Bates Alpine Skiing

Williams Carnival Schedule Change

2012-02-16T22:03:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow starts the Williams Carnival. The schedule has changed due to weather and we will run SL tomorrow and GS on Saturday. First run each day is 9:15. Follow us on Live-Timing

Dartmouth Carnival and UNH Make-up race at Burke

2012-02-16T22:02:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was another busy weekend of racing. In addition to the Dartmouth carnival we a third race on Sunday to make up for the GS we lost at UNH.

The great weather that start at UVM continued throughout the week of training and followed us to Dartmouth. The team started off with GS on Friday on hill we have typically struggled on, but once again the women came through strong. Emily Hayes '15 led the women in 14th, Katie Fitzpatrick '15 followed close behind in 15th and Zoe Livingston '13 completed the scoring in 19th. On the men's side Coleman Lieb '14 was our top finisher in 31st.

Emily Bamford '15 (Photo:Cory Ransom)

Saturday brought another perfect day for the SL. The men were led by Alex Jones '12 in 21st and Coleman Lieb in 30th. Emily Hayes once again led the women finishing 6th for her 4th Top-10 in the first four slaloms of the carnival season. Anne Rockwell and Katie Fitzpatrick rounded out the scoring in 19th and 20th to put the women in 5th place as a group.

Emily Hayes '15 (Photo:Cory Ransom)

On Sunday we still had the beautiful sunshine but the temps plummeted as it didn't go above zero all day at Burke for the rescheduled UNH GS. The women continued their great skiing with Emily Hayes leading the team for the third day in row with an outstanding second run that moved her from 12th to 5th. Emily Bamford '15 had her best finish of the season in 11th and Anne Rockwell finished 20th. Unfortunately Katie Fitzpatrick went out on the second run after having a stellar first run that put her in 7th. The men were led by Alex Jones in 11th after he put down the fifth fastest second run after standing in 23rd after run 1. Coleman Lieb '14 was our only other finisher in 30th. As a result of her performance this weekend Emily Hayes was named Bobcat of the Week for Bates Athletics.

Alex Jones '12 (Photo:Cory Ransom)

Emily Hayes '15 (Photo:Cory Ransom)

UVM Carnival

2012-02-16T21:24:00.001-05:00

This is a far overdue post about the UVM weekend and it was a good one. We finally had great weather for two days in a row and the best snow conditions that I can remember for a carnival at Stowe. The weekend started of with GS on cloudless sunny day. The hill was in great shape with hard snow and the most terrain I've seen on Main Street trail since we started racing on it a few years ago. The women started off the day with some great skiing. After the first run we had Katie Fitzpatrick in 7th, Avril Dunleavy in 9th and Zoe Livingston in 17th. The men followed with some more strong skiing in the first run with Alex Jones in 20th and Peter Cole in 33rd from the 76th start position. In the second run the women kept up the strong skiing. Katie and Avril flip flopped and end up 9th and 7th respectively. Zoe put down a great second run to move up to 12th and complete the scoring which put the women in 2nd as team. It was our best finish for the women in an event since we took the win in GS at UVM in '07. The second run for the men saw Alex Jones put it on his hip twice but still end up 20th and Peter Cole skied strong to finish the day 29th.

Alex Jones '12 (Photo:Cory Ransom)

Avril Dunleavy '15 (Photo:Cory Ransom)

Day two was the SL and the great weather continued. The men started off the day with some more solid skiing with Alex in 18th and Coleman Lieb making the jump from 55 to 22 in the first run. The women continued their great skiing with Avril 5th, Emily Hayes 6th and Anne Rockwell 17th after run one. Unfortunately the second run for the men didn't go as well. Both Alex and Coleman skied out but Peter Cole, Devon Brown and Brent Talbott were able to salvage some points finishing 26th, 31st and 35th respectively. The women put together another amazing day as Anne moved up to 12th, Emily moved up to 4th and Avril finished the day in 3rd for her first podium of her young career. The women again finished second as a team to complete a great weekend. As an added bonus Avril was named Bobcat of the Week for her performance over the weekend.

