On Wednesday, February 10, the varsity ski team had the honor of co-hosting the NEPSAC Alpine Skiing Championships with the Northfield Mount Hermon School at Berkshire East, a small mountain 30 minutes west of Greenfield. The race began at 9:30, with the top five boys from each team skiing giant slalom, and the top five girls from each team skiing slalom.
Jack Stobierski ’12 led the Deerfield boys’ team, coming in third behind skiers from NMH and Gould, a ski academy in Maine. Alex Osgood ’13 was the next Deerfield skier coming in 19th overall, an impressive feat considering there were 72 boys competing. Osgood was closely followed by Keo Brown ’11, who finished 21st after recovering from a fall in his second run. Also skiing for Deerfield were Bryant Seaman ’11, who finished 33rd and Captain Alexander Heller ’10, who rounded off the boys with a 43rd place finish.
The girls’ team skied slalom in the morning, and Beth Lawless ’12 was Deerfield’s top finisher coming in 6th place out of the 48 girls competing.
Next in line was Marly Morgus ’12 finishing 13th. Deerfield’s only other top 20 finisher was Captain Hayley Lawless ’10 who came in 18th. Also skiing for the girls were Annie Eldred ’11 who finished 26th, and Charlotte McLaughry ’11 who finished 31st.
After an hour-long lunch break, both teams suited up for their second and final event of the day. For boys it was slalom, and for girls it was giant slalom.
Despite competing against ski-intensive academies that center their curriculums around the sport, Stobierski still shredded his way to the win in the slalom with the only combined time under a minute and 1.41 seconds, separating him from the second place skier from Gould Academy.
Brown also managed a top ten finish, coming in seventh and nosing out the next skier from Kimball Union Academy by .07 of a second. Seaman rounded out the top twenty, followed by Oliver Hopkinson ’12 with a 24th place finish, and Heller with a 30th place finish.
The girls, also trying to conquer a difficult field, put it all on the line in the GS course. Beth Lawless led the girls with her second sixth place finish of the day. Morgus was the next Deerfield finisher with a 16th place, and Hayley Lawless followed suit with her 22nd place finish. Rachael Gibson ’11 came in 29th and McLaughry was 35th.
With 15 boys’ teams competing and 10 girls’ teams, the day was an overall success. Thanks to strong finishes by Stobierski and Osgood in the GS and Stobieirski and Brown in the slalom, the boys were able to rip their way into third place overall. The girls had the Lawless sisters and Morgus to thank for laying down four solid runs and pulling the girls’ team into fourth place.
Both teams were generally satisfied with their results on their home course. Of the girls’ fourth place finish, Beth Lawless said, “It was nice to maintain the consistency from last year, especially because we were concerned about losing a couple of seniors.”
As McLaughry said, “We beasted at the B-East!”