Julianne Brochu ’25 at Sugarloaf in 2023 (Photo: Northwood/NYSEF).
The month of March is an important time of year for Northwoods skiers. The Nordic and downhill skiers are both finishing off their seasons by heading to their final competitions of Nationals or Easterns.
The Junior National Cross Country Ski Championships run from March 13th to March 16th in Fairbanks, Alaska. To qualify for Nordic Nationals, you need under 300 points, or you need to compete in the Junior’s National qualifying race. On March 8th Sophia Kelting ‘23, Bella Whistler ‘23, Daven Link ‘25 leave for Alaska to compete in nationals. They will compete in three races while they are there and return to school on March 17th. They are really excited to go and compete in Alaska. “The snow is going to be good, and it will be cold, I like to race in the cold,” said Wissler. The team is also hoping to see the northern lights while they’re there.
Over the weekend of March 3rd through March 5th the U16 alpine athletes competed in the U16 State Championships. States were held at Whiteface Mountain and consisted of one Super G race, one Giant Slalom, and one Slalom. In the super g race Cara Dempsey ’25 got 1st place, Julianne Brochu ’25 got 2nd, and Sydney Kuder ’25 got 4th. For the boys, Aston Ferillo ‘26 got 10th, and Cole Van Etten ‘25 got 3rd. On the second day, they competed in the Slalom where Cara got 1st, Sydney got 7th and Aston got 5th. On the final day they competed in Giant Slalom where Cara was 1st Sydney was 3rd, Aston was 3rd, Zack was 4th, and Cole was 9th. At the end of the weekend Cara was the overall New York State Champion. These results also decided who would be going to Easterns. To qualify for Easterns you need to have one top-5 result and another top-10 result. Cara, Sydney, Julianne Aston, Zach and Cole all qualified for Easterns, which will be in Sugarloaf Maine from March 13th through March 17th.
The U18 men’s alpine team is also headed to nationals at Mittersill in NH. Nationals consist of the top-20 athletes from each region. These top 20 are determined by results at the national qualifying race. Sam Rudy ‘23, Ed Brochu ‘24 and Pedro Gonzalez ’23 all qualified. They leave on March 8th and will return on the 15th. There are 5 races total. There are two downhill races, 1 super g, 1 giant slalom, and 1 slalom. They are all excited and ready to race, “I wanna go fast” says Pedro, quoting Ricky Bobby.
