Athletic Result: Alpine Women's Trip to Sugarbush

Disappointing Results at the MLK Cup

By Kathryn Dawson

Sugarbush Mountain, VT

At 4:30 a.m. on Monday, the alpine women’s team piled into a minibus and began a futile trip to Sugarbush Mountain for the MLK Vermont Cup GS race.

            “Moments of brilliance followed by piles of shit,” was coach Beatty Schlueter’s summary of the race.

            Each girl had a few strong turns, but none could overcome sleep deprivation, cold, and soft snow to reach their “peak performance”. Of the six women who raced, only rookies Kenzi Dignes and Catherine Wilcock finished, placing 37^th and 42^nd respectively.

            Despite the unimpressive results, the mood remained light. Coaches Schlueter and John Norton reunited with their previous athletes from Green Valley Mountain School, while the women’s team puzzled over which unidentified coach had yelled “tuck!” at Giorgia Nagle during her first run.

            The course was longer than those that the women had been training; the winning combined time for both runs was 2:20.49. Dignes and Wilcock finished with times of 2:32.21 and 2:34.07 respectively.

            Wilcock alone improved her points, the basis for skiers’ rankings, from this race. This was her first GS race as a JII, so she was previously unranked and began with 990 points. On Monday, she scored 155 points.