Emily Hayes '15 (Photo:Cory Ransom)

Avril Dunleavy '15 (Photo:Cory Ransom)

UNH Carnival and Cranmore Eastern Cup

2012-02-01T19:25:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was the UNH Carnival and an Eastern Cup slalom at Mt. Cranmore. Unfortunately due to awful weather and unsafe conditions the GS was cancelled on Friday. That left us with just the slalom that was doubled for team scoring for the weekend. While we had much nicer weather the course conditions were still rugged. The men had a tough day with two DNFs and the rest failing to make the top-60 to qualify for the second run. On the women's side the day went quite a bit better. Avril Dunleavy '15 led the women with two solid runs to finish 9th. Emily Hayes '15 enjoyed her first start in the first seed and followed up last weeks outstanding result with a 10th place finish. Anne Rockwell '14 rounded out the scoring, finishing in 22nd. Overall the women finished 4th as a team.

Emily Hayes '15 - Photo:Cory Ransom

On Sunday we moved across the valley to Mt Cranmore for an Eastern Cup SL. Katie Fitzpatrick '15 battled back after a tough start to the carnival season to lead the team with a 5th place finish. Emily Bamford '15 and Anne Rockwell '14 also had strong results finishing 9th and 10th respectively.

Thanks to Cathy and Michael Hayes for housing the ladies this weekend and thanks to all the parents that provided a spectacular lunch for the team and coaches this weekend.

Next we are off to Stowe for the UVM carnival. Go Bobcats!

Bates Carnival Recap

2012-01-23T21:45:00.000-05:00

GS

Friday was the opening of the carnival season. We were greeted with 6-8" of new snow which made for some difficult conditions but the Sunday River race crew, athletes and coaches did an amazing job prepping the hill. The highlights for Bates were Avril Dunleavy finishing 9th from the 43rd start position in her first carnival and Alex Jones finishing 13th from the 53rd start position.

Alex Jones '12 (Photo courtesy of Cory Ransom)

Avril Dunleavy '15 (Photo courtesy of Cory Ransom)

Saturday was the slalom and the cold weather and challenging conditions continued. In the men's race Alex Jones was again our top finisher in 15th. In the women's race, Bates was poised for a great day with Avril Dunleavy in 7th, Emily Hayes in 11th and Anne Rockwell in 15th after the first run. Unfortunately Anne and Avril both went out within sight of the finish but Emily was able to put down a great second run moving up to 5th.

Following the slalom we had a great reception hosted by Brent '81 and Sally Harwood P'10,'14. We would also like to thank Sue and Mark Harriman, Stephanie Dumont and Amy Connell for not only putting together a great reception but also setting up the Friends of Bates Athletics tent and reception area. Also a huge thanks to Sunday River for providing free lift tickets for the student spectator bus.

Emily Hayes '15 (Photo courtesy of Christine Feehan)

Bates Carnival

2012-01-16T19:53:00.000-05:00

After more than 2 months on snow and 10 races the team is ready for the most important part of the season to start. The carnival season kicks off this week with the Bates Carnival on January 20-21. We hope you can join us for the races and a parents and alumni reception following the slalom on Saturday.

Race information can be found on the EISA website. Reception and Friends of Bates Athletics info is below. If you can't make the races you can also follow us live on Live-Timing.com.

The Friends of Bates Athletics invites you

to join the Bates Nordic and Alpine ski teams at Black Mountain and

Sunday River for the Bates Carnival and

an apres ski reception in Newry, ME after the Alpine portion of the carnival.

Reception

Saturday, January 21, 2012

hosted by Brent '81 and Sally Harwood P'10,'14
90 Pond Rd
Newry, Maine
4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Please RSVP by clicking here or contacting

Stephanie Dumont at 207-786-8370 or sdumont@bates.edu

***************************************************************************************************

Friends of Bates Athletics Welcome Tents

Friday - January 20, 2012

Black Mountain - Rumford, ME

Time: 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Saturday - January 21, 2012

Sunday River - Newry, ME

Time: 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Winter Break

2012-01-08T21:26:00.000-05:00

The team just finished up its winter break training camp. We had 7 good days of training with a USSA GS at Sunday River in the middle (Bump Heldman and Emily Hayes took the wins). Overall it was a good camp although we did battle some sickness and injuries. We also welcomed our newest team member Emily Bamford who comes to us from the Australian national team. She should be a great addition to our already strong women's team. Next up are the Eastern Cups at Whiteface (men) and Stratton (women) at the end of the week and a USSA SL at Sunday River on MLK day. These races will serve as our final prep before the carnival season kicks off with the Bates Carnival at Sunday River on January 20-21.

