ConVal’s Molly Dishong earned a spot on the Eastern Championship team after a stellar day at the NHIAA alpine skiing Meet of Champions at Cannon Mountain on Thursday.
“She skied beautifully,” said head coach Holly Wilson. “It was really an exciting race watching her ski…She was on fire.”
Dishong placed fourth in the slalom with a combined time of 1:17.62, with Profile’s Bell sisters, Emme and Sophie, first and second respectively.
She’d also take 12th in the GS with a time of 1:20.35.
Noah Krason, the lone ConVal competitor on the boys’ side, was up against the likes of Czech national ski team member Matous Bohonek of Goffstown.
“We were up against some pretty stiff competition,” Wilson said.
Krason finished his first GS run in a fifth-best time of 37.39, but as he pushed it to the limit to try and make the Eastern Cup cut, he fell on his second run.
“I think because it’s his senior year and it’s his last opportunity to make Easterns, he really skied with more zest than he usually does,” Wilson said. “He was going all out holding nothing back and that’s ski racing – sometimes you fall, sometimes you straddle a gate when you’re going that fast.”
Rosie Crooker, who suffered an inopportune ankle injury at the end of the season, still pushed herself to a 17th-place finish in the SL and a 25th-place finish in the GS. Ella Dishong, herself dealing with a knee injury, skied her way to 33rd in the GS.
It was a great result for the Cougars and capped off another year of growth for the ConVal team, which has nearly doubled in size from 12 athletes in 2015 to 21 this season. Many of the Cougar racers had never skied competitively before, but by the end of the season, all were more confident on skis.
“These skills will enable them to ski anything, anywhere for their lifetime,” Wilson said. “That equals quality family and friend time throughout their lives.”