Men's Eastern Cup Slaloms - Bump Heldman Wins Twice!

The first two Eastern Cup slaloms of the year at Sugarloaf are in the books and it was a great start for the Bobcats as Bump Heldman won both races. Bump was in 4th after the first run yesterday, when the second run was postponed to this morning due to high winds. He started the day off strong by winning the second run and the race. He continued his strong day by winning the first run of the second race and held on in the second run to win his second race of the day. First-year Jeff Lathrop also turned in a strong performance today moving from a start number of 40 to 14th place (9th on the second run). Due to final exams we only had a few guys in the race, but now that exams are done we will have a full group for the GS races this weekend.

First races of the season

This past weekend marked the start of the race season for the team. Most of the team raced in a pair of USSA slaloms at Sunday River, while Alex Jones made the trek up to Val St-Come in Quebec for a pair of FIS slaloms. Zoe Livingston '13 and assistant coach Dan Loman '08 each picked up a win this weekend. They were both joined on the podium by teammates Micaela Holland '11 and Ben Manter '11 who each finished a close second. In Quebec, Alex Jones '12 picked up a pair of top-20 results against a strong field for a solid start to his season.

At the end of this week we return to racing with the start of the Eastern Cup FIS series at Sunday River (women) and Sugarloaf (men).

Rogan Connell
Head Coach Alpine Skiing
Bates College
Lewiston, ME 04240

www.batesskiing.com
www.eisaskiing.org

Snow!!!

We finally received our first significant snowfall here in Lewiston. It was great to wake up to 6 inches of snow this morning and actually have it feel like winter. We just finished up our third week of training this week and had hoped to be racing this weekend but the weather didn't cooperate. While there was enough snow on the race hill at Sunday River there was not enough open terrain to close it. None the less it was a great week of training and we look forward to finally getting some racing in this coming weekend.

In other news, assistant coach Dan Loman spent this past week at Beaver Creek forerunning the Birds of Prey downhill. It was a great opportunity for him to ski one of the toughest downhills in the world as well as watch the best skiers in the world. As you can see from the photo of Dan signing autographs, everyone involved in the race becomes a bit of a celebrity.

Coach Loman signing autographs -

View of Mt Washington from the top of Sunday River -

Training on T2 at Sunday River -

Rogan Connell
Head Coach Alpine Skiing
Bates College
Lewiston, ME 04240

W: 207-786-6346
C: 207-240-5374
F: 207-786-8232

www.batesskiing.com
www.eisaskiing.org

Thanksgiving Break Camp

We finished up our 5 day camp on Tuesday and despite the battle with the weather we had a very productive camp. Thanks to the great snowmaking at Sunday River we were able to get 2 days of GS free skiing and 3 days of SL training in. It was great to have the team together for 5 days with out the usual hassle of traveling out west.

I would like to thank Maryanne and Michael Forbes and Sharon McAllister for hosting the team at their respective homes and thanks again to Sharon for also cooking dinner for the team each night. This camp provided us with a great base as we continue to train at Sunday River (one of only two ski areas open in the east) through the end of the semester. It looks like snowmaking temps return this weekend so things should only get better.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

1st Day of SL training

Great weekend of skiing!

Mother nature has not been on our side so far, but Sunday River has done a phenomenal job at providing us with great skiing.  Despite the inches of rain we received on Saturday night we have been able to continue to ski and will actually start training slalom tomorrow.  It also looks like cold temps are coming in so we should have even better conditions for the upcoming Thanksgiving break.  It's great to have the only ski area open in the east as our home base.

First day on snow for the team

This past Saturday we were able to get our first day on snow as a group.  There was plenty of snow and sun making it a great first day to have the team together and get used to new equipment.  With warm temps at the beginning of this week Sunday River will be closed again to help preserve the snow, but it looks like we may have a special training opportunity on Thursday and we will definitely be skiing again this weekend.

    

Snowmaking has resumed and the season has started

After a couple of weeks of warm weather the temps have finally dropped again and Sunday River has fired up the snow guns again.  It's looking good for us to start skiing this weekend, which will be welcomed by the team after a tough two months of conditioning.

This week marks the official start of our season and it was great to finally be working with the team again. The week began with testing and the team showed that they have been working very hard all fall, with everyone making huge gains in all aspects of their conditioning.   

Check back soon for updates as we get our first days of skiing in this weekend.

Bates Skiing on YouTube

We've created a channel on YouTube where we plan to post videos throughout the season. To start it off we've added some video from last years NCAA Skiing Championships.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BatesAlpineSkiing#p/u/1/tN9XyFxDg2U

First day of skiing!