Bump Heldman 1st and Coleman Lieb 2nd @ Sunday River

Emily Hayes 1st @ Sunday River

Eastern Cup Recap

2011-12-23T06:34:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays!

Here's a quick recap of the Eastern Cup races this week at Sunday River (Women) and Sugarloaf (Men)

Women's Results
Men's Results

Women

Day 1 - SL
Katie Fitzpatrick took the win by a slim margin of .09 over Annie Rendall from Dartmouth. Avril Dunleavy completed the podium in 3rd only .15 out of 1st. Anne Rockwell and Emily Hayes also had strong days finishing 6th and 12th.

Day 2 - SL

The second SL started off strong with Katie and Avril 1st and 3rd after the first run and Emily Hayes in 7th. Unfortunately Katie and Avril were second run DNFs but Emily skied very well to move into 3rd. Emily's result put Bates on the podium in all four eastern FIS slaloms this year (8 out of 12 possible podium positions).

Day 3 - GS

The third day brought us the first GS of the year in the east. While we've been lucky to have great slalom training for the past six weeks our gs training has been limited since returning from Mammoth. Avril had the best result of the day for the team finishing 5th, just a a tenth of a second off the podium.

Day 4 - GS

This was the last day of racing before a well deserved break for the women. A change in the weather brought some tough conditions, but the Sunday River race crew did a great job with the hill. Anne Rockwell was our only finisher on the day but had a great result finishing in 11th. Avril had a great first run to take the lead but was caught out by the super slick conditions that took out most of the top finishers from the first run.

Men

Day 1 - SL

Bump Heldman led off the men's Eastern Cup series with a win. Alex Jones also had a strong finish in 7th.

Alex Jones - Photo courtesy of Cory Ransom

Day 2 and 3 - SL and GS

A tough two days for the Bobcats. Stefan Lyons was the top SL finisher in 40th and Matt Perejda was the top GS finisher in 45th.

Day 4 - GS Cancelled.

FIS Slaloms at Sunday River. A Great Start to the season!

2011-12-12T09:29:00.000-05:00

Day 1

Saturday was the beginning of the race season for the majority of the team and the women started off in dominant style with a sweep of the podium. Katie Fitzpatrick '15 put down two great runs to take the win by almost a second over teammate Avril Dunleavy '15. Zoe Livingston '13 had a great second run to move from 8th to 3rd, to round out the podium. Emily Hayes '15 also had a solid day finishing 7th.

On the men's side it was a bit tougher of a day as Bump Heldman '12 and Alex Jones '12 had issues on their 1st and 2nd runs respectively, but Coleman Lieb had a strong day moving from the 64th start position to 18th on the day.

Day 2

On Sunday the duo of Avril and Katie continued their strong skiing. This time Avril took the win by a margin of 2.1 seconds over Katie to take the top two steps of the podium. Anne Rockwell '14 rebounded from a disappointing DNF in the second run on Saturday to finish a strong 5th. Zoe added another top-10 result, finishing 9th on the day.

The men had a slightly better day on Sunday. Bump sat 10th after the 1st run despite a dubious decision to race on skis he hadn't skied on yet. Second run he switched back to a pair of skis that he was comfortable on and put down a stellar run to win the run and move up to 3rd. Alex struggled on the second run dropping back a few positions to 16th which was still a respectable early season result against a strong field. Coleman continued his attack from the back moving from the 65th start position to 18th.

Results can be found here.

Day 1 Podium

Day 2 Podiums

Best Training in the East

2011-12-05T11:08:00.000-05:00

Despite the 60 degree temps and occasional rain last week, we actually had a great week of training at Sunday River. Thanks to Sunday River's early season snow making efforts and a thousand pounds of salt we had 3 days of SL on very firm snow. Then it got cold. Now it feels like mid-winter on the hill and the training is even better. It's a nice advantage to have the only available training in the East at our home mountain.

One more week of training, then we start the season with 2 FIS slaloms for Men and Women at Sunday River. After 5 weeks on snow the team is excited and eager to race. Go Bobcats.

Training 11/30/11

Training 12/4/11 (A couple days of snow making makes a big difference!)

