Championship Series!

Things were pretty crazy for the past week and a half with championship series going on for our athletes.  U18 Nationals continued at Mammoth, Eastern Junior FIS Finals were at Stowe, and U16 Eastern Championships were at Sugarloaf.  We had some fantastic results at each championship as the girls represented MMSC/MMWA very well!

At the U18 Nationals, Kelsey and Alita wrapped up their series racing in the GS, DH, and SG.  All reports from the GS were that it was on a painfully flat hill with extremely soft conditions.  Kelsey and Alita had some issues with their day with Kelsey finishing 26th and Alita DNF'd second run.  In the DH, Kelsey missed out on the Gold by just 3 tenths of a second but earning the Silver Medal.  Alita, who admits DH is not her thing, toughed out the nerves and finished 37th.  In the final event of the championships, the SG, Kelsey had a very respectable 11th place finish, moving up from a start number of 20.  Congrats on a great series!

Kelsey on the DH Podium

At the Eastern Junior FIS Finals, we had some very exciting results and one very exciting crash.  On day 1, Elly came ripping into the Horsebarn Pitch jump and ended up crashing through 2 layers of B-Net and ended up under the Sensation lift!  All things considered, she was ok!  She ended up with a pretty good concussion, a ride to Fletcher Allen, and a chipped tooth or two.  Quite possibly the most difficult part of her crash was the fact that she had to spend the afternoon with me!  We are very thankful that she is ok and she returned to snow today!  Sophie Leiter was not phased and raced the SG the next day, moving from start number 40 to finished 17th!  The rest of the girls competed in the GS and SL over the weekend...

Eastern Junior FIS Finals at Stowe, March 9th

Courtney Hayden - 6th

Denali Balser - 11th

Emma Sahn - 27th

Sophie Leiter - 41st

Linley Shaw - 44th

Caroline Armbruster - 47th

For the SL, we saw some challenging sets and a couple of our girls stepped up in a big way!  Check out the bib number for our girls and the places they finished.  That is some serious moving up!

Eastern Junior FIS Finals at Stowe, March 10th

Linley Shaw bib 35- 3rd, 2nd for U18's and she WON the second run!

Lucy Merriam bib 45 - 8th

Neza Stefanic bib 66 - 12th

Linley on the SL Overall Podium

Sandra competed at the U16 Eastern Championships and had a very successful series.  She placed in the top 10 in all events.  Her results were as follows: SG1 - 4th, SG2 - 10th, GS - 5th,  SL - 3rd.  Due to her outstanding results, she was one of 10 Eastern U16's to qualify for the U16 National Project in Park City, taking place in early April.  Way to represent, Sandra!

Vermont Cup Finals took place this past weekend and a group of girls went to Killington to compete in the SL Finals...

VT Cup Finals SL at Killington, March 17th

Kelsey Chenoweth - 1st

Lucy Merriam - 14th

Neza Stefanic - 18th

Sarah Reilly - 19th

Ingrid Klinkenberg - 30th

Molly Danzig - 33rd

Sarah Rowse - 40th

Kelsey wins...again.

We are entering the final push with only a handful of races to go.  Kelsey left for Squaw Valley, CA today to compete in US Nationals.  She will race in the SG, GS, and SL, good luck Kelsey!  Alita, Emma, Court and Denali will be racing Thursday/Friday in the Eastern Cup Finals GS's at Sugarbush.  Alita will continue on to race in the Eastern Cup Finals SL's at Waterville over the weekend.  The rest of the U18/U21 girls will be heading to Whiteface this weekend for two FIS Devo SL's.  Sandra will headed to Sugarloaf for the U16 AM/CAN over the weekend.  Good luck to all!

I leave you with one final picture from training on Monday.  We had a bluebird day, no wind, and a spectacular surface...