Sunday River opened yesterday and today I was able to make it up to check it out and take a few runs. The skiing was limited to T2 and the guns were still going but the coverage was great. Looks like they will have top to bottom skiing by the weekend. We're expecting to be able to start a full schedule of skiing by the last week of October if the weather cooperates, which means we could be in gates by the first week of November. That would be the earliest start that we've had since I started at Bates.

Rogan Connell
Head Coach Alpine Skiing
Bates College
Lewiston, ME 04240

www.batesskiing.com
www.eisaskiing.org

First snow of the season

Sunday River is receiving their first snow of the season. While not enough for skiing, the forecast is for continued cold temps the remainder of the week and the rumor is the snow guns are going to be fired up tonight or tomorrow with the possibility of some skiing next week.  It's looking like we could have a great start to our season. 

A New Season is Fast Approaching

Hi everyone,

So its already happening. The days and nights are consistently getting colder, the leaves are beginning to change, and the first frosts have started to turn up all over northern New England. Sunday River is also feeling the early season itch, they started testing their snow guns on September 26th this year, nearly 1 month earlier than last years first tests on October 19th!

Up at Bates things are moving along very well. Rogan and I are starting to get things prepped for the season (our season officially starts on November 3rd, already less than a month away!), and I think we are both happy to have a little more downtime compared to last year when we were getting everything all set for NCAA's.
We have decided to change things up a little bit for our early season this year deciding to try our luck hosting our Thanksgiving camp at Sunday River instead of the usual trip to the large mountains of the west. The past few years we have gone out either to Colorado or to Mount Hood, but since the skiing during that time has always been superb at Sunday River, we are going to save some time and money and hope this year is a repeat of the recent past. Our skiers will also have the chance to eat Thanksgiving with their families for the first time in a while (Sorry Ben, Thanksgiving in Vermont will be delicious too!).
Looking ahead our team is looking young but talented, with strong returning members and several Freshman who are eager to compete alongside their new teammates. We will have 6 returning Juniors in men's co-captains John Canney and Ben Manter, women's co-captains Micaela Holland and Lauren McAllister and consistent contributors Ross Brockman and August Felix. For Sophomores we have Bump Heldman, Alex Jones, Josh Fancy, and Kristin Waddle all looking to outperform their class' impressive showing of last year. Finally, our Freshman are looking ready to make an impact on the circuit right away, including Jeff Lathrop, Stefan Lyons, Zoe Livingston and Caitlin Forbes. Overall our team looks strong. Even though we only have 4 women we are not worried, we are instead extremely excited about what kind of results all of our athletes will bring to the Bates Alpine Team this season.
We would like to say 'Hi' to several of our aforementioned team members who are seeing what things are like on the wild side, deciding to go abroad for the first semester of this year. Micaela is currently sweating it out in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, August is taking care of things in the north, traveling around Copenhagen, Denmark, and Ross is pretending to be abroad while getting jacked and tan somewhere in Hawaii. Regardless of where they are, they are missed and the whole team can't wait for them to get back.
Along with a new season comes the realization that we don't have everyone returning. With the end of last school year and the start of this new one, the Bates Alpine team has been forced to say goodbye to graduates of the class of '09: Megan Papineau, Liz Thompson and Emily Sampson. This group of girls was the focal point of perhaps the strongest 4 years in the history of the Bates Alpine Women's team. To say they will be sorely missed is an understatement. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to have 2/3rds of that class come visit on homecoming weekend, where Liz was the recipient of the senior citation award for her amazing contributions to the team over the past 4 years. (Thanks for coming Liz and Emily, and Megan we know you are busy with school but are very excited to see you at some of the races this season.)
Finally we would like to do something that is long overdue. We would like to thank everyone for helping us put on a great NCAA's last year. Everything went smoother than we had anticipated and were it not for all of your help, it would have been impossible. Thank you all again for your continued support, we can't wait to see you on the hill again this year.

-Dan and Rogan

P.S. It was great seeing all the parents this past weekend, thank you for toughing out the gross weather and coming to visit. We hope you enjoyed the bbq for both the food and for the much needed warmth those coals were providing. See you soon.

Long Awaited Update

Our apologies for the lack of updates this blog has seen lately. Preparations for NCAA's have kept everyone quite busy. As quick as it seems, the regular season is already 2/3's over. We have two remaining carnivals, Middlebury this coming weekend and Colby the following weekend before we will be back at Bates for NCAA's. That being the case, we are already through with four Carnivals, all of which we have to update you on. We will cover them in order, Bates, UNH, UVM, and Dartmouth.

