In a classic style race at Holderness Wednesday, Andover turned out a weaker than usual performance. The new style challenged the skiers, as they raced to a fourth place finish. “As a team we’re much better at skate skiing than classic.” Said Co-Captain Mimi Tanski ’11, who finished fifth. She continued, “In part it’s because a lot of us are naturally better at skating, but also the conditions have been better for skating recently, so that’s what we’ve been training for. When training we take advantage of whatever weather we get, and lately that’s been favoring skating.” Terrible snow conditions drastically slowed down Andover’s racers. Skiers had to ski one 2.6-kilometer loop twice, half of which was slick ice and half slushy snow. The team’s training also did not prepare its racers for the hilly course. “I definitely had trouble on the uphill,” said Tanski. “We don’t have any big hills around here, so I had trouble with my technique when it got really steep. Despite these disadvantages, the team finished fourth, behind St. Paul’s School, Holderness, and Proctor. Cal Brooks ’11 said, “As a team we raced pretty well, although maybe not as well as last week. That’s not surprising, since we’re really better at skate skiing.” Brooks finished twelfth, behind Max Block ’12 in tenth. Scotty Flemming ’10 and Yuto Watanabe ‘11 followed these two racers for Andover. Because of the icy conditions, several racers put a special kind of wax, called klister, on their skis. “It was hard to know what kind of wax to use, because there were really icy parts and really wet parts to the course,” said Brooks. “Some people used regular, some people used klister.” The two-loop course allowed skiers to adjust in the second round of the race, although twice around the track meant climbing a steep hill twice as well. Brooks said, “The hill was right in the beginning, which was tough to start out on, and then after you finish the loop for the first time, you have to do it again. It tires you out of the rest of the lap.” PJ Blouin ’12, faced more of a disadvantage than any other skier. At the very beginning of the race, the tip of his pole broke off. After that, whenever he planted his pole, it would stick in the ground and slow him down. Brooks said, “It was a tough race for him, but he finished strong anyway, which was very good.”
