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The Winchester High Nordic cross-country ski boys and girls teams were off to Woodford, Vt. on Feb. 10 to participate in the state championships, where they skied on the town’s Prospect Mountain trails with 18 other statewide schools in their respective divisions.
They were all vying for success in the Green Mountain State. The Winchester girls finished fourth, while the boys were 13th.
Mount Greylock Regional out of Williamstown was by far the best team in the girls division with 31 points. It was the Mounties third straight state title. The lowest score wins that includes the aggregate totals of each team’s four skiers.
The Brookline girls (70) were second, followed by Mohawk (74), Winchester (74), Lenox (86), Acton-Boxborough (108), Westford Academy (140), Newton South (153), Wayland (194), Wellesley (203), Weston (205), Amherst (210), Concord-Carlisle (223), Lincoln-Sudbury (227), Newton North (265), Arlington (273), Dover-Sherborn (299) and Wahconah (224 with only three skiers).
The Mount Greylock boys completed the state championship sweep for the western Massachusetts school after accumulating 28 points. Wahconah was a distant second with 63 points, followed by Concord-Carlisle (69), Amherst (77), Mohawk (101), Wellesley (103), Lenox (117), Acton-Boxborough (120), Newton South (149), Newton North (185), Lincoln-Sudbury (222), Brookline (248), Winchester (257), Pioneer Valley (268), Weston (275), Wayland (287), Westford Academy (292) and Arlington (353).
“It was a great snow day,” said Winchester Coach Scott Carlson, even after a three-hour trip up north. “We were able to ski on a 2-foot snow pack.”
The Winchester state final lineup on the girls side consisted of eight skiers, plus one alternate – Grace Siciliano – and Caroline Lanz was the first to cross the finish line in fourth place. Abigail Bastien was 13th, Piper Oswald 15th, Avery Bastien 52nd, Scarlett Copeland 57th, Heidi Ernst 58th, captain Lila Beauchamp 66th and Alanna Lee 69th. There were 141 statewide qualifiers in the girls race.
On the boys side, captains Jonno Gilmer (38th overall finish) and Quinn Shanley (77th), and sophomore Kuan Fu (57th) and Jack Eichelberger (118th) all competed in the states. There were 132 statewide competitors in the boys race.
The first and second place individual finishers received trophies for the efforts, while the remaining Top 10 skiers from 3 to 10 took home medals, which included Winchester’s Lanz, who once again ended up fourth overall in the entire state.
Lanz and Oswald aren’t through skiing competitively just yet this winter. They were chosen for the All-State team to take part in the Eastern High School Championships at the Gore Mountain Nordic Center in North Creek, N.Y. from March 6-8.
Joe McConnell is a longtime, award-winning sports editor for numerous North Shore publications. He began covering Winchester sports for the News in November 2024 and is currently its Sports Editor. He can be reached at editor@winchesternews.org.
