Sports

Nordic Takes 5th and 7th

Co-Captains Elana King-Nakaoka ’14 and Sean Burkitt ’14 grabbed 11th and 13th place, respectively, for Andover Nordic in its second race of the season on Wednesday, January 16th.

The boys finished fifth out of nine teams, while the girls placed fourth out of seven teams.

The team traveled to Waterville Valley, N.H., to compete in a race hosted by St. Paul’s. Kimball Union Academy, Holderness, Vermont Academy, Belmont Hill, Cardigan Mountain School and Northfield Mount Hermon were all in attendance.

Different from the typical 5K, this sprint race featured three skate races, each measuring 2,000 meters.

In the hours leading up to the race, the team was worried about the course. “As we headed up it was raining and wet—not favorable conditions,” said Burkitt.

To fight off the sticky snow, the racers brushed off their skis to allow for a better glide. Luckily, the course was mostly flat except for two bumpy sequences.

Burkitt, in 13th place overall, had the best finish among the Andover boys.

Then came Liam Fortin ’14 in 19th place. The trio of Greer Sallick ’14, Aaron Finder ’13 and Will Bloxham ’13 finished in 24th, 25th and 27th respectively.

On the girls side, King-Nakaoka in 11th was followed by Piper Curtis ’13 in 21st and Ziggy Chelsey ’13 in 22nd.

“The team typically does pretty well, and this was no exception,” said Burkitt.

“We are off to a really strong start this season… the race went really well,” added King-Nakaoka. “It was far away but we had a fun set of competitions.”

The team consisted mostly of returners but featured the talents of some newcomers as well. Olivia LaMarche ’16, Charlotte Berry ’15, Kinsey Yost ’15 and Zoe Chazen ’14 all participated in either their first or second Nordic skiing races.

“I was really nervous since this was my first race,” said Yost. “But I had so much fun. The scenery was beautiful, and it was a really nice trail.”

Andover competed in its third race of the season on Wednesday, January 23. Because results were not available as of presstime, look for coverage of the race in next week’s issue.