Team Testing

It is testing season for those in school and those in HURT country.  But unlike the chap pictured above, HURT skiers are enthusiastically crushing it on the slopes of West Mountain and roads in Saratoga.

Coach Halligan and the HURT uphill TT'ers ready to roll up West. 

The sessions this week are focused on gathering baseline times that can be used to track progress throughout the training season.  HURT's three tests: West Mountain uphill TT run, Canadian Strength Test, and a 2.97 K skate TT at SPAC.  We hope to see big gains in all areas as athletes prepare for the new season and JN's in Lake Placid.  Great job by the athletes who ripped through the rainy TT.  Success doesn't wait for sunny days!

Oh Canada!

West Results:

1.Brian Beyerbach--  16:01

2. Seamus Tomb--    17:26

3. Casey Tomb--       19:43

4.Harry Helinski--       20:35
5. Eliza Blood -       22:00

6. Brian Halligan--      23:00 **with back pack full of water bottles**

7. Brendan Tomb--     23:52
8. Steve Tomb--        27:57

9. Suzzane Tomb--    28:26

Canadian Strength Results

1) Brian Halligan*   306    *coach

2) Brian Beyerbach  270

3) Seamus Tomb   234

4) Harry Helinski   175

5) Casey Tomb   163

6) Brendan Tomb   145

Skate TT results

1) Brian Beyerbach   7:36

2) Brian Halligan*   8:04  

3) Dan Manzella  8:24

4) Seamus Tomb   8:56

5) Dave Paarlberg-Kvam*   9:02

6) Casey Tomb    9:51

7) Harry Helinski    11:59

8) Brendan Tomb     12:03

All HURT athletes will be rolling Tuesdays and the Silver Team rolls again on Fridays.  Keep your eye on the team schedule for times and locations.  If you miss us, we would love to see your best pics from Spring training.  Share with us on your tweet-o-gram and #RoadtoLP

June is for registering

Summer sure is coming but if you have stumbled on our little nordic ski click-hole there is part of you with your eyes on the winter and you are aiming to be skiing fast.  Be sure to keep your eyes on our summer training opportunities.  

Training for our Silver level team members will begin on June 3rd and Open-team training for all HURT skiers starts on June 7th.  There is still time to join at any level and plan to join us for great group training.  Details about workout locations will be posted here by May 25th.  

HURT camp will look to once again bring motivated high school ski racers together for fitness training, technique review, and skier education under the guidance of top level club, high school and collegiate coaches. The camp dates will be July 16-21st. This year we are offering a beginner camp option from July 14-16th.  There are still some open slots at camp this years camp and there is time to register before the June 21st deadline. The 2016 camp details are available to download here.  Encourage your friends and teammates.  We look forward to seeing you at our camp! 

We hope you can join our team for some training this summer.  As one of our co-Directresses recently said of our training plans....."that will be priddy priddy fun!"

Strong finish and stronger beginning

Mid-A team March-es on.*

*cheesy springtime pun intended.

While most of us were looking at mud and patches of greening grass during the first few weeks of March, for HURT juniors it was full of racing; the culmination of a season's worth of hard work.**  The Midwest played host to this year's Junior National Ski Championship and the team from Mid-A featured some strong HURT talent.  Aaron Huneck, Owen Putman, Nino Manzella, Maggie Borgos, Brian Beyerbach, Eliza Blood, Seamus Tomb and Dan Manzella all suited up for Mid-A and had some great results over the course of the week.  Next to NYSEF, HURT qualified the most athletes from NY and enjoyed a week of sun and snow out in Wisconsin.  Folks at home neglected their professional requirements and risked gainful employment to watch the live coverage provided by the race organizers.  Our Pics tell the story best. Race results are here.


**many HURT athletes were ALSO looking at mud.  It just happened to be next to a ribbon of snow miraculously used to ski on.  

Snow stuck around in Ripton, VT, despite rain and high temps, and the Eastern High School Championships at Rikert saw a host of HURT nordies out for one last hurrah.  Anna Manzella, Eliza Blood, Aaron Huneck, Julianne Burns, Meghana Caron, Brendan Tomb, Seamus Tomb, Alex Fragomeni, Eve Schoen and Soyhun Pak all tackled the 4 races in 3 days at Rikert.  It was amazing to see so many of our younger juniors jump in races against the top U18 racers in New England.  With no U16 team from NY this year it was awesome to see our kids willing to seek out this tougher competition.  It was inspiring for them, extremely motivating, and will pay huge dividends as they develop into top level juniors.    

Overall it was a strong finish to the season for all our kids....the type of finish that leads to a bright and productive off-season.  As you are busy cleaning the klister spots out of the inside of your ski bag and storage waxing your boards, it is a good time to think about new goals and new paths to success. We are working to do our part...

HURT is excited to bring HURT-alum and USA junior biathlete Brian Halligan to our summer coaching staff.  Brian and DPK will be expanding the summer training opportunities for the whole team and offering new levels of coaching and membership for athletes seeking an edge. With Junior Nationals slated for Lake Placid next year, now if a great time to invest in your development.  See our new membership  options and learn more about our new coach.

Oh yeah.....and HURT CAMP!  Get cha' some...

Read about this year's camp on our events page

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!