Chummy Broomhall 2010 - a blog by Chandra Wisneski (a senior Athletic Training major from Amherst, NH)

This weekend was different than our usual race weekend.
1. We had a full week of classes, instead of leaving on Thursday for many long hours in the UMPI vans.
2. The schools present were only from Maine, making for a smaller racing field.
3. The weather was wonderful, as long as you consider 18F a pleasant temperature.
The Chummy Broomhall Cup is a 4 year old tradition to celebrate skiing in Maine. Before you get too upset there is a Cup. The Cup is large and shows who is in charge. Colby came out victorious for another year running. Though this year we admired the cup from a far we had excellent races. Coming off a hard weekend of races in Vermont last weekend it was nice to race so close to home. We almost consider the course at Black Mountain of Maine a home course, as a collective I think the UMPI team has skied some variation of the course 1,000 times. The van ride went by especially fast this week as we were brainstorming ideas for the upcoming Dartmouth race, and the tradition of Carni-crush. Watch out.
 Sunday morning started with a brisk run and stretch, followed by breakfast and Disney themed drive to the venue. The race went off without any major collisions or accidents. Kati Christoffel did manage to lose a basket off her ski pole, but was saved by a Bowdoin coach. Thanks. Everyone raced well. The game plan was ski fast, then keep going. That is what we did. The course was a mass start 10k which started with a gradual relaxing downhill then quickly turned to a fast paced climb to the top of the infamous “high school hill”. Justine had a fantastic race, and did not lose any time on the uphills. Hannah and I traded places a few times during the race, as we tend to do. Kati skied well in her first race at Black. Leah managed to yet again cut 20% off her previous 10 k time. Simply incredible. On the boys side senior captain Aaron Schmersal had a fantastic race, passing some kids he couldn’t before. Our dinner host Justin put up a good fight for position, but managed to ski his own race. Freshmen Jake and Gordie skied well in their first Chummy Broomhall race. Coach Alexei Sotskov once again hit the wax dead on and our skis were flying. He got his workout for the day in running on the side of the trail trying to keep up with us. To put another good weekend to rest we are headed back up to the snowdrift capital of Maine, Presque Isle. Next week we are off to VT again, until then…UMPI Skiing rocks!

Thank you to the Fereshetian’s family for hosting the team for delicious and nutritious dinner! We appreciate it and for sure it helped us to ski as fast as we did!
 
***For complete race results, click here***