2026 Championship Updates
April 12, 2026
Eastern High School Championships, Gore Mountain, NY
EHS this year was at Gore Mountain in New York. Gore hosted a slushy and exciting U16 championships in 2024, and skiers had heard the lore and were ready to tackle anything as they approached the weekend.
The weekend was warm and very wet - temperatures were in the high 40s to low 50s on the sprint day! Most of the weekend, however, the clouds stayed put leaving the snow icy and fast despite the warm air. All in all, pretty good conditions for EHS by EHS standards!
Athletes raced in a skate 5k, classic 7.5k mass start, skate sprint wave start, and 4x2.5k mixed relay. There were some really good performances by team MA. Zach and Jasper consistently broke the top 20, and Dashiell and Hannah made the podium on multiple occasions! The sprint day was a great one for team Mass - our boys won the sprint event as a team!! Team MA placed 3rd as a team on the weekend.
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U16 championships, Oak Hill, NH
U16s were at Oak hill this year, which felt familiar since we raced EC4 there and had our winter training camp there. Home course advantage? Not quite, but pretty darn close.
The weekend felt very wintery with the weather never getting super warm or sunny. In fact, snow fell overnight on Friday and into Saturday morning, leading to challenging waxing conditions Saturday morning. On the Saturday morning classic course tour, athletes were on stilts due to the sticky snow - June even walked down one of the hills because of lack of glide. This led to some very tough racing for folks who didn’t have the best kick, but we have some tough spirited racers who made the most of the scenario!
In terms of racing, EMXC athletes were ready! Egor won the race on Friday, but had an unfortunate crash into a ditch in the sprint - we are glad he was okay! Thomas, Shay, and Saku were all in the top 20 at least once, and Thomas was 5th in the sprint. April had an amazing sprint, landing her best result of the weekend in 13th.
On the team-building side, Friday night dinner included prompts about how the athletes wanted to show up as a team the next day - setting the stage for a very strong ski. When prompted about their favorite place to ski, EMXC coaches were proud to hear EMXC skiers say “Weston ski track!” enthusiastically.
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Junior Nationals, Cable, WI
The last time JN’s was in Cable, WI, coach Avery was racing her first ever JN’s in 2016. This time, ten whole years later, Leigh and Emma were there as racers, and Avery there to support!
Junior Nationals consists of 4 races spaced out across an entire week. The races were:
Monday: skate individual start 5/7.5k
Wednesday: Classic sprint
Friday: Mass start 5/10k
Saturday: Skate mixed-gender relay
Leigh and Emma both showed up well prepared and excited to get to know their teammates on team New England.
Outside of racing, team bonding included meals in the dining area, trips to town for ice cream and thrifting, full team meetings consisting of team cheers, skits, and even taking a quiz to discover one’s inner animal.
On the racing front, Emma and Leigh were both psyched on their first races - Leigh in 43rd in the U18/20 race (she was the 28th U18) and Emma in 21st in the U16 category. With positive energy to harness going forward, both were stoked for more racing. Unfortunately, Emma got hit with a cold and made the very hard, yet correct choice to sit out the rest of the week’s racing.
In the classic sprint, Leigh qualified in 18th and raced into 4th in her quarterfinal - securing her overall position in 18th. This was a big, exciting jump into the top twenty for Leigh! It was especially impressive to watch Leigh navigate a day of nerves and stress with absolute confidence in her abilities - she has done so much work to show up with confidence in the controllables, and it paid off!
After a rest day came the classic mass start day! It was a funky day with snow squalls happening across the morning, sunshine poking through clouds occasionally, and a testing hill that was much different from the course. Nevertheless, New England persisted and delivered kickable and generally fast skis! Leigh locked in for another awesome race, demonstrating her ability to hold on to strong striding and a gritty effort in the face of a busy mass-start environment. She landed in 24th place and reported speedy skis on the downhills.
Relay day came last, and as always, provided an extra push for each skier to ski for the team. It’s an environment where New England skiers thrive - we know how to show up for each other! This allowed team NE to race to second place on the day - our best day of the week. Leigh's team skied into 11th out of 38 teams!
