The Nordic Skiing Team found success in its first classical race of the season at Proctor Academy led by Captains Luke Williamson ’25 and Sage Preston ’25, the team exhibited strong individual performances and an encouraging culture.
Sebastian Vermut ’27 noted the challenges that came with Proctor’s course.
Vermut said, “It was four laps of a loop and there is a very sharp hairpin turn which — on Nordic skis — is really hard to navigate unless you’re really skilled.”
Michael Bria ’27 emphasized the weather as another obstacle the team was forced to overcome.
“It was definitely one of the harder races this year. It was the coldest race of the year by far. I believe the temperature was -5 degrees [Fahrenheit], and wind chill was just a major factor,” said Bria.
Leading the Boys Nordic team was Luke Williamson ’25 and following close behind was a tight pack of skiers including Ansel Bartell ’28, Noah Binkowski ’26, and Sebastian Vermut ’27. Williamson noted that this tight-knit finish was encouraging and showed a lot of progress.
Williamson stated “One of our racers, Sebastian, did great. I’m usually first on the team, and Ansel and Noah Binkowski are both strong, but Sebastian — this is his first year, and he’s a [Lower]. We didn’t expect him to be up there, but he was right with Ansel and Noah. It was awesome to see a newer guy on the team pushing us to ski better.”
Vermut added onto Williamson’s statement, highlighting the uniqueness of finishing together alongside his teammates.
“One of the coolest things I’ve been a part of in terms of races was that the second, third, and fourth spots [for team placement] were all taken by me, Noah Binkowski, and Ansel Bartell, and we finished within a couple of seconds of each other, which is really unusual,” said Vermut.
A strong core on the Girls Nordic team led by Preston, Dylan Siegel ’26, and Lauren Montgomery ’25 also boosted the team’s performance. Vermut emphasized their dedication and consistency on a smaller girls roster.
Vermut said, “With a really limited number of girls on the team who can actually make the Wednesday races. Sage Preston, Dylan Siegel, and Lauren Montgomery always make themselves known even with such a small group. They all had great performances at Proctor.”
A difficult area that the racers had to be on the lookout for was stamina. Williamson noted that in-race decision making was also a major part of the race at Proctor.
“You’re really deciding between double-poling and doing a running motion where you get your skis to catch and use that to propel you. Double-poling is a lot faster but it’s harder and wears you out more. So going up those hills, it’s winding, so it’s flat, then straight up, then flat. On the flat section you want to pole and on the straight up you want to do the running motion; just being able to transition quickly between those is super important,” said Williamson.
Nordic has a skate race, a faster, and more dynamic style of Nordic skiing on Friday. Vermut shared that the team will prioritize racing to prepare for the race.
“Tomorrow [Thursday], we are going to get on our skis and those of us who raced today will take it easier and those who didn’t because they had class or whatever reason will be going a little bit harder in preparation for Friday which is a 5K… We’ll be getting out to Siberia and practicing our skating skills” said Vermut.
Nordic will compete at Belmont Hill on Friday.
