CVU girls, boys’ alpine skiers win Division I championships

Champlain Valley had quite the two-day performance on the hill at Burke Mountain for the Vermont alpine state championships.

The Champlain Valley girls placed four skiers in the top 10 on the second day to clinch the Division I state title, while the CVU boys were named D-I co-champions along with Rutland after a delay due to a scoring error.

The Redhawk girls used top finishes in the slalom to race to the D-I title, the program’s third championship in the last four years.

“They are experienced,” CVU coach Steve Francisco said. “They were dominating all season long.”

With the girls winning the state title outright and the boys finishing as co-champions, the Redhawks won the combined state title — the first year that the Vermont Principals Association has recognized the honor.

“I am incredibly proud of the entire team,” Francisco said. “It’s just crazy.”

Ella Lisle led the way for Champlain Valley, coming in first overall in the slalom. Rachel Bialowoz came in third and Kate Kogut followed in fourth place. Carly Strobeck rounded out the top 10 finishers, coming in eighth.

The Redhawks felt that the slalom was their stronger discipline, so they were confident heading into the second day.

“Our team is super well rounded, but we do train slalom basically three days a week,” Francisco said. “When you are putting four in the top 10, it is very difficult for anyone to beat that.”

In Monday’s giant slalom, the Redhawks’ strong showing put them solidly in second place after that first day of competition.

Kogut was the top CVU finisher in the giant slalom, coming in third place overall. Bialowoz finished in 11th, Elizabeth Nostrand came in 13th and Addie Bartley was 17th. Lisle, CVU’s top skier, did not finish the race.

“When they saw Ella crash in the giant slalom, they were like ‘OK, now we have to ski fast and ,we have to finish or we’re not going to win,’” Francisco said.

“What I said to the girls was ‘yes, everyone needs to ski their best but at the same time … you have to finish,” Francisco said. “Not finishing is not an option. It just added another degree of pressure.”

The CVU skiers came through, putting the Redhawks just behind the first-place team and setting themselves up for a strong showing in the slalom.

“Once we got done with districts my talk with them was you’ve got to carry this confidence and experience into states,” Francisco said. “They definitely wanted to course correct from last year and they did that in districts, and it worked for them in states.”

On the boys’ side, Champlain Valley came in third place in the D-I state championship, finishing behind first-place Rutland and second-place Woodstock.

But a scoring error discovered after the competition revealed that CVU had not been awarded the correct points after three of its skiers did not finish in the slalom on Tuesday.

Due the error, Champlain Valley was named co-champions with Rutland after the Vermont Principals’ Association reviewed the error and the scores. Coaches were emailed on Monday afternoon of the update.

In the competition on Tuesday, Ray Hagios came in first place in the slalom to win the individual title. In the giant slalom on Monday, CVU’s Jake Strobeck finished first to win the title in that race.

Strobeck came in fourth place in the slalom, while teammate George Francisco finished in fifth. But a DNF for three skiers threw the Redhawks into a precarious position.

In the giant slalom, the Redhawks were in first place after a performance that had four skiers in the top 10. After Strobeck’s top spot, Francisco came in fourth, Hagios was sixth and Sebastian Bronk came in eighth place.