Last year, the Kearsarge girls’ Alpine ski team edged out defending champion Bishop Brady by just two points in the Division III championships at Mount Sunapee to secure the team’s first title since 2007.
Less than a week ago, the Cougars again narrowly edged out the Green Giants – this time by six points – in a meet Coach Bob Underhill referred to as “pre-states,” against almost all of the teams that would ski in the state meet.
So when Tuesday’s D-III championships rolled around, Kearsarge was determined to win another title. And this time, the Cougars didn’t want to leave any doubt.
Kearsarge won the meet going away with 754 points, while Brady (727) finished second, St. Thomas (674) skied to a third-place finish and Belmont (669) came in fourth.
The Cougars also defended their title on the boys’ side by finishing with 738 points, while Belmont (707), Bishop Brady (701), Bow (689) and Gilford (665) rounded out the top five.
“I’m really excited that we could do this again this year,” sophomore Brie Von Beren said as her teammates chattered with excitement behind her on the bus ride home. “We’re really lucky that we had such a good team and everyone performed as good as they did.”
Von Beren led the charge, as she has for most of the year, finishing second overall in the slalom and first overall in the giant slalom with a combined time of 1:15.26, just 0.73 seconds ahead of Brady’s Olivia Crainich. Belmont’s Katie Gagnon finished first in the slalom and Gilford’s Bailey Hildreth finished fourth in both races.
“She just skies well,” Underhill said of Von Beren. “She attacks. She takes every run and we just tell her to go. She wants to go faster and faster every run and she just goes at it with a great attitude.”
That attitude also seemed to inspire some greatness in her teammates. The Cougars claimed four of the top-10 spots in the GS and posted three top-10 finishes in the slalom. In the slalom, Bee Chambers (seventh), Lara Stokes (10th), Izabella Von Beren (13th) and Katie Macleod (15th) led the charge for Kearsarge. In the GS, Izabella Von Beren (fifth), Stokes (seventh) and Elizabeth Greason (ninth) scored for the Cougars.
“They just kept feeding on each other and pushing each other to go faster. It was great,” Underhill said. “It’s a very competitive group.”
On the boys’ side, the Cougars used the same top-heavy strategy to win their second championship in a row.
Kearsarge’s confidence didn’t waver even when its top skier, Justin Norris, was disqualified on his second slalom run for straddling a gate. The Cougars challenged the ruling but to no avail.
“Even without him, we had four boys in the top 10. You have to love that consistency,” Underhill said. “He would’ve won the slalom, but even without him, the other boys stepped up.”
The Cougars took four of the top-10 spots in the slalom behind Alexander Hauck (fifth), Daniel Jagr (eighth), Isaac Braun (ninth) and Gunner Nurme (10th). In the GS, Norris finished second, while Zac Goin finished 10th, Jagr 11th and Braun 15th.
“We don’t pressure these guys to think they have to win everything. But they just want to. They want to keep getting better and keep skiing faster,” Underhill said.
Laconia’s Thomas Turpin finished first in both races, which qualifies him for the Meet of Champions on March 2 at Cannon Mountain.
“That kid did not take his foot off the gas pedal all day long,” said Coach Kevin Charleston, who also coaches the Belmont teams. “He had a mission. He’s been winning all season. And the pressure didn’t get to him, he just did his thing.”
For Belmont, Charleston said it was nice to finally get some hardware.
“We’ve been skiing well all season. I was hesitant to say too much about the state meet all year,” Charleston said. “But this morning, I got the boys together and I said we are a second-place team. We could win third place but they give out hardware for second place, not for third place.”
The Raiders would know, having finished in third last season, missing out on second place by just six points.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve won hardware. We haven’t had any hardware coming back to our school in a while,” Charleston said. “I think the kids are just really excited to bring this plaque to school tomorrow.”
Nolan Gagnon led the way for Belmont, finishing third in the slalom and eighth in the GS. Lars Major also qualified for MOC with a seventh-place finish in the slalom and took 12th in the GS.
Brady, which settled for third, was led by Garrett Cahill (fourth slalom, fifth GS), while Danny Bryck finished third in the GS and Matteo Tieli skied to a sixth-place finish in the slalom. Crainich led the girls with her second-place finish in the GS and took third in the slalom, flanked closely by teammates Kamryn Compton (eighth) and Sara LoPresti (ninth). Silvia Caldesi also finished sixth in the GS.
Gilford’s Tyler Hanf finished second overall in the slalom with a time of 1:14.52, just behind Turpin (1:13.26).
Alex Mangin led Bow to its fourth-place team finish, taking sixth in the GS. He was followed closely by teammate Ben Wachsmuth, who took seventh. Jon Cook and Tony Sampo finished 11th and 12th, respectively, in the slalom. On the girls’ side, Megan Lavigne (eighth slalom, 11th GS) paced the Falcons to a sixth-place team finish.
Bedford won its fifth straight title, collecting 757 points at Mount Sunapee. Portsmouth (720), Bishop Guertin (718), Concord (661) and Pinkerton (649) rounded out the top five.
The Crimson Tide lost a little ground this season, coming off a second-place finish in D-I last year. But Shane Hyland improved on a seventh-place finish in the slalom a year ago, taking third overall in the race on Tuesday with a time of 1:03.15. Hyland finished just behind Bedford’s Jack Berge (1:01.34) and Portsmouth’s Tristan Hamilton (1:03.06).
Cole Gorham (26th), Liam Devanny (27th) and Jack Foisey (29th) also competed for Concord in the slalom.
In the GS, Hyland (1:13.67) finished sixth overall, while Berge (1:11.33) finished first. Devanny (19th) and Sean McDonough also chipped in top-25 finishes for Concord.
For the 14th time in the last 15 years, the Kennett girls’ Alpine team won the D-II state title, outscoring second-place Plymouth, 762-691. Hanover (677), Hollis-Brookline (672.5) and Souhegan (648) finished in the top five.
Pembroke Academy scored 508 points and placed 11th, while Samantha Innerfield scored all 180 points for John Stark. Innerfield placed 12th in the GS and 10th in the slalom as the lone skier for the Generals.
The Spartans were led by Samantha Boyajian, who finished 30th in the GS, while Jessica Boyajian finished 35th in the slalom.
Kennett took four of the top-10 spots in the both the GS and the slalom.