Racing Home

General Info

Race Team

Race Results

Application

Cazenovia Ski Racing Report
Toggenburg Mountain Winter Sports Center Race
January 7, 2006

The first race of the 2006 Central New York ski racing season kicked off this past Saturday at Toggenburg (I can’t say it with a straight face) Mountain. Although this has not been an ideal winter for skiing, the Toggenburg crew had the course well groomed and ready to race.

Needless to say the Cazenovia team was well represented. Although three Cazenovians came to race, two weren’t allowed to race due a bureaucratic technicality that placed paperwork above pediatric participation. Consequently Sam (Big Air) Fellows and his brother Will were turned away without ever getting to the starting gate. Be assured though they will be back; with a vengeance.

That left Cazenovia with just one single solitary racer, the now grizzled veteran Barclay (Bode Miller) Talbot. But as he has in the past and consistent with Cazenovia Ski Racing tradition, Barclay demonstrated that the only number that matters in ski racing is your place on the podium. Racing alone Barclay snared a fourth place finish in the highly competitive Male 4 division.

Head coach Anne Lapham helped put this race into perspective. “Barclay proved again today and the Cazenovia program consistently demonstrates that a large program doesn’t necessarily guarantee high quality results. Do the math” she quipped as she boarded the team vehicle.

So we set our team of skilled analysts to “do the math” of the Toggenburg race and here is what we found. In the Male and Female 4 and 5 divisions there were 108 total racers. Toggenburg fielded the largest team with 53, followed by Labrador with 31; Song showed up with 19, both Skaneateles and Bristol came with two, and finally Cazenovia with one. Now based on a highly technical, complicated, and proprietary performance measuring formula we were able to test Coach Lapham’s assertion. The big galoot, Toggenburg with 53 racers finished with an average place standing (aka: APS coefficient) of 14. Labrador the second largest team produced an APS of 15. Song Mountain’s team comes in with an APS of 16. Bristol’s APS for the week was a lowly 25. Skaneateles burned an APS of 12 (consistent with Coach Lapham’s claim). And finally Cazenovia’s APS for the first week of racing was 4. By the way a lower number is a good thing. So the smallest team produced the only podium worthy APS value. Our analysts also believe that these results hold consistent throughout prior race seasons as well.

So there you have it. The Cazenovia Ski Racing team may not field the numbers but they own the field and consistently achieve the desired numbers (i.e. top place finishes). Keep up the good work!