Nationals Days 1 and 2

Wednesday
The first two days at Nationals could not have been more different. Wednesday was low 30s with sleet and rain. After a short delay during the morning, the poor snow surface conditions and precipitation caused the cancellation of the race. I am not sure that anyone was disappointed. DR and I were able to spend some time during the afternoon becoming acquainted with the SkierCross course. That evening we were also able to nearly double the size of our Freestyle Program from DR, Dow, and Adam to include Antonio and Jeff. We leveled off the imperfect day with an epic game of laser tag with a 4th place finish by Blaine.

Thursday

Women On Thursday we had bright sun and blue skies. After a chilly morning it warmed up to about forty degrees. The decision was made to compact the men's and women's GS races into the same day. We woke up super early to get the race off at 8:30. The course was set so that both men and women ran the same beginning and split halfway to take off down separate trails. Krista had a tough break on her first run taking a gate to the face. She put forth a valiant effort and hiked to eventually finish the course. Sophie fell, but Blaine, Meaghan, and Elisa all completed first runs strongly. Unfortunately, Elisa fell in the second run requiring the girls to count Krista's time which meant that they finished less strongly than they have been skiing recently.

Men This was the first formal day of the Brown Men's Freestyle Program. SkierCross combines the variables of terrain park jumps with the speed of an alpine race and the danger of a men's team tuck run. The team made about 12 runs on the course before the time trials in the afternoon. They actually took a midmorning break as the other freestylers had been out too late the night before and didn't even show up. In the time trials our men really held on strong. We posted the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th fastest times. Adam Axler went off the kicker full speed, hit the ground hard, and broke his wrist. Not one to give up easily, he pushed himself up with the still functioning wrist, and in agonizing pain skied to finish the course. Unbelievable. He is currently nursing his wrist back to health and we are hoping that he will have a quick recovery.

Check out Results Here.