By the Greenwich High School Skiing Team
The Greenwich High School women’s alpine skiing team is heading to the CISL State Championships in impressive fashion.
The 2023-2024 alpine ski racing season got off to a slushy start due to mild and wet conditions, denying the Greenwich ski team any on-snow training. Other than time trials to determine the rosters, most of the racers were in gates for the first-time late January at the first of the CISL races.
Despite this late start, the Cardinals came together and showed admirable athletic strength and sports(wo)manship throughout the season, steadily climbing the rankings to secure a position at the State Championships to be held at the end of this month.
The Cardinals made up for their lack of on-snow practice by using all resources available to them. The team came together for video analysis, strategy, and fitness training to help secure their rise through the rankings.
For the first three CISL Class L races Greenwich Girls came in sixth place, rising to fifth position on Jan. 31 and then, on Senior Night, at the final CISL seasonal race, securing fourth place. The Cardinals women’s team hopes to continue their impressive upward trajectory at the State Championships this Wednesday at Mount Southington.
Senior captain Maggie Ybarra said: “Starting this year, my co-captain and I, Kate McCooe, knew that we had a young but extremely talented and hard-working group of girls. I’m super proud of the girls for taking coaches, captains and even their other teammates advice and applying it to their races. With each race we have shaved off everyone’s times, and we are doing well as a team. Hopefully, we come out with a win during states.”
The results of the Jan. 31 race clearly displayed the power of the team mate advice referred to by Ybarra. Before this race, the women spent time on some in-depth video analysis of their previous runs, resulting in many personal-bests that evening. Indeed Delfina Rotella, Addie Marder, and Caroline Dolan all broke their own records this night, elevating the team by one position.
As well as a fantastic team performance, there have been some notable individual results for Greenwich, which will compete at the State Championships with Fairfield, Glastonbury, Ridgefield, Staples, Hopkins School and Glastonbury. Mariam Fahimi, a sophomore, consistently came in the top 10, from a field of over 150 racers. Most notably, in the third race of the season, Fahimi tied for first place with Ridgefield and Southington racer Sonia Gaughran. On the final race, Fahimi came in second to Gaughran, putting up a 0.88 second lead on the racer who came in third.
This is Fahimi’s second season on the ski team, and she is thrilled the ladies will be representing GHS at State Champs. When asked about her season, Fahimi said: “The days I wake up knowing I will be skiing with the Cards are the days I jump out of bed with excitement, I love everything about skiing, and I work hard every day to improve. The day I tied for first place with Sonia was a great day for me, Sonia is an amazing skier, friend, and someone I have looked up to for a few years now. To tie with her was a great achievement, and hugely motivational.” “I am very proud of the Greenwich High School team, led by Captains Maggie and Kate, we all ski hard and work hard, as evidenced by our rise up the ranks,” Fahimi continued. “The phenomenal team spirit coupled with the tireless work from the coaching and support staff has contributed to our continued success this season.”
