Finishing in first place out of 60 skiers, Sam Gallaudet ’23 led Andover Nordic with a time of 13:01 minutes in the team’s 5 kilometer race at the Dublin School on Wednesday. In the girls race, Co-Captain Posie Millett ’20 led the team with a seventh place finish out of 49 skiers.
According to Millett and Amelia Vinton ’22, although several members were suffering from illness and unable to ski, the team was still able to compete well.
“[The race went] really good… I think five of our skiers were out sick this week, so it was a smaller race for us, but it was really fun,” said Millett.
Vinton added, “We did our best and I think a lot of people felt good about what they achieved. I can’t speak for the whole team, but in general, we all did our best, and I think that’s what counts.”
Despite the absence of several skiers, Andover was still able to perform at a high level due to its depth, according to Kate Pfister ’21.
“We’ve definitely had some of the newer skiers constantly moving up in place each race, so we have a pretty deep team this year. This race in particular, we were missing quite a few of our skiers, but over the season it’s been fun seeing people who had never skied before improving,” said Pfister.
One of the strongest performances in the race came from the team’s new rising star, Gaulladet, according to Millett.
Millett said, “Sam Gallaudet, a [Junior] on our team, had a really good race… I think he finished tied for first with someone… He had a really great race. He did really well this week.”
According to Head Coach Keith Robinson ’96, the team’s performance was especially admirable due to the team’s inability to practice in Andover’s recently unfavorable conditions.
“[The team has] been great at rolling with the fact that we’ve not had wonderful weather here. This has been the first time that we’ve been on snow since last week. They got out there, they went out there, they went fast, and they didn’t use that as an excuse. They were charging up the hills very fast and doing a good job of thinking about their technique even though we haven’t had a lot of chances to practice that lately,” said Robinson.
With two championship races coming up within the next two weeks, the team will focus on maintaining its momentum as it gains several team members back from illness, according to Robinson.
“We’ve had some really great results lately, especially our top two boys and the top few girls. Hopefully getting everybody back and healthy will help as we go into the league championship race and Interschols,” said Robinson.
Andover looks to place well in the Lakes Region Championship next Wednesday.
