Wow! What a spectacular two days it has been for the Derryfield Alpine program. Yesterday we took 6 male athletes up to Loon for the State Championship race. These boys are loaded with talent, but finishes thus far this season had been a little bit inconsistent. So we asked the boys to dial it back, ski conservatively and finish! We asked for 12 clean runs in the morning, and they did exactly that! Senior Logan Goldberg ran first and finished in 6th place for us, Freshman Scott Connors started next and nailed his runs to take 1st place overall in the race! Senior Jack Schroeder skied clean to finish in 13th, and Freshman Jake Oliviero stepped up to finish in 10th overall. By that point we had 4 solid finishes and told Freshman John Small and Myles Rozen to send it! And they did! John skied his fastest GS runs of the season to finish in 8th for us, and Myles finished in 23rd. We finished the morning GS with 4 boys in the top 10 and came out the top GS team with 379 points to Profile's 366.
Heading in to the afternoon, we were ahead of Profile by 13 points, but we knew anything could happen in Slalom. We tried for the same strategy, but the boys said it was the one of the iciest courses they had ever skied. Logan again skied first for the team and placed 6th. Scott hiked first run and didn't finish second run. Jack again skied some really clean runs to place in 17th. Jake brought home the 7th place finish, John struggled a bit first run to place in 21st, and Myles put down two clean runs to finish in 18th and scored for the team. Our afternoon SL finishes placed us in 4th with 356 points behind Lin Wood, Profile and Sunapee.
Would it be enough? We sent all the parents into a fury to calculate the points and see how the math worked out for us. The answer was YES! It was enough! For the first time since 2016, the Derryfield boys took home the D4 State Championship title!! It was a total team effort. Every one of our 6 athletes scored for the team, and without those finishes we would not have taken first. They finished with a total of 735 points, with Linwood just behind us with 730, and Profile with 725. We are so proud of this boys team and so excited about what DS Alpine can accomplish with this fantastic young team.
The girls team headed over to Crotched today with 7 athletes competing for the State Title there. Talk about clean runs? The girls team put down 24 clean runs today. No falls, no disqualifications, and everyone crossed that finish line. In the morning GS, DS took second place with 359 points behind Profile with 388 points. Junior Lilly Handwerk made the podium with a 2nd place finish, Freshman Teagan Peabody put down 2 great runs to finish in 7th. Freshman Phoebe Handwerk took home 18th, Sophomore Aubrey Webb finished in 20th, Senior Alyssa Shula took 22nd, and Freshman Pola Jankowska took 28th.
The girls came back out for the afternoon Slalom to a much softer course as the temperatures continued to rise, and took 3rd in the SL for the afternoon with 359 points behind Profile with 380, and Lin Wood with 362. Lilly had 2 great runs for a 5th place finish, as did Teagan who finished right behind her in 6th. Aubrey skied clean for the 16th place. Junior Livi Bar scored for team in 20th, with Phoebe and Alyssa came in just behind her in 21st and 22nd.
Overall, our girls team took the runner-up trophy home for Derryfield with their second place finish! That makes the 3rd year in a row that our girls have grabbed the Silver The girls finished with 718 points to Profile's 768.
We are so proud of both of these teams! They fought hard, skied well, supported each other, and conducted themselves with great sportsmanship on and off the hill! Boys State Champs, and Girls runners up! We have some serious positions to defend next year:) These teams qualified 6 athletes to compete next week in the prestigious Meet of Champions to race against the top 10 finishers from every division in New Hampshire. Congratulations to Logan, Scott, John, Jake, Lilly and Teagan! They will be racing at Mittersill on 2/23.
Some really big thank you's need to go out today! We hosted today's race and I asked for volunteers. Our gate keepers, James Donovan (DS MS Coach), Alice Handwerk, and Meredith Webb did a phenomenal job today of watching the course and providing the utmost in professional results. Thank you to Margaux Peabody for a fantastic job announcing. I appreciate our extra forerunners today, Logan and Alex Benson. Athletic Director Chris Hettler attended both races and always gives fantastic support to the team.
Next up, Manchester Mac Cup and Meet of Champions. Go DS!