parents that got their kids to  Lake Placid for the day.