Bates:
We were happy to start off the season with our home carnival, however the first weekend didn't end exactly how we wanted it to.
Girls GS:
After the first run of the GS, Megan Papineau was in 5th place, poised for a great season opening result. Liz Thompson, Micaela Holland, and Kristin Waddle were not exactly where they wanted to be, Liz sitting in 29th, Micaela and Kristin tied for 30th place. The girls' second runs went a bit better for most with Liz, Micaela, and Kristin moving up to 21st, 24th and 25th. Megan, however, didn't have the same fortune. She instead treated the spectators with a scary crash through the netting into the woods (eventually resting her head about 1 foot from a large tree), but luckily walked away with little more than a small bruise on her neck. It was unfortunate to see the chance at that first great result go away, but great to see her walk away healthy.
Guys GS:
The mens GS started out with similar first run results, Bump Heldman was in 11th after the first run, followed by Alex Jones in 16th, and Ben Manter in 38th. There were great moments in all of these runs, though there were costly mistakes (Ben hipping out on the 3rd to last gate) in some. John Canney was on his way to a fast first run, before putting it on his hip on the upper flat section. August Felix thought about mimicking Megan's second run by heading straight for the fence, only to pull off a last minute recovery and turn back towards the course.
Second run was much like the first, with some good skiing and some not so good skiing. Bump finished the day 11th, a great first carnival result. Alex's second run was not as good, moving him back to 21st for college athletes. Ben had a mediocre second run, but kept it on his feet this time to end the day in 27th.
Guys SL:
The second morning of the Bates Carnival things seemed to be going our way. Ben took advantage of and early start and threw down a fast first run time, finishing 5th for college, despite coming down with a serious case of the flu early that morning. Ross Brockman had some first run mistakes and came down in 19th, while Bump moved from the 40th start position to 21st. Second run Bump and Ross both posted fast runs, finishing 9th and 7th on the run respectively, Bump moving up to 18th and Ross to 15th. Unfortunately before the second run Ben's battle with the flu took a turn for the worse. On his second run there may have been some focus shifted from the course to how he was feeling and there was certainly a lack of energy necessary for pulling off a typical Manter-like athletic move to keep things going. Regardless of the reason, Ben ended up hiking second run, losing a shot at the podium and an easy top 10.
Girls SL:
The girls were also looking to have a solid day after the first run. Micaela came down in 11th, with Waddle and Emily following up in 27th and 28th. Megan was in 36th and Brit was in 46th. The second run had mixed results, Micaela's second run was not quite as good, finishing 16th this time around, Waddle didn't finish the second run, and Emily was 21st on the second run. Megan had a better 2nd run, finishing 18th, and Brit also moved up with a 44th place second run. Micaela finished the day in 11th for college, while Emily ended up 18th followed by Megan and Brit finishing 23rd and 35th respectively.
Overall:
The team ended up finishing 7th overall. Not exactly the result we were looking for, but there were some good individual results and several good runs which the team needs to build off of as the season progresses.

UNH:
Women's GS:
The women's GS started out very well, with 5 girls finishing in the flip 30. The second run was great also, with Megan and Liz really stepping it up finishing 4th and 5th on the run and moving up to 6th and 13th overall. Emily also had a solid second run, not quite as good as her first, but finished the day in 14th overall and had her best GS ever.
Men's GS:
The men had a decent showing first run, we had 3 guys in the flip, all looking to take advantage of early starts and move up after the second run. They did a good job with the early start, Bump, Jones, and Ben finished 12th, 14th, and 15th on the run and moved up to 15th, 19th and 17th overall.
Men's SL:
After the first run, the men were not exactly pleased with their standings, we had 3 guys in the flip (Ben, Ross, and Jones), who were looking to charge 2nd run and move up. After the second run was over, they had done exactly that. Jones did a great job and won the run, while Ross was 7th on the run and Ben followed up in 11th. Overall they moved up to 8th, 13th, and 15th.
Girl's SL:
The women did a good job on the 1st run, putting 4 in the flip. Micaela and Liz had great second run's, finishing 7th and 14th on the run and moving up to 9th and 12th overall.



The next post was taken from the Bates Student, because it had just been too difficult finding the time to catch up on old results. Sorry, but we will keep it updated more often in the future (Sorry that there is only one remaining carnival before NCAA's).

