“Mostly everything about skiing is enjoyable. Being outdoors and away from all the craziness going on makes it relaxing, yet the thrill and excitement makes it exhilarating. With racing you can have bad days and things won’t go your way but that’s a certain aspect of any sport. The good days wouldn’t feel as good without having a struggle to get there” said team sophomore, Parker Spear.
Three weeks ago, the men and women of the Plymouth State University Ski team embarked on a journey to Idaho to compete in the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association (USCSA) National Championships. Both teams had taken the overall eastern regional titles and the pressure was on when they competed against twenty schools from all over the country in Sun Valley, ID. In the end, Plymouth demonstrated how to represent the University with top ranked titles, All-American Awards and history in the making.
In the overall team standings, the Panther men finished second and the women finished seventh with combined scores. Each team produced an individual national champion and they also received four national All-American awards as well as eight National Academic All-American Awards. Martina Ryberg, a sophomore from Sweden, and Chris Beadon, a sophomore from Connecticut, captured the Individual titles for PSU in the Slalom and Giant Slalom championships.
“Overall I think it was good focus and good planning that was the key to our success in Sun Valley (Idaho)” said Martina Ryberg, a sophomore on the team. Ryberg helped make history for the women’s team with her first place win at nationals in the Giant Slalom championship. “It was one of the most challenging courses I have ever raced before; it was a huge relief when I crossed the finish line”. Her combined time of the two runs was exactly one second faster than her regular season rival from Colby-Sawyer College. Her individual championship was the first for a PSU woman since 2001 and her win helped edge the whole women’s team to place first at Nationals in the giant slalom championship for the first time in team history. According to Ryberg, the girl’s team had a majority of young players and goals were set semi-low at the beginning. “I think the turnaround came when we won our first race by a large margin; that is when we realized that we performed well as a team and we had a chance to compete” mentioned Ryberg.
For the men’s team, they had their sights on winning from day one. “Our team goal from the start of the season was to win a national championship. We had a strong group of fast guys’ returning from last season and we knew we had the talent to win” stated Parker Spear. Although the men came in second overall in Idaho, they had still accomplished a lot through the course of their season. Overall, they won all but one of their regular season races. They also swept at the regional championships, proving that they were a dominating force. Chris Beadon, who was the top skier for the men during most of the season, won the regular season title in the Slalom. At the national championships, they placed fourth in the Giant Slalom and second in the Slalom giving them an extremely close second place finish compared to the first place team. “In general, our whole team pitches in to help and that more than anything makes our team more functional” said Spear.
“This was one of my favorite years as a coach despite the overall success of the team, I love being a part of the PSU community” stated Andrew Gannon, the head coach of the team. This year was Gannon’s rookie season with the PSU team and he had high expectations for his team from the start. “As with anything, hard work and focus on the task at hand creates a winning result” and from how the team performed it shows that they had the hard work and focus that was needed to be successful. “Largely, I think we will all look back at this season with a smile on our face and take pride in what we did as a team,” stated Martina Ryberg.