This weekend's Williams Carnival coincided with the 40th anniversary of the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. Perfect conditions (except for brutally cold temperatures on Friday) made for excellent racing, and two UVM Catamounts outpaced the pack to earn EISA Skiers of the Week honors.
Karl Schulz is a Lake Placid native in his senior year at UVM, studying biology. He took care of business on his home trails with a third place on Friday, the best classic result of his collegiate career. Schulz followed that up with a fantastic second leg in Saturday's relay, putting nearly forty seconds into the field and putting the race away for the Catamounts.
This year, Karl's been sharing the circuit with younger brother Scott Schulz, a first-year at UNH who helped the Wildcat relay team take second on Saturday.
While Schulz was racing in his backyard, fellow skier of the week Anya "Biz" Bizyukova was a long way from home - 4,869 miles from her hometown of Khanty-Mansiysk in western Siberia.
Biz is in her second year at UVM and is studying Physical Activity and Wellness Science. After dealing with sickness during the first half of the season, she's found some wellness of late, and took her first win of 2020 with a strong performance in Friday's classic 10k.
She was thrilled with the race, saying: "Today after my win I enjoyed seeing my friends so happy and I realized that the worst thing you can do its be selfish in your skiing career...the only way to really enjoy it is to race to make other people happy. I was so happy to see my teammates smiling, and I enjoyed seeing my family happy. This is what it supposed to be."
On Saturday, Biz channeled that team spirit into an inspired relay anchor leg, and made a crucial pass on the final lap to secure silver for the Catamount women.