2016 Season recap
It has been a tremendous year for the MIT Alpine Ski Team both on and off the hill! Our team grew to 14 athletes with 3 new team members who were also new to ski racing. The team was also strengthened this year by a Wellesley athlete, Haley Chrobock, who trained and raced with the team in the MacConnell division. As a whole each member made great strides towards perfecting the art of ski racing, and there were several stand out performances. Mikey Suglian started the season with a 5th place finish in the GS race at West Mountain and posted several top 15 individual run finishes throughout the season. Johannes Norheim completed a successful race season ripping through courses with a cast to protect his broken hand. And team captain Sophia Wu stepped her game up despite returning to racing for the first time after tearing her ACL. And as a team the MIT Alpine Ski Team finished the season in high honors winning the MacConnell Division Sportsmanship award for the second year in a row. Definitely a season for all to be proud of!
This year’s races took us to Blackwater, Whiteface, West, Pat’s Peak and Sunapee. We faced two rescheduled races given the unusually warm weather this season, but, nevertheless, had a great time racing, sometimes spending gatekeeping in a T-shirt. In addition to solid training and racing, our season was full of fun antics. Seniors Meaghan Fitzgerald, Katy Kem, Johannes Norheim, Mikey Suglian, and Sophia Wu skied their senior races in stormtrooper costumes. The seniors thermoformed and laser cut the costumes themselves, posing for numerous photos at the senior race. Breakfast sandwiches, George Foreman grills, and cheese reigned supreme.
The team also added a fun philanthropic event to the schedule. On President’s Day, the MIT Alpine Ski Team members paired up with students from Beacon Academy to teach them how to ski. Beacon Academy is a local school focused on preparing low income motivated 8th graders to attend prestigious prep schools. Most kids had never been on skis before and it was great to see how quickly the students picked up skiing and how much fun they had. At the end of the day, many were sad that they had to stop skiing. Maybe there’s a future MIT ski racer in their mix.
Spring ski team activities will get started soon with a fun spring break trip to Lake Tahoe! Seven members of the team are headed to Squaw Valley to make some sweet turns in the California sunshine and catchup with Coach Ben Stewart. And at home at MIT spring drylands will pick up soon as will preparations for another fantastic season!
