Ski teams train over break for upcoming 2011 season

The Middlebury Alpine and Nordic ski teams kicked off their seasons on the snow during their Thanksgiving break trips. The Alpine teams headed to Vail, Colo., while the Nordic teams traveled to West Yellowstone, Mont. After training off the powder for months, both teams were eager to get back on the snow.

“It provided us with a great chance to get on the snow, since the East is lacking any form of it,” said men’s Alpine captain Bobby Poehling ’11. “Everyone’s fundamentals are looking sound, and over the next couple weeks we will be working to get our timing down and get our race pace back.”

Unfortunately, this opportunity came with a price: waking up for a 7 a.m. session of grand slalom on Thanksgiving morning in single digit temperatures. Forgoing family camaraderie and turkey are just a few of many sacrifices the teams must make in order to prepare themselves for the highly anticipated upcoming season.

The men’s team is returning their entire NCAA Championship team from last season, including Bryan Shpall ’13, Jake Lund ’11 and Poehling, the members of the team who captured fourth place in the slalom and fifth in grand slalom at the NCAA Championships. Supplementing this core of returning skiers is the large first-year class of Nick Bailey ’14, Robert Cone ’14, Liam Mulhern ’14 and Hig Roberts ’14.

“The four freshman will contribute to a men’s team that will rival the best in the carnival circuit,” said Poehling.

On the women’s Alpine team, the key to this season will be keeping the team healthy.

The team will be returning captains Nicole Dvorak ’11 and Tash Woodworth ’11, the racers who competed at last year’s NCAA Championships. The team will look for contributions from their newest additions, Emily Hammel ’14 and Emma Kitchen ’14.

“We will be looking toward a couple individual carnival wins this season on the men’s and women’s side, along with numerous other individuals climbing the podium,” said Poehling.

With the Alpine teams atop the mountains in Colorado, the men’s and women’s Nordic teams spent their Thanksgiving in the picturesque setting of West Yellowstone. Blessed with nearly two feet of snow on the day they arrived, the Nordic skiers took to the hills only 30 seconds away from their cabins. The team was so excited to get off the roller skis and onto the snow that they were hardly perturbed by the couple of days when the temperature never broke into the positive digits.

“We return a strong core of juniors and seniors, four of which skiied in the top 10 at Carnivals,” said Nordic co-captain Graham Egan ’11.

“Everybody was psyched to be skiing and made transition to the snow seamlessly,” said men’s co-captain Jimmy Levins ’11. “In terms of technique, the team is skiing well above expectations for this time of year. I think everyone is in a great place to begin to make the small adjustments we need to make to be ready to race.”

Both teams will be looking for a bounce-back from last year’s finish in the NCAA championships, where the women finished 17th and 18th in the 5K and 15K and the men finished 13th and 11th in the 10K and 20K. Levins is confident that the team will see improvement as the season progresses.

“We have a great team this year that has been pushing each other every day, and that will continue throughout the season,” said Levins.