The Nordic ski team traveled to Prospect Mountain in Woodford, Vermont for the Massachusetts State Championship on Tuesday, Feb. 10, where the girls team delivered a historic performance, placing second overall out of 18 teams. Junior Leigh Niedeck won the race with a time of 22:51.6, followed by senior Rachel Strock in second.
The girls finished with 70 points, behind Mount Greylock’s 31, marking the first time in program history that the team has podiumed at States. Last year, the girls placed eighth with 137 points. This year, the boys team placed 12th out of 18 teams with 248 points, improving three spots from last year’s 15th-place finish.
Sophomore Milo Roberts Ratnathicam led the boys team, finishing 50th with a time of 24:48. He was followed by freshmen Jonas Donaldson Zu Ermassen (61st), Henry Idhaw (69th) and senior Daniel Leary (91st).
Co-coach of both teams, Simon Rakov, said he did not anticipate such a strong finish, but he was pleased with the result.
“I wasn’t expecting anything,” Rakov said. “To see this amazing near-victory pulled out of a hat is just incredible.”
Co-coach of both teams, Linden Niedeck, in his first year of coaching at the high school, said his focus entering the race was on preparation.
“I just wanted everyone to get to the start line on time with all their things,” Linden Niedeck said.
Leigh Niedeck, who has been skiing since age two, said she entered the race focused on staying relaxed, despite recovering from a cold.
“[I want to] have fun and just listen to my body, just because I was coming off a cold and I knew that I was semi on the way to recovery,” Leigh Niedeck said. “Especially in my warm up, I felt like my muscles and my breathing were definitely a little off, but [my mindset was to] just go out, have fun and then try new things.”
Strock, who placed third last year, improved to second while battling illness the morning of the race.
“I was kind of debating whether or not I should race,” Strock said. “[Being] first was the big goal, but I was happy to get on the podium.”
In addition to colds and sickness, members of the team faced a variety of problems they had to overcome. Junior Rain Carlile faced a very unexpected setback.
“About halfway through my race, my ski snapped in half,” Carlile said. “Every time I would try to
ski on it, it would drag and come to a stop a couple of inches after I put it down. And so it made it basically impossible to ski on that one leg.”
Despite the broken ski dragging through the snow, Carlile chose to continue.
“I decided at the last minute to just go all the way through and finish the whole course,” Carlile said.
Strock said she was proud to improve her place and her time from last season.
“I was relieved I was still able to improve on my result from last year,” Strock said. “I was pretty surprised about that, so that was a nice surprise.”
Carlile said that despite the challenges, he still enjoyed the award ceremony and was proud of the team’s overall performance.
“I’m very proud of the girls team and for Leigh and Rachel. I think they all did really well. And I’m especially proud of my other boys on the team,” Carlile said. “They also did very well, and I’m just hoping to do better next year.”
After the results were announced, Linden Niedeck said the team’s reaction stood out most.
“Seeing how excited [everyone] was, that’s what made me happy,” Linden Niedeck said. “I think [everyone] really acts as a cohesive team.”
According to Leigh Niedeck, the state championship was an exhilarating time and a really fun race.
“I’m really happy that the girls placed second overall for Massachusetts. That’s really exciting, and the first time that that’s ever happened,” Leigh Niedeck said. “I feel like everyone performed really well, even though there were some broken skis.”
