The week before Spring Break, members of Lafayette’s Ski and Snowboard Racing Team competed in the USCSA National Championship in Sunday River, Maine. The female alpine team, two snowboarders and one freestyle skier qualified to compete at this event. Although Lafayette has had individual athletes participate in this event in the past, this was the first time that Lafayette has been invited and gone as a team. Schools from all over the country come to compete at this competition and the events always prove to be more technical and challenging than any of our racers experienced throughout the regular season.
Reed Shapiro, a sophomore, competed in both the Skier Cross and Slope style events at Nationals. Shapiro scored an amazing 9th place in the Men’s Individual Freestyle competition and 24th in the Skier Cross event. Our female snowboarding representative, freshman Rachel Shore raced in the Giant Slalom event. After an incredible 1st run where she demonstrated her talent with a 4th place finish, Shore had some difficulty in the 2nd run, but this didn’t stop her from taking a spectacular 13th place overall. Jon Dumais, our junior male snowboarder participated in the GS event as well as the Snowboard Cross. Dumais did not finish the GS race, but took a 54th in the Snowboard Cross.
The female alpine racers that went to Nationals consisted of Julia Mason (junior), Sam Ladell (sophomore), Catey Condit (sophomore), Meg Del Col (freshman), and Rebekah Scharfe (freshman).
At the competition, there were 19 female alpine teams, which amounted to over 100 racers. As a team, the girls scored an overall 16th place, based on their 15th place Giant Slalom finish and 17th place Slalom finish. The team’s top racer, Meg Del Col, lead the team with a 34th place in the GS event and was disqualified in the SL event after some unfortunate equipment issues, yet some dedicated hiking. Julia Mason finished with a 57th place in the GS and a 55th in the SL event. Our 3rd racer, Catey Condit placed 80th and 82nd in the GS and SL respectively. Sam Ladell’s beautiful technique in the course put her in 88th in the GS and 86th in the SL and new racer Rebekah Scharfe finished with 84th in the GS and 87th in the SL.
All of our athletes competing at Nationals were thrilled to be invited to such an outstanding event and compete against some of the best athletes in the country. We are even more excited for next year’s season to start training and hopefully bring even more of our team to Nationals 2013!