After several canceled meets at the start of the season, Andover All-Gender Nordic Skiing had its first meet on Wednesday away at Proctor. Notably, Sam Gallaudet ’23 secured the top spot in the Boys race. Teammate Sage Preston ’25 noted Gallaudet’s impressive skill and performance during the meet.
“Sam Gallaudet, our Senior who got first place, he’s actually insanely fast, it’s kind of crazy. We saw him go and do a lap and we were waiting at the end, and he was there in like two seconds. He’s just insanely fast, and I think [it’s because of] his form and the way he never ever gets tired… He has incredible stamina, and he manages to keep really, really good form throughout the entire race, and he’s done in ten minutes,” said Preston.
After his win, Gallaudet highlighted a few commendable performances by members of the team, both by long-time and new skiers.
Gallaudet said, “Remy de Saint Phalle [’23] got a top ten, Sophia Aalami [’23] was the first Girls finisher, there was a sophomore, Caitlyn [Chow ’25], it was her first time skiing, so she went really fast for her first time classic skiing, and it was a classic race, and she, despite all that, went pretty fast.”
Co-Captain Amelia Vinton ’23 noted the range in skiing experience in Nordic. Despite the skill differences between players, everyone seeks to support one another, according to Vinton.
“The great thing about Nordic is that everybody goes into it with their own goals, so we had people who had never classic-skied before, do however long the race was, I think it was a 4 or 5k, their first time classic-skiing ever, and we also had people who won their races. I think overall, there was a lot of smiling, and a lot of laughing, and a lot of great skiing,” said Vinton.
As an underclassman skier, Preston expressed her gratitude for the senior members on the team. Preston believes that with the help of these players, newer skiers can improve their skills as well.
Preston said, “We’re really lucky to have some people who have been doing Nordic for a really long time and I feel like they’re really good at showing the newer people the ropes and stuff like that. So it’s really helpful to have someone like an extra helping hand, who can help teach people or correct them if they need correcting.”
According to Vinton, an exciting moment of the meet was when the players were offered hot chocolate and cookies following their race. Vinton noted the special feeling of a treat after an intense event.
“They had just finished their race, and I was like ‘Oh yeah, by the way, there’s hot chocolate and cookies,’ and they just kind of lit up even more because there’s a certain feeling that you get when after you finish a nordic race, where you’re just really happy and giddy. And your body feels really good, and I just saw them light up even more,” Vinton said.
Looking forward to future races, Preston stated that the team will keep working to familiarize themselves with the snow with whatever opportunities they can take advantage of.
Preston said, “I think we’ll work on definitely getting more comfortable with the snow, because we haven’t had a lot of chances to actually practice in the snow…hopefully with more snow we’ll definitely work on getting more people comfortable with [it] so we’ll have more people at the races, and just have an overall better turn out, which has been kind of an issue in the past few weeks because not a lot of people have had much experience with it this season.”
Nordic races Friday against Belmont Hill, Middlesex, and Rivers.
