Slalom podium at Val St. Come. Julianne Brochu ’25 🥇U18/🥈Overall, Leann Aubut-Laurin ’26 🥉U18, and Cara Dempsey ’25 4th U18. Photo: Northwood/NYSEF (Instagram)
This past winter break, Northwood skiers of all levels have been training hard to return to race schedules and sweep podiums in races across New York State. Following a very stressful and busy last week of school during the 1st semester, FIS girls headed up to Stratton Mountain for a 4-day Eastern Cup series. Consisting of 2 giant slalom and two slalom races, every skier had to expend a lot of energy and recovery time to manage the constant active schedule. Overall, our athletes did very well across the board: Julianne Brochu ’25 and Leanne Aubut-Laurin ’26 won second and third U18, respectively, and 11th and 14th overall in the first slalom race. Julianne then won 1st U18 (7th and 8th overall) in the following second slalom and the first giant slalom.
Following this rigorous race schedule and winter break, the FIS girls’ team decided to focus on a giant slalom training block to stay home, get better, and keep up with schoolwork.
Immediately following New Year’s, the whole team was together for a USSA race at Whiteface, then scattered to different races and plans for the following days. FIS women had another 4-day (that ended up being a 3-day) eastern cup series at Whiteface, while the U16s traveled to West and Bellayre Mountain, another NYSEF branch, to compete in the Sports Page Cups.
Here is a recap of the results from @northwoodnysef’s Instagram page:
Finally, the last event that just occurred for the FIS boys’ team was a travel race to Okemo where, on day 1, Charles Leduc ’25 got 12th place with the fastest second run, and Lucas Smith ’26 got 19th place overall with a new personal best. On the second day, Marcos Alvarez ‘26 got 20th place overall, and Luke Salibello ’25 achieved a new personal best.
Considering that FIS and USSA races have gotten increasingly competitive, these achievements are very impressive for all athletes and just another step in the process to success in their later athletic endeavors. Even before winter break, FIS women were stacked on the podium at Sunday River, Maine and Val St Come in Canada.
As the ski season really begins to pick up, likely, the teams will only go up from here!
