Cal Brooks ’11 battled hard over the hilly 5k course at Proctor Academy and led the Andover Nordic team to a solid 5th place finish. Brooks’ impressive performance secured him a 9th place finish. The conditions at Proctor were perfect for skate skiing, a special skiing technique that uses diagonal skating strides. The snow was hard-packed and cold, providing a fast surface that led to lightning fast times. The course at Proctor was one of the toughest Andover has skied yet, as it had many arduous climbs and tricky winding downhill sections. Nevertheless, Andover went into the race seeking to improve over the past weeks races and clench an elusive top five finish. With the boys race starting first, many of Andover’s skiers barely had time to put their skis on as they arrived only 10 minutes before the start. Brooks led the way for Andover in the first heat, followed by Ben Ho ’11 and Julian Danziger ’11 in the second and third heats, respectively Brooks fought hard throughout the race and finished with a time of 14:52 minutes. Max Block ’11 crossed the line second for the team in his first race for Andover. He shot over the finish line in 23rd place in 16:29, followed closely by Ho in 25th place with a time of 16:38. Scotty Fleming ’10 anchored the race for Andover, finishing in 28th place with a time of 17:01. With three Andover skiers finishing within seconds of each other, they beat out more experienced teams like Putney and Vermont Academy. Captain Berol Dewdney ’09 paved the way for the girls, closely followed by Mimi Tanski ’11. Dewdney blasted through the course to an 11th place finish and a time of 17:16. While Dewdney took off, Tanski used her power to overcome her opponents. She finished 13 seconds after Dewdney in 13th place. B.J. Garry ’10 said, “We went out there not knowing how we would place, but the team put together a really great performance.” Coach Robinson added, “The guys made a huge leap this race. Fleming and Block put together great performances considering it was their first long skate race of the year.” Looking to the future, Robinson said, “We are going to be doing some really tough workouts in the coming weeks as we prepare for Interschols. We are going to try to help people who don’t know how to ski classic to improve their skills.” With the great snow conditions the past few weeks Andover improved drastically as the racers are getting a lot of valuable training time. Andover continues with high expectations as it prepares to ski classic next week at Kimball Union Academy.
