John's Season Wrap-up

With such a winter feel today it is hard to believe the HS ski year has ended.  It is great that we have a number of racers participating at the J2 Festival and the EHS Q and Championships.  This year has been unique with the early and consistent snow.  Despite a few warm ups, we never had a long interruption and successfully completed all the scheduled races.  A big thank you to the school community and parents for all the support during the season at the races and the Christmas camp.  The team exceeded my expectation thanks to all the hard work and focus through the year.

A few highlights from the results sheets are Samantha winning the Classic race at Class C Championship, after finishing as runner-up at both WMC championship races. Forrest and Graham also both earned a podium finish at the State Championships.  The team had a very strong result at the WMC Championships, with the Boys' team 2nd and the Girls' team 3rd.  The team also is well represented on the WMC ALL Conference Team by Samantha, Fiona A., Forrest, Graham and Tucker, with John not far off ranked in 14th.

The State races this year were at historic Black Mountain and the team successfully defended both the Boys and Girls titles.  For the girls, it is the fourth year running as State Championships!  Congratulations to Carlin and Lily - their four titles may be matched but not surpassed. The Boys' team this year was very strong and deep.  Unfortunately this year our two freshman ended up as alternates for the State races.  Davis and Dylan would have been solid scorers on most other teams, but had to settle for wax testers in Rumford.  Thanks to their efforts we were able to find the best wax combination, so they really contributed to the team win.  Lars and Zach were solid at the State races, with Zach scoring two top 10 results and Lars two top 20 finishes. The Girls' season looked to be in for a major rebuild after graduating three strong seniors last year, however due to the hard work and determination of Samantha, Fiona A., Carlin and Lily, all had very strong results all year, and newcomers Fiona C-D, Fiona L., Emma all had strong days while dealing with injuries and illness.

A fond thank you to our three special seniors - John, Carlin and Lily lead by example throughout the season and are responsible for building a strong and balanced team.
John