GORE MOUNTAIN, N.Y. – Skiers spend the year competing for their school teams or for themselves on the Eastern Cup circuit. Once a year, however, the top 24 Under-16 (U16) Vermont skiers join as a team to compete against state teams from across the Northeast. Back in February, these 14- and 15-year-old skiers participated in a qualifier race and the top 24 were named to the Vermont team. This past weekend, about 100 boys and 100 girls competed in four races over three days including two distance races (freestyle and classic), a sprint race and a four-person relay. It is both exhausting and exhilarating, especially getting to know 47 other skiers from your state over three days of hanging out together.
On the skiing front, Vermont came out on top ahead of New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York. Individual honors went to two New Hampshire skiers, Hanna Olivia and Jed Bentley, after combining the three individual race results. Several Craftsbury Ski Club members were part of the Vermont team, including Claire Serrano (4th), Tillie Lange (5th), and Leila Griffith (11th), Adele Pritchard, Effie Dunn, Anna Wetherell, Nora Demaine, Phoebe Bakeman, and Oryon Hart. The relay is always a highlight for the final race on Sunday and New Hampshire edged the top Vermont team this year. Next weekend the high school skiers have a similar event down at Holderness, N.H., for the Eastern High School Championships.
Three Craftsbury Ski Club Skiers Compete at NCAA Championships
STEAMBOAT, Colo. – One of the most difficult races to qualify for is the NCAA championships. Only 13 or 14 skiers can make it from each of three regions across the country. This year UVM’s Finn Sweet and Bjorn Westervelt, and Colby College’s Jack Young skied fast enough over 12 eastern college ski races to reach this point. All three spent their high school years skiing with the Craftsbury Ski Club. Sweet is a Craftsbury Academy graduate, Westervelt is from Stowe, and Young is from Jay. Westervelt adapted to the high altitude races best finishing 22nd in both the 7.5 km individual start freestyle and 20 km mass start classic race. Sweet placed 27th and 29th and Young was 26th, and 34th. Colorado took the team title combining two alpine and two nordic races among both the men and women’s races followed by Utah and Denver. Dartmouth was the top eastern school placing 4th.
The other difficult part about making it to this race is that each team can only take a maximum of three women and three men. For strong teams like UVM and Dartmouth, who often qualify full teams of three, their fourth skiers cannot go even if they were among the top 14 in the east. Craftsbury Academy graduate, Camille Bolduc, fell into this category as the fourth UVM skier. Bolduc skied a great season with several top 10 finishes on the eastern college circuit. She’ll be looking at next year.
