Frosties Fare Well On Killer Hill

by Britta Clark

This past Sunday were the J2 Championship and Eastern High School Qualifiers. Athletes from all over the state competed, including several MUHS and North Branch School skiers, and one Vergennes skier.

The morning began before dawn, we packed all of our equipment into cars and headed off the Cricket Hill trails in Lamoille VT. As usual most of us arrived before the race organizers had even gotten there, and sat in the gym wishing that we had our sleeping bags and pillows.

We didn’t have too long to wait however, and before long we were out on the trails warming up for the first race of the day-classic. The tracks were fairly nonexistent, but Chas and Bill did an excellent job applying the klister (thanks!) so we had pretty good kick all around. The course was fast and icy, with features such as the infamous “killer hill.” But despite these obstacles, all the skiers had good races, everyone finishing around the 8-10 minute mark-near the top half of the pack of around 80 skiers.

The second race of the day was skate technique, and Sophie, Lydia, Dominique, Will and I knew we were all on the verge of making the J2 team, so we needed to ski hard and fast. As I raced up killer hill, I felt my legs telling me to slow down, my heart beating fast, but I imagined going to the J2 championships and was able to keep up my pace.

After the skate race, we waited for results and the announcement of the J2 and Eastern team. The outcome: everyone did a fantastic job, with Walker Allen coming in 26th overall (an alternate for the Eastern team), Will Earle as the 4th J2 boy-42nd overall, Schyler Klein racing for 52nd overall and Charlie Mulcahy coming in at 87th. On the girl’s side of things Lydia Allen, Dominique Powers, and myself came in 39th, 34th and 30th respectively, all making it onto the J2 team. Sophie McKibben had her pole come off during the skate race and finished an impressive 60th, an alternate for the J2 team, and Maddie Kincaid and Ellen Watkins had great races at 56th and 63rd.

Everyone did an amazing job, and the camaraderie between the racers made it all the better.

Britta is a 9th grader at the North Branch School.