Varsity Ski Racers Bring Home Provincial Medals!

The productive season of training and racing at Ski Martock culminated with the Varsity Ski Team on the road for Provincial competition. Tuesday was a day of training to familiarize our athletes with the new environment and to train on the hill where they would be racing.

Wednesday was supposed to be the SKI PROVINCIALS at Ski Wentworth. However, due to the forecast of rain and freezing rain, the race was postponed by a day, with the announcement in the middle of Tuesday’s training day.

This change in date put a wrench on our plans, but the team composed themselves extremely well both physically and mentally and responded to the coaches’ Plan B. We traveled back to School on Tuesday, attended classes on Wednesday, and travelled bright and early to compete at Provincials on Thursday.

The change in date also meant that four of our team members were unable to participate, but luckily our bench is deep and talented – we had three of the four racers substituted for competition!

Here are some of the highlights of the day:

• Intermediate Girls’ Team – GOLD medals and the Provincial banner – Svenja, Lucy, Paige, Sarah, and Natalie
• Intermediate Boys’ Team – GOLD medals and the Provincial banner – Mitchell, Carter, Frederik, Edward, and Diego
• Senior Boys’ Team – BRONZE medals – Kevin, Thomas, Victor, Alden, and Freek

In addition, here are the notable individual placings:

• SILVER - Svenja Priggemeyer
• BRONZE - Lucy Goddard
• 4^th - Paige Fraser
• 5^th - Sarah Sidorchuk

• GOLD – Mitchell Larkin
• BRONZE – Carter Short
• 4^th – Frederik Rohr

These are exciting placings, especially given that each age and gender category had approximately 25 racers who had to qualify through their Regional Competitions in order to make it to Provincials. There were 149 racers, and 19 were proudly representing KES!

A huge thank you from the coaches and athletes goes out to Captains Katie Goddard and Mitchell Larkin for their tireless enthusiasm, leadership, and support of their fellow team members. Their leadership allowed our team to continue to develop their skills and enjoyment of the sport the entire season. They help with coaching and supporting team members first and then mentally and physically prepare for their own races. We are so proud of you!

In addition, Katie graduates this year so will be dearly missed! She will be joined in graduation with only two other athletes; Laura Gillis who has been with the team several years, and with Katie has earned Provincial Championship titles, and Ella Brown, who joined the team this year and rediscovered her love of skiing!

Coaches Smith, Hadley and I are so proud of the entire team! Their commitment to training this winter, their interest in learning how to ski better and faster, their support of each other, their desire and work ethic to help with course set up and clean up, and the fact that they all enjoy spending sports time together and with us every day at the hill made it a spectacular winter!

Thanks for a great season and we look forward to next year already.