Mammoth

2011-11-27T17:54:00.000-05:00

The team has just finished up a great 6 day camp at Mammoth. After a solid two weeks of skiing at Sunday River we packed up and flew out to Mammoth last Saturday. We were greeted with a foot of fresh snow on Sunday for our first day of skiing which made for some great free skiing. On Monday we started training with a great session of GS and followed that up with another great day of GS training on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday we were able to get great sessions of GS and SL each day. After training on Thursday we were treated to a Thanksgiving feast put on by the Talbott's and the Fitzpatrick's. Friday we finished up our camp with an early morning SL session before packing up and making the drive back to Vegas for our flight home. We are now looking forward to two more weeks of training at Sunday River before we have our first FIS races of the year.

NCAA SL

2011-03-11T22:00:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow's SL will be webcast on www.ncaa.com and live timing will be available at www.live-timing.com

Men's SL

1st run - 9am

2nd run - 12:15pm

Women's SL

1st run - 10:15am

2nd run - 1:30am

Temps are dropping, so it should be a great day to race tomorrow.

NCAA GS Schedule for 3/9/11

2011-03-08T21:53:00.000-05:00

Here's the schedule for tomorrow. Unfortunately due to the schedule change only the Nordic race will be webcast, but the race can still be followed at www.live-timing.com

Women's GS

1st Run @ 8:30

2nd Run @ 10:45

Men's GS

1st Run @ 1:00

2nd Run @ 3:15

GS race tomorrow

2011-03-08T16:26:00.000-05:00

With the incoming weather the GS has been moved up to tomorrow.

Time to race!

NCAA Selections

2011-03-03T15:11:00.000-05:00

Here's the link to the NCAA selections. We actually qualified four men but there is a limit of 3 that can go. Congrats to Bump, Ben, Johnny, Alex and Micaela.

http://www.ncaa.com/news/skiing/2011-02-28/skiing-selections-announced

Bobcat of the week

2011-03-03T15:10:00.000-05:00

http://www.bates.edu/x225482.xml

Bates Men 4th in GS

2011-03-01T14:31:00.000-05:00

Bates Men 4th in GS at Bates Carnival/EISA Champs/NCAA East Regional

http://eisaskiing.org/eastern-regional-champs-bates-carnival-gs.html

http://eisaskiing.org/BART/Results11/bat11.htm

Bates Men 3rd in Slalom

2011-03-01T14:30:00.000-05:00

Bates Men 3rd in SL at Bates Carnival/EISA Champs/NCAA East Regional

http://eisaskiing.org/eastern-regional-champs-bates-carnival-sl.html

2010 Early Season FIS Highlights

2010-12-21T14:41:00.000-05:00

Eastern Cup Slalom

2010-12-18T17:18:00.000-05:00

Ben Manter 3rd today after leading first run. Alex Jones 12th.

Anne Rockwell 10th in the women's race.

Looking forward to tomorrow. Definitely left some better results out there on the hill today.

2010-12-11T21:22:00.000-05:00

Ben Manter on the podium at the first FIS race of the year. Alex Jones in 4th. Ross Brockman and Bump Heldman tied for 8th.

2010-12-06T17:42:00.000-05:00

Winning runs from the USSA races this past weekend at Sunday River.

Sunday River Training

2010-11-30T09:49:00.000-05:00

Hood

2010-11-24T12:45:00.000-05:00

Snowmaking.

2010-11-01T13:04:00.000-04:00

Sunday River is getting close. Should be skiing this weekend.

Sunday River is Open

2010-10-23T08:18:00.000-04:00

Its nice to have our home mountain open before any of the Colorado areas.

Quebec trip and the start of the carnival season

2010-01-14T22:45:00.000-05:00

We had a great trip to Quebec for three FIS races (2 GS and 1 SL) last week that served as our final warm-up for the carnival season. We had strong performances from assistant coach Dan Loman (2 wins in GS, 7th in SL), Bump Heldman (3rd in GS, 5th in SL), Alex Jones (3rd in GS), Ben Manter (6th in GS, 8th in SL), Ross Brockman (10th in GS, 10th in SL), Jeff Lathrop (9th in SL), John Canney (11th in GS), Zoe Livingston (4th and 8th in GS) and Kristin Waddle (7th in GS, 14th in SL).

Tomorrow the carnival season begins and we look to continue the strong skiing from the entire group. Watch the results as they happen on www.live-timing.com

Go Bobcats!

Winter Break Update

2010-01-03T17:25:00.000-05:00

It's been busy few weeks here for the Bobcats with the conclusion of Eastern Cups, holidays and our training camp. Here is what has been going on -

Eastern Cups

The men continued to battle weather at Sugarloaf and only completed one of two scheduled GS races and even that race took two days to complete. Bump Heldman continued his early season success with a 4th place.

