Beating out his Belmont Hill opponent in the anchor leg of the Boys A-finals, Co-Captain Eli Newell ’20, along with Sam Gallaudet ’23, finished second out of 18 pairs, leading to Andover’s best result in a full-league race since 2016.
Andover Nordic traveled to Dublin, N.H. this past Wednesday, where it competed in a relay style race against other top New England teams at the Dublin School. Andover competed against many schools in the area including St. Paul’s, Dublin, Northfield Mount Hermon, Belmont Hill, Putney, Rivers, Vermont Academy, Proctor Academy, and Holderness.
Despite the large number of schools, Andover still managed to place one pair in the Boys A-finals and two pairs in the Girls A-finals, according to Gallaudet and Newell. The three pairs—Newell and Gallaudet, Claire de Saint Phalle ’21 and Co-Captain Posie Millett ’20, and Kate Pfister ’21 and Nikita Muromcew ’21—were the top three pairs out of Andover’s eight pairs participating at the meet.
“I think that Eli Newell did very well in his anchor leg. He was able to fend off Belmont Hill for a second place finish. Remy [de Saint Phalle ’23] did very well also—he passed eight people in his leg. Finally, Posie and Claire finished eighth in their race, which is impressive,” wrote Gallaudet in an email to The Phillipian.
The team’s performance was particularly notable because of the lack of opportunities to ski in Andover due to lack of snow, according to Millett.
“Considering we have not had much practice on snow since getting back from break, I think the Andover team sized up particularly well against some of the other teams that have been able to practice on snow pretty consistently,” wrote Millett in an email to The Phillipian.
With a good balance of experienced skiers and new skiers, the team has already begun to show its strength in a very competitive league, according to Newell.
“We have a solid cohort of experienced racers who are consistently scoring very well for the team, and a strong group of new skiers who have picked up the sport with grit and grace, performing well in a competitive league… We are a strong team. We’ve already established a good record so far this season, but demonstrated today that we can advance even further in the remainder of the season,” wrote Newell.
Now that the team has the chance to get out on the snow in Andover, it will be much more prepared for its next meet, according to Millett.
“As we prepare for the next race, we will already have an advantage over this week because we will be able to get out on the snow up in Siberia. It will be interesting to see how the team performs next week after a little bit more deliberate training on the snow,” wrote Millett.
The team will race again at Holderness next Wednesday.
