Championship Season - EHS
April 13, 2024
Eastern High School Championships
This year, Team Massachusetts finished the weekend in fourth place overall with 27,828 points, only 64 points behind third place Maine. This is a big deal, as the team shrunk the point gap of 605 points behind Maine from last year.
This is reflected by an impressive sprint effort for the boys team, as they won the sprint day with 3825 points, just 7 points ahead of the overall winning team, NH. They also placed third behind VT and NH in every other race. This is a demonstration of the depth skiers in MA and the hard work of Massachusetts athletes, including athletes who didn’t make the EHS team this year. Over the whole weekend, at least one member of team MA finished in the top 10 of every race, including EMXC skiers Hannah Petersen, Sarah Kirincich, Jared Rife, Ian Brenner, and Sam Currie.
Friday - Skate 5k
The weekend was kicked off with an individual-start 5k. In the girls race, EMXC started the weekend strong, with Hannah Petersen in 6th place, and Sarah Kirincich rounding out the top 15. Polina Kontorovich placed 45th - an improvement from last year by 16 places! For Keira McNeil, Avery Miller, and Abby Kirincich, this was their first ever EHS race and kicked off a fun week of racing for them.
The boys also had strong results, with Ian just off the podium in 4th place. Sam, Jared, Calvin, Luca and Mori all placed in the top 40. Rowan, Levin, Milo, Ethan and Tyler rounded out the top 55. Sid had a 20 place jump from last year's mass start result. Gil completed the race under the weather to round out the finishers for team MA. As can be seen by this squad’s results, the depth of MA skiing is real!
Saturday AM 7.5k Classic Mass Start
In Saturday's mass start 7.5k Classic event, Hannah and Sarah took 9th and 10th place, leading their team to a strong day of results. Polina had an impressive 23rd place finish (a 37 place improvement from last year). Abby and Avery both placed in the top-70, which are exciting results as first-years at EHS. On the boys side, MA had 4 boys in the top 15, including Jared (7th), Sam (10th) and Ian (12th). Luca and Rowan both placed in the top 35. Andrew, Adam, Calvin, Ethan, Milo, Mori, and Owen were all in the top 57, with big jumps from last year for Calvin and Ethan. This goes for Milo, Adam and Owen, too, who completed their first ever EHS mass start! Both boys and girls teams found success in the mass start by working together and pushing their teammates through the racing.
Saturday PM Skate Sprint
Saturday afternoon featured a wave-start sprint race, with five skiers (one from each state) starting in heats every minute. Hannah started in wave 1 and demonstrated her recently discovered aptitude for sprinting, placing 6th. Polina also had a breakthrough race, and just missed the top 10 by a second! Keira and Avery finished just a third of a second apart. The boys carried the sprinting momentum from the girls and had a very successful day! Eleven members of team MA finished in the top 35. From EMXC this included Ian, Sam, Andrew, Luca, Jared, Rowan, Dashiell, Levin, Milo and Calvin.
Sunday Relay Day
Relay day is perhaps the most fun day, and a day where team spirit really shines through. Athletes were organized into teams of 4, with 2 boys and 2 girls. Each team mate raced their leg and tagged off. Relays are always exciting, and this year, the race for 3rd place was tight and team MA-1 was only 5 seconds behind the 3rd place team! Of note in the relay was an amazing first-leg by Polina, who finished the first leg in 5th place and set her team up well for the rest of the relay! Team MA had teams in 5th, 9th, 21st, 28th, 32nd, 34th, 36th, 42nd, 43rd, and 45th. As a whole, EHS weekend is a fun way to end out the year and compete against some of the top athletes in New England. Great job by everyone!