UVM Women:

Women's alpine finished seventh out of 11 teams at the UVM Carnival this weekend. Bates came in seventh out of nine teams in Friday's giant slalom with 72 points and seventh out of 11 teams in Saturday's slalom with 69 points.
Senior Co-Captain Megan Papineau finished in the top 25 in both races, taking 15th in the giant slalom with a combined time of 2:01.89. Papineau came in 21st in the slalom with a combined time of 2:05.86.
Sophomore Micaela Holland finished 13th overall in the giant slalom in a combined time of 2:01.81.
Senior Co-Captains Liz Thompson and Emily Sampson led the way in Saturday's slalom, finishing 15th (2:02.37) and 18th (2:04.68) respectively.
Bates' Nordic and alpine teams combined for a seventh place finish out of 11 teams. Bates tallied 586 points, trailing Colby's score of 596 by only 10.
Next weekend, the Bobcats ski at Dartmouth Skiway in Dartmouth's Winter Carnival.

UVM Men:
On Saturday, the men's alpine team competed in the slalom event at the UVM Carnival in Stowe, VT. Sophomores Ben Manter and Ross Brockman placed 14th and 15th respectively with only .14 seconds between them. The next finisher was Bump Heldman '12 - one of the team's top scorers this season.
The other three men on the team fell short of expectations. Two did not finish and one missed a gate and had to hike both runs. Despite these blunders, the men finished fifth as a team, ahead of both Middlebury College and rival Colby College.
Friday's giant slalom did not bode as well for the Bobcats since their first finisher was Heldman in the 21st position. Behind him was another first-year, Alex Jones, in 25th, followed by Manter in 35th. The men placed seventh as a team, falling below where they had hoped to be.
This middling performance could be due to the change in race trail that UVM made this year. In the past, the race has been held on one of the most challenging hills in the circuit, but this season the race was moved to a less demanding venue.
For a team composed entirely of first-years and sophomores, the men are producing impressive results. When asked to comment on the future of this young team, Coach Rogan Connell said that he is not thinking about the future that much, but instead is concentrated on the season at hand.
"Right now the only thing we are focused on is getting guys qualified for NCAAs," said Connell. In March, Bates will host the Division I NCAA National Championships.

Dartmouth and Middlebury posts will be coming soon.

Alpine Preview: New additions strengthen solid core of returners 1/7/2009

Senior tri-captain Emily Sampson looks to make her third straight appearance in the NCAA Champsionships.
The 2009 Bates alpine ski team returns the bulk of its talent from last year’s 15th-place finish at the 2008 NCAA Skiing Championships in Bozeman, Mont. This year the Bobcats are excited to be hosting the 2009 NCAA Skiing Championships at Sunday River in Bethel, Maine. As hosts, Bates will be working hard throughout the season to qualify a full team to NCAAs.

Senior tri-captains Liz Thompson (Rangeley, Maine), Emily Sampson (Plymouth, N.H.) and Megan Papineau (Keene, N.Y.) will lead a young squad with four underclassmen rounding out the roster.

Four of the seven members of the women’s team have NCAA Championship experience. Thompson, Sampson and sophomore Micaela Holland (Belmont, Mass.) will compete to return to the NCAA Championships after making it last season.

Thompson will strive to make her fourth straight NCAA championship appearance, which would make her the first woman alpine skier at Bates to do so. Sampson will be vying for her third straight appearance in the championships. Papineau (Keene, N.Y.) also looks to return to NCAA action this season after suffering a season-ending injury in the second carnival last year. She qualified for the NCAA Championships her first two seasons at Bates and is already looking strong and fast this year.

Also competing for an NCAA spot will be first-year Kristen Waddle (Harpswell, Maine), who has shown some early season speed. The Bates women were only one of two Division III programs to send three women to the NCAA Championships last year and hope to do so again this year.

Ross Brockman '11 will help lead a young and talented men's team.
The 2009 men’s alpine team will be led by sophomores Ben Manter (Vassalboro, Maine) and Ross Brockman (Sudbury, Mass.) and first-years Bump Heldman (Auburn, Maine) and Alex Jones (Whitehouse Station, N.J.), who will all be battling for spots in the NCAA Championships. While the team is comprised solely of underclassmen, including four sophomores and three first-years, the team’s youth is deceiving. The sophomores have a solid year of collegiate competition under their belts and the talented first-years come in ready to compete at a high level.

One first-year who has a wealth of experience already is Heldman. Heldman spent the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons training with the US Ski Team before coming to Bates to start his college career. Now that he has decided to ski at the collegiate level, he hopes his time with the US Ski Team will pay off in the means of an NCAA Championship appearance this year.

Head coach Rogan Connell has set his sights on qualifying a full team, which would consist of a maximum three men and three women, for the NCAA Championships.

The entire alpine team kicks off its season January 23rd and 24th hosting the Bates College Carnival at Sunday River. Bates hosts the 2009 NCAA Skiing Championships from March 11th through March 14th.

Courtesy of Bates College Sports Information