The women had no weather issues with their races and were able to get all four races in. Here are the highlights.

SL #1

Caitlin Forbes - 8th (Started 24th)

Zoe Livingston - 14th

SL#2

Micaela Holland - 9th

GS#1

Micaela Holland - 5th (3rd second run)

Caitlin Forbes - 12th

GS#2

Caitlin Forbes - 12th (5th second run)

After a well earned week off the team returned to Sunday River to start our training camp on December 29th. Despite the challenging weather of the past week, we have had excellent training.

On the 30th we joined up with the Gould Alpine Competition Program for their first "Carnival" of the year. The GACP carnivals are a series of races they do with their J4 and J5 athletes throughout the season. For the carnivals they divide up all of their athletes into different teams named for each of the EISA schools. We then divided up our group so that that two of our skiers were on each team. Our skiers spent the afternoon skiing, inspecting and racing with their respective teams. It was a great experience for the young kids from the Gould program and our skiers had a great time working with all of them.

Tomorrow starts a busy week of racing. On Monday and Tuesday the men's NorAms are at Sunday River. Bump Heldman and Dan Loman will be racing. Then on Thursday we travel up to Quebec with the entire team to get three FIS starts in before we start classes and get ready for the first carnival of the year.

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

2009-12-18T15:52:00.000-05:00

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

2009-12-17T11:49:00.000-05:00

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!!!

2009-12-06T17:40:00.000-05:00

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

2009-11-27T10:47:00.000-05:00

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

2009-11-17T13:19:00.000-05:00

Great weekend of skiing!

2009-11-16T15:45:00.000-05:00

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

2009-11-09T18:29:00.000-05:00

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

2009-11-04T11:05:00.000-05:00

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

2009-10-23T12:00:00.000-04:00

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!

2009-10-15T15:13:00.000-04:00

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

2009-10-13T08:55:00.000-04:00

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

2009-10-06T15:34:00.000-04:00

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

2009-02-17T16:20:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-13T19:32:00.000-05:00

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

First race of the year

2008-12-09T06:33:00.000-05:00

After a great camp at Mt Hood and great week of training back home at
Sunday River the team had it's first race of the season, a USSA SL at
Sugarloaf. The entire men's team along with assistant coach Dan Loman
and a handful of the women's team (missing were the seniors who were
finishing up their senior thesis) got their first start of the season.
While the men had a few too many DNF's there was still some very fast
skiing led by Coach Loman with the win over Vincent Lebrun-Fortin of
Colby. Ross Brockman struggled a bit on the first run but put down a
fast second run that was with in a couple of tenths of Lebrun-Fortin who
was a Carnival slalom winner last year. On the women's side sophomore
Micaela Holland and first-year Kristin Waddle paced the women finishing
2nd and 3rd respectively. This week the team has a busy week as they
finish up final exams and get ready for a couple of USSA GS starts
followed by the start of the Eastern Cup FIS series on December 19th at
Sunday River (women) and Sugarloaf (men). Full results can be seen at
the links below -

https://www.skimara.org/SeededResults/120608M.txt
https://www.skimara.org/SeededResults/120608W.txt

More training at Mt. Hood.

2008-11-27T20:36:00.000-05:00

1st day of Thanksgiving camp at Mt Hood

2008-11-23T22:52:00.000-05:00

2008-11-23T16:39:00.000-05:00

Mt Hood

2008-11-23T13:53:00.000-05:00

Back on Snow

2008-11-15T16:10:00.000-05:00

After a couple of weeks of warm weather we were back on snow today.
Despite the weather the team was able take advantage of some pretty
good conditions and got a few hours of skiing in. We finally have a
more favorable weather forecast for the week and are hoping to get a
few days of SL training at the end of the week. On Saturday we head
out to Mt Hood for our Thanksgiving training camp where we expect to
get 6 great days of GS and SL training.

--
Rogan Connell
Head Coach Alpine Skiing

2008-11-15T10:40:00.000-05:00

2008-11-15T10:38:00.000-05:00

First day on snow at Sunday River

2008-11-02T11:53:00.001-05:00

2008-11-02T11:53:00.000-05:00

First Blog

2008-10-28T17:01:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone,
This is the Bates Alpine team writing our first blog on our new website. There will soon be much more to follow, keeping you up with our day to day life. Keep an eye out for new posts...