CHARLEMONT — No one on the Hampshire Regional girls skiing team knew what to do with the trophy.
After it was announced the Raiders had won the season-long PVIAC South Division title Thursday at Berkshire East, they stepped forward to claim it. Then they backed up when it was explained that they are traveling trophies and needed to be returned next year. At the urging of their parents, they grabbed it from the table to pose for pictures.
Their bewilderment was easily forgiven. No Hampshire girls team had ever won a skiing division title before.
“It’s really exciting, we worked really hard for it,” Hampshire sophomore Erin Reynolds said. “We were really a family, we got so close through dry-land (training). We’re all besties. It was really fun.”
Hampshire has a young squad that outpaced its league opponents with depth. Three Raiders finished in the top 10 of the regular season individual standings.
“They all jelled together. We had a lot of new blood this year, a lot of seventh- and eighth-graders, which is really amazing,” Hampshire coach Jane O’Riordan said. “It’s got places to go.”
The ceremony occurred at the end of Thursday’s PVIAC individual skiing championships at Berkshire East. The conference honors it’s season-long champions as well as winners from that day’s events. In a normal year it marks the end of the regular season and a springboard for the state championships. This year it was postponed once then canceled from that second date. The state meet was last week, but area coaches like Frontier Regional’s Brian Delaney recognized the importance of the individual championships to the community and fought to get it reinstated.
“It’s an exclamation point to a season that was a little bumpy,” Delaney said. “In skiing, weather controls, weather dominates. The tail end of our season got rescheduled a number of times, and that was frustrating for the kids. But it was nice to get everybody together on an awesome day like this.”
The day feels like a beach party on the slopes. Teams grill and play music. They don’t take the individual championship races that seriously. East Longmeadow raced in onesies. The Amherst Regional girls team wore tiaras while the boys donned fake mustaches.
“It’s important to have one last hurrah with everybody,” Frontier Regional junior Coriann Delaney said. “You get to miss school, it’s a lot of fun.”
Coriann Delaney sent off her up-and-down junior season with a win in the giant slalom. She crossed the line in 24.9 seconds.
“I skied it better than I had before,” Delaney said. “It was nice considering the regular season to have one last redemption race to show what I have to offer.”
She also took third in the slalom (33.34) and second in the combined (58.24). The combined adds a racer’s slalom and giant slalom times together to produce a third time that is compared with other racers and measures versatility.
Northampton had two racers in the girls top-10. Abbie Denhart was sixth in the combined (1:01.19) after a sixth-place finish in the slalom (34.77) and a seventh in the giant slalom (26.42). She just edged her teammate Ellie Mahoney, who was seventh (1:01.98) in the combined. Mahoney placed eighth in the slalom (35.62) and 10th in the GS (26.67).
Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School freshman Juliet Scott was ninth in the combined after finishing 10th in the slalom (37.10) and 13th in the GS (27.34). This was the first year PVCICS fielded an alpine ski team.
“Everyone except two of our racers have skied for Berkshire East before,” she said. “But it’s been nice to get a team together for school.”
Jessica Garriepy of Gateway Regional placed 11th in the slalom (37.76) and 14th in the GS (27.42).
Sora Green had Amherst Regional’s best combined finish in 12th in the combined (1:05.9). She took 11th in the GS (27.16) and 15th in the slalom (38.74).
Tayla Gilman-Soloman placed 12th in the GS (27.22) and 24th in the slalom (40.68) for the Raiders and was 21st in the combined (1:07.9).
On the boys side, Northampton’s Nate Jones took third in the combined (58.29). He was second in the GS (24.9) and third in the slalom (33.39).
“The slalom course is pretty turn-y, but it’s good conditions and it skied well,” he said. “I focused on skiing fast and skiing my best not on the course or the technicalities.”
Hampshire eighth-grader Edward Przybyla finished fourth across the board in the combined (58.85), slalom (33.84) and GS (25.01).
“The best results I’ve had all year,” he said. “I really wanted it.”
Zachary Ames of Gateway was 10th in the combined (1:01.12) and slalom (35.00) and 16th in the GS (26.12).
Sebastian English of PVCICS placed 10th in the GS (25.57) and 13th in the slalom (35.76), good for 12th in the combined (1:01.33).
“It’s cool to find out, ‘hey you ski too’ in the school,” English said.
Ben Martino had Frontier’s best boys finish in 22nd (1:07.47). He was 26th in the giant slalom (27.48) and 23rd in the slalom (39.99).
Amherst’s Noah Vamosy was 64th in the combined (1:32.62). He finished 63rd in the slalom (1:03.35) and 81st in the GS (34.68).
Once the races ended, the PVIAC bequeathed its season-long awards.
Frontier and Northampton tied for second in the North Division with 34 points. Mohawk won with 47.
Hampshire accrued 53 points to win its South Division title. Amherst placed fourth with 29.
Northampton finished second in the boys North standings with 36 points. Mohawk won with 48.
Hampshire was second in the boys South (45 points), while St. Mary won with 53.
Individually, Delaney took third in the girls North standings despite falling in one race and missing a gate in another. Mahoney was fourth, while Denhart took sixth. Garriepy placed ninth and Frontier’s Areia Heilman finished 10th.
Scott finished fourth in the South for PVCICS. Summer Duda was sixth, Gilman-Solomon finished seventh and Katelynn Dunn placed ninth for the champion Raiders.
Ella Gander was eighth for PVCICS, and Sarah Fardal placed 10th.
“It’s thrilling to see the kids succeed, this is the whole reason you’re doing it is to get out of their comfort zone,” PVCICS coach David Scott said.
Jones was fifth in the boys North for Northampton, and Ames was sixth for Gateway. Northampton’s Benajmin Delacour also finished ninth.
Przybyla placed second in the boys South. English took fourth, while Hampshire’s Dawson Kelly finished fifth.
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.