Maine Lakes News

The University of Maine at Farmington snowsports teams; men's alpine, women's alpine, women's nordic, and men's snowboard, and men's freeride teams have all qualified for the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboarding (USCSA) National Championships next week at Mammoth Mountain in Mammoth Lakes, California. This is the 1st time in UMF history that all the snowsport teams supported by the Athletic Department, will have qualified for the National Championships.

The Farmington snowsports program began as a student club before transitioning to full varsity status during the 2020-2021 academic year. 

The USCSA National Championships is a week-long event with opening ceremonies taking place Monday evening, March 6th. 

Men's Alpine

At the USCSA Eastern Regional Championships, the men's alpine team placed 6th overall over the two day event at Sugarloaf, located in Carrabassett Valley, Maine. The event consisted of both slalom and giant slalom with the team's combined scores from both events contributing to their overall qualifying 6th place finish. 

In alpine, five skiers from each team race, with the top three skiers from each team contributing to the teams cumulative time and overall score for each event. The five skiers that the men's alpine team will be sending to Mammoth Lakes are Simon Spear (Boothbay, Maine), Sam Roy (Frenchville, Maine), Lake Lindelof (Belfast, Maine), Colgan O'Keefe (Westchester, N.Y.), and Lance Dolan (Coplin Plantation, Maine). Jacob Roy (Frenchville, Maine) was a part of the Eastern Regional qualifying team but will be forced to miss the upcoming National Championship due to injury. 

Men's alpine events kick-off next Wednesday, March 8th at 12:30 PM with the 1st runs of the giant slalom. Slalom will take place on Friday, March 10th at 12:30 PM. The final men's event of the week will be the dual slalom on Saturday, March 11th at 12:00 PM.

Women's Alpine

At the USCSA Eastern Regional Championships, the women's alpine team finished 7th overall across the two day event at Sugarloaf. The top-six alpine teams qualified for the National Championships, but combined with the women's nordic team, qualified via a four-way qualification. 

The five skiers that the women's alpine team will be sending to Mammoth Mountain are Lauren Kessen (Sussex, Wisc.), Grace Mahmood (Oxford, Conn.), Hokulani Caroselli (Temple, Maine), Teagan Andrew (Goffstown, N.H.) and Fallon Smith (Nelson, N.H.). Kessen took home the Reynolds Division regular season crown as the top skier in the Division for the season. Mahmood and Caroselli were each named to the 1st team All-Division while Andrew received 2nd team honors. 

Women's alpine events begin on Tuesday, March 7th at 12:30 PM with giant slalom. Slalom will take place on Thursday, March 9th at 12:30 PM. The final event will be the dual slalom on Saturday, March 11th beginning at 12:00 PM.

Women's Nordic

The women's nordic team qualified for the USCSA National Championships after taking 3rd place overall at the Eastern Regionals in Lake Placid, New York over the weekend of February 17th and 18th. The Beavers have three skiers headed to Nationals, Mullein Francis (Hinesburg, Vermont), Jenna Badeau (Fayette, Maine), and Ayla Bodach-Turner (East Montpelier, Vermont). 

Bodach-Turner has podiumed multiple times this season for the Beavers. Most recently in the team sprints at Eastern Regionals where she finished 2nd overall. On the 2nd day of the Regional Championships, Bodach-Turner placed 4th overall amongst USCSA athletes in the 7.5k classic. Badeau and Francis each put together strong finishes to help the Beavers qualify for the National Championships. Badeau placed 9th and Francis 11th amongst USCSA athletes.

The nordic team will be competing in four events next week in California. The 1st of which is the 7.5k classic on Tuesday, March 7th at 1:00 PM. On March 8th they will compete in the skate sprints at 1:00 PM. On March 10th they will race in the 15k skate at 1:00 PM before wrapping up their week with the classic team sprint on Saturday, March 11th at 2:00 PM.

Men's Snowboard/Freeski

The men's snowboard/freeski team qualified for the USCSA National Championships after a pair of great performances at Eastern Regionals at Magic Mountain in Londonderry, Vermont. The freeski team claimed 1st place overall at regionals while the snowboard team took 3rd. 

In the freeski rail jam at regionals, Carson Theriault grabbed 1st place individually, registering 20 points. Ryan Brueninghaus grabbed the silver medal in the rail jam with 17.5 total points. In the snowboarding section of regionals, Ezra Mathieu grabbed the bronze by scoring 14.5 points.

A year ago, the freeski team placed 2nd as a team in the rail jam in the National Championships and 6th overall at the event. This season they will send six athletes; Nick Baubonis, Ryan Brueninghaus, Ezra Mathieu, Blue Lagoda, Cooper Kucera, and Carson Theriault to Mammoth Lakes to compete for additional hardware. 

Festivities begin next Tuesday, March 7th at 12:45 PM with the boarder cross. The rail jam will take place on March 8th at 12:45 PM followed by two days of slopestyle on March 9th and 10th with start times of 1:45 PM both days. 

Original source can be found here