January 15, 2008
The CSU Sprints were a big success with great weather and fast skiing.
Summary: Despite 2 inches of rain on Friday, the 1.6K loop of manmade snow had great coverage with many twists, turns, and tough hills.
After a cool night, the sun rose to warm the calm air and make for a fun day of ski racing. In the morning there were separate 5K races for Massachusetts boys and girls qualifying for Eastern High School Championships. At noon there was a 5K open qualifying race for all others. Results were merged to select the top 30 for the 2 PM sprint tournament. The women's side was dominated by CSU J2 Hilary Rich who won each heat easily and cruised to a 20 second victory (in 1 kilometer!) in the A final. Linnea Koons and Hannah Smith filled out the rest of the podium spots. The men's race was fiercely contested. Defending champ Frank Feist was spun around in a collision in the quarterfinals and out of contention early. After many exciting finishes the final 4 came down to Chris Stock, Topher Sabot, Nick Fogel, and Adam Masterson. Chris attacked while climbing Mount Weston to spread out the group, but had to fight hard to just get his toe across the line ahead of Nick and then Topher.
All the spectators agreed that this is the best sprint course anywhere for watching races. The entire course is visible from one spot and you have a perfect side view of Mount Weston where things often get shaken up, but then can turn to have a great finish line view. See you all next year!
Full results will be available on Tuesday.
Great photos are available here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jdoucett3/MassachusettsHSQualiferAndCSUSprints
