1

PAUL FRANZ/THE RECORDER

Sean Doyle of Frontier was one of the top skiers during the regular season. On Tuesday he placed second during the PVIAC individual finals at Berkshire East in Charlemont.

Frontier Regional sophomore alpine skier Sean Doyle flew down the slopes of Berkshire East Ski Area in Charlemont on Tuesday and surpassed even his own expectations, placing second overall in the PVIAC Ski League individual finals.

"I feel like I had a really good season all around and I'm very pleased with how I did" Tuesday, Doyle said.

He had reason to be happy with his performance. His slalom and giant slalom race times totaled 1 minute, 0.91 seconds on the snow, good enough for second place in a field of over 130 racers. His slalom time of 35 seconds was three seconds faster than last season, while he finished the giant slalom in 25.91 seconds. His overall time improved by 1.98 seconds from last year's final.

Just behind Doyle was junior Greg Lerner of Amherst Regional, who finished third in 1:01.31 despite miossing three weeks with an ankle sprain.

John Mentor of Longmeadow won the combined race with a time of 56.41 seconds.

It was an overcast and chilly day on the slope. Thanks to the recent dip in temperature across the Northeast, the snow was hard-packed and crusty with a layer of ice lurking just beneath it - prime conditions for ski racing. When Doyle showed up at the base of Berkshire East at 8:30 a.m. to prepare for the competition, he took a few practice runs off-course before heading up the hill to the starting gate.

"For me, the (conditions) were really great. I love hard-packed snow and ice," Doyle said. "It was definitely ideal up there. It was real nice."

Once he got out of the gate, Doyle said he was happier with his slalom performance than his giant slalom.

"Slalom is definitely harder," Doyle said. "Slalom has a lot more turns and changing direction, so I have to train a lot for that. (Giant slalom) has a lot more speed and less turns so it kind of comes more naturally."

Doyle will advance for the second straight year to the state finals at Wachusett Mountain on Feb. 28. Joining him will be one of his teammates, junior Jacob Conroy, who finished 25th overall at Berkshire East. Conroy's combined total was about 10 seconds behind Doyle at 1:10.57.

Also advancing to the state finals besides Doyle, Lerner and Conroy is Jon Simonds (12th, 1:06.42) of Amherst Regional.

Girls results

Frontier had two skiers finish in the top 20 and qualify for the state finals. Alison Green (1:21.44) and Alison Zera (1:22.46) were 15th and 16th, respectively, for the Red Hawks.