In the past week, Rumford Maine has received over a foot of snow, on top of a previous storm. Many times in the past, the snow conditions for the March Championship events has been difficult, but mother nature came through this year with a home run. The Chisholm Ski Club which is hosting NENSA’s Eastern High School Championships (EHSC) has a rich tradition and has hosted many ski events over the past 70 years or more. Today was the first day of competition for EHSC and it started with the 5 km Freestyle race.
Racers, coaches and parents began to trickle in to Black Mountain of Maine midmorning to set up their wax cabins, find uniforms and sort skis for the weekend of races. The women’s race started at 3:00 p.m. in 15 sec intervals. The race course was Ray’s 5 km, a course that many skiers have raced on before, which included the infamous High School Hill!
Olivia Skillings from Maine placed 10th today with a time of 12:44 just behind Vermont skier Ingrid Miller in 9th with a time of 12:43. Phoebe Sweet also from Vermont came in 8th with a time of 12:33, her teammate Charlotte Ogden was 7th with a time of 12:29. Laura Appleby from Massachusetts placed 6th in 12:26, Vermonter Mae Chalmers was 5th in 12:20.9, and another Vermonter Rena Schwartz came in 4th with a time of 12:20.3. Abigail Strienz skiing for Maine placed 3rd with a time of 12:11, Callie Young from Vermont was 2nd today in 11:56, and Sophia Laukli came in first with a time of 11:55.
The men went out at 4:00 p.m. skiing the same 5 km course, and placing 10th today was Caleb Streinz from Maine with a time of 10:51, Zander Martin skiing for Vermont placed 9th with a time of 10:50, Brian Beyerbach from New York was 8th in 10:46, and Will Koch skied to 7th with a time of 10:39. James Kitch placed 6th in 10:31, and his teammate Oliver Snow was 5th with a time of 10:30.2. Joshua Valentine from New Hampshire was 4th in 10:30, Scott Schultz from New York placed 3rd in 10:20, Greg Burt from Vermont was 2nd in 10:10 and Ben Ogden also from Vermont won today with a time of 9:55.
More action tomorrow with the morning 7.5 km Classic race, and the 1.2 km Freestyle sprint in the afternoon. The overall individual leaders heading into tomorrow are Sophia Laukli for the women, and Ben Ogden for the men, and Vermont is in the lead for state points.
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