This past weekend, the men’s and women’s ski teams competed in the two-day New England Regionals. The NCAA event was hosted by Bates College for the final weekend in the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association season. Thirteen teams from neighboring states to compete and would set up who would be invited to go to the Championships.
The first day, Friday February 22, put the men’s team in 5th place and the women’s in 12th. Junior Karl Kuus (Toronto Ontario) had, once again, a big performance to earn himself the top finishing spot for the Panthers. Kuus has had a big year, being a team leader in several races, including the last six. His first run had originally put him in 11th place but his second run made for a combined time of 2:37:29 which cracked top ten and put him at 8th for the day. First year Hunter Watson (Ottawa Ontario) had a comeback from his first run as well. A slow run shot him back to 30th in the initial first run but second run he shaved almost five seconds off to bump him up to a 14th place finish for the day.
For the women’s team in the first day, they struggled with racers completing both runs. However, Freydis Einarsdottir (Gardabaer Iceland) who competed in the Winter Olympics this time last year, was coming off of competing in the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Sweden the week before. Regardless, she was the women’s top finisher of the day, with a 26th spot from a time of 2:46:81. Gigi Quimby (Dunstable MA), Rachel Kosik (Goodrich MI) and Rachel Smith (Stowe VT) also raced but were unable to post a time.
The second day for the men’s team carried on the energy from the day before especially for Kuus. He shaved off almost four seconds in his second run, which would in the top ten times overall for the day and earned himself 5th place for the day. Cooper Yates (Richmond BC) also relied heavily on his second run and was able to fight back from an original 30th place to end the day in 18th. Watson’s combined time of 1:56:94 put him just above the top 20, ending in 22nd. The effort from the men’s team was able to put themselves up a spot from the previous day and grab 4th place.
The women’s team had better luck in the second day and saw more placement from its runners. Einarsdottir went up six spots as she also cut her second run down by several seconds and her combined time of 1:58:33 put his in the top 20, 18th place. Smith and Kosik were only separated by seconds and earned 49th and 50th respectively. The placement from the women’s team kept them at 12th for the day.
This past Tuesday, February 26, the NCAA announced who would be traveling to Stowe Vermont for the Championships.
For the third year in a row, Kuus will be competing out of the 34 other men selected across the region. March 7th he will compete in the giant slalom and the slalom two days later, on March 9th.
For the rest of the men’s and women’s ski team, this ends their 2019 season for representing Plymouth State.
We wish Kuus good luck in his competitions next week.