Nordic Ski Senior Night sets new records and says early goodbyes to seniors
All of the Seniors lining up for a picture together. From left to right; Lizi Ryll, Julia Craffey, Cam Douglas, Raj Pola, Will Owen, Amelia Warsen, Josh Forty, Kate Ciulla, Meghan Hall, Hannah Swanson, Sarah Strzegowski, Kendra Ruan and Remy Towers.
February 4, 2023
At Weston Ski Track, on Tuesday, Jan. 31, WA’s Nordic Ski Team began to show their gratitude towards an overwhelming number of seniors on the team, many of whom pulled away with new personal records. The boys and the girls placed fourth and third out of seven respectively, both against prominent teams like Concord-Carlisle, Acton-Boxborough, and Wayland.
Upon arriving at the race, the weather for skiing was a mess with reports of ice and slush on different parts of the course, resulting in many falls and accidents before the race. With the unusual weather patterns in the past couple of months, the track was chewed up and gross to the eyes of players and resulted in a different type of challenge for many.
The meet began with the first 5km race, with senior Joshua Forty from the boys’ team keeping the pace behind many of the top skiers from Concord-Carlisle, eventually taking fifth. Then coming close behind was junior Liam Schmidt flying through the finish line in 10th place, then sophomore Alex Huesgen in 11th. This put three of WA’s male competitors in the top 15 and led them to take the fourth-place spot in the meet, which is a higher placement for WA than in previous years.
Other WA boys’ competitors like junior Aidan Rosenthal-Pitts placed 46th, senior Will Owen placed 59th, freshman Jackoby Dickson placed 65th, and junior Edward Melanson placed 75th.
On the other side with the girls’ team in the second 5km race, sophomore Marie Morris took initiative, claiming 14th place, while many WA racers came behind them in a consistent manner with sophomore Sarah Cunniffee taking 16th, junior Sophia House placing 19th, junior Tara Morris taking 23rd, and sophomore Martha Khusid taking 25th. WA coming in with five competitors securing another top-five spot for the girls’ team is another surprising matter.
Many other WA girl racers followed in the second race, with senior Amelia Warsen in 47th, senior Meghan Hall in 48th, freshman Nina Pierson in 57th, freshman Ella Raker in 58th, senior Julia Craffey in 61st, senior Lizi Ryll in 67th, senior Hannah Swanson taking 69th, senior Kate Ciulla in 77th, senior Kendra Ruan in 79th, and junior Keilana DaRosa in 86th.
This was one of the last races for the seniors of this season, all 15 of whom will leave soon. With half the team gone, the next couple of years is looking tough for the team, which is trying to find players who are passionate about the sport.
Coach Andy Norander, who has been a history teacher for WA for 24 years and has been coaching Nordic for more than 21 years, has recognized the struggle that will come to find new players but has stayed optimistic about having a good rest of the season, and is hopeful in what is about to come.
“They [seniors] are going to be irreplaceable and the younger skiers know they’re gonna have to do a lot of recruiting,” Norander said. “So this is a great group of seniors and even though they will be going on too much bigger and better things next year I hope they can come back and visit and ski with us.”
