WA’s Nordic Ski team met at the Leo J Martin golf course and ski track in Weston on Tuesday, Feb. 4 to compete in their last full team race of the season to qualify for the state race. The team also celebrated the four senior captains who have skied their last season at WA: Alex Husgin, Martha Khusid, Marie Morris, and Ben Richards. The teams placed third and sixth for the girls’ and boys’ competitions respectively, placing eight skiers each into the state race. The team also celebrated Morris for breaking the record for most points made in four seasons by a WA Nordis girls’ team athlete.
Nordic Ski has had its challenges in the past year, with half the team leaving as graduating seniors just last winter.
“We lost a lot of seniors, and a lot of good skiers [last year],” head coach Andrew Norander said. “I thought this was going to be a rebuilding year […]. We have 35 kids on the team and about half of them are new skiers”.
The preparations for the race started right after the bell rang on Tuesday, with students going to Norander’s history classroom to clean and wax their skis. There was minor anxiety over the weight of the season’s final race, and also concerning news that the day was set to have gusts of wind over twenty miles per hour, with conditions feeling even colder for the athletes over the three laps and seven kilometers of track.
After arriving at the track following a thirty minute bus ride of kazoo playing and karaoke, the condition of the track itself became an apparent concern. Not only was the course hilly, but it also contained areas covered with ice that various athletes slipped on during their races and other spectators slipped on while crowding the track.
The girls’ race was first, at around 4:15 p.m. Morris finished in eleventh place, needing only to place in the top thirty to break the team record for most points scored in four seasons in WA Girls’ Nordic.
Before the girls’ race ended, the boys’ race began. Husgin had had a fantastic season, despite getting sick two weeks before the race. Having recovered from his sickness, Husgin placed second in the race. Norander even commented that he believed that Husgin could have made it to state champion if it were not for his illness. Nevertheless, Husgin’s recovery was quick enough to secure second place.
Nordic celebrated the race with donuts for athletes, family members, and Ghostwriter staff, as well as displaying senior posters, and a special poster made to celebrate Morris’s accomplishment.
“I feel great [about the race],” Morris said. “It’s a great way to leave my senior season with a bang.”
After some very successful recruiting, a great year for new skiers, and a well-achieved season in general, the team is looking forward to a bright future for the Nordic team.
“[The new skiers] all had a great year, and they are going to make us super competitive in the future,” Norander said. “But the really pleasant surprise was that the returning skiers made a huge jump in ability, making the current year competitive. The girls’ team especially set and broke a few records that I’m really proud of. So it was [both] a rebuilding season, and a very successful year.”
The state race will be Held at Prospect Mountain Vermont on Tuesday Feb. 11, with the boys’ and girls’ teams being led by junior Jakoby Dickson and Morris respectively.
