Nordic Skiing competed in a Friday race at Middlesex. The team, led by a first place finish by Ansel Bartell ’28, saw great success and finished in third place on the girl’s side and placed second on the boy’s side. On Wednesday, Andover traveled to Belmont Hill, where they raced against multiple schools in the relay format. Through extreme cold and equipment challenges, the team persevered, showing grit and a strong team bond.
In last Friday’s race at Middlesex, Bartell led the field placing an incredible first overall, his highest placement this year. Gavin Freeman ’26 shouted out the team’s top scorers and shared insights to Bartell’s performance.
“Sebastian Vermut [’27], Ansel Bartell, Henry Wall [’27], and Matt Robinson [’27] all scored really well. Ansel actually won the Friday race overall, he’s specifically really good at gliding on classic skis. It’s really important to glide a far distance every stroke so you can maximize efficiency, and that allowed him to get a real edge on the competition, especially on the new course we’re skiing on. It had a really long flat section and minimal hills, so gliding was really, really important, and that really contributed to a lot of general team success as well,” said Freeman.
The most difficult part of Friday’s race was enduring the weather. Nordic Skiing had to adjust to difficult conditions, such as low temperatures. Co-Captain Noah Binkowski ’26 described the way the team excelled, even despite the cold.
“There was a temperature advisory, so they had the boys and girls start one after another. There were a lot of people on track at once, but it was really cool getting to see just a lot of action. Sebastian Vermut was moving up and down a lot, getting through people and moving around. The team’s perseverance in the cold was what really got us through that one,” said Binkowski
Wednesday’s race at Belmont Hill was relay style, where the top two teams of each competitor scored points. Bartell and Wall made up Andover’s highest placing team. According to Vermut, their strong combination of a fast start and defensive finish helped bring them to the finish line.
“Ansel was pushing super hard and just doing really well, and Henry was defending, and it was really impressive. Ansel gave two really strong laps, and Henry was really good at defending the position and holding it strong. It’s a really good team. Ansel’s a legacy, scary. He’s been skiing for so long, and Henry, this is his third year of Nordic. Henry’s the strongest skier. He’s really been working for a long time, and so the two made a really great team,” said Vermut.
Andover’s second best team was made up of Vermut and Robinson. Freeman described how their separate strengths created a strong performance.
“Our second-place team was Sebastian Vermut and Matt Robinson, and they did really well. Matt’s a really lightweight skier, so the more hilly course really fits his strong suit, that helps going uphill. And Sebastian is a really strong double-poler, he’s a strong kid, got some good muscles on him, so he did well on the flats. For this course they actually made quite a dynamic duo,” said Gavin.
On the girls side of Wednesday’s race at Belmont Hill, the team showed extreme grit. A person that best exemplified this was Kate Birdsall ’26, who faced a massive setback with broken boots. Binkowski elaborated on how he viewed this struggle as Birdsall quickly bounced back.
“[Kate Birdsall’s] boot completely fell apart, and we managed to tape it back up and send her out there. On the girls’ end, watching Dylan [Siegel ’26] and Kate put together a really good performance, though Kate’s boot combustion was really cool to see. There was a point where she had to run part of the race because her boot was not attached to the ski anymore, but she was able to finish strong,” said Binkowski.
Nordic Skiing will race again next Wednesday at Dublin School.
