There was a lot to be proud of for the Newburyport girls ski team at last year’s State Championship Meet. Top among them: the Clippers earned the program’s best ever finish at the biggest meet of the year, placing seventh out of 20 scoring teams.
Well, turns out that record only took them a year to break.
On Tuesday, the Newburyport girls capped their best season ever with their new top performance at the MIAA State Meet. Led by senior captain Grace Chandler, the Clippers placed fourth out of 14 scoring teams with a combined slalom and giant slalom time of 5:31.45 — trailing only Mohawk Regional (5:18.69), Newton South (5:21.97) and Medway (5:29.93).
Chandler, a three-time Daily News All-Star and one-time MVP, ended her high school skiing career in style. She placed 37th in the giant slalom out of 125 finishers (57.43), and an impressive 7th in the slalom out of 145 finishers (50.99). Elsewhere for the Newburyport girls, Evie Tague was 39th in the GS (57.53) and 17th in the slalom (53.47), Phoebe Whitcomb was 42nd in the GS (57.79) and 24th in the slalom (54.24), and Emily Chandler was 59th in the GS (59.47).
Meanwhile, the Newburyport boys didn’t qualify as a team, but did enjoy a major highlight.
That coming from Thijs Tague, our reigning Daily News MVP, who reached the podium twice by finishing 9th out of 134 in the slalom (46.39), and 10th out of 117 finishers in the GS (55.90). Only five athletes in the entire state were able to place inside of the top-10 in both races, so the sophomore Tague certainly put in impressive work.
Then to round out the day for the Clippers, Reed Tracy finished 51st in the slalom (51.46) while Beckett Rathbone was 50th in the GS (59.93).
HAVERHILL/PENTUCKET
Elsewhere locally, a handful of skiers from the Haverhill/Pentucket co-op also qualified to compete at States.
On the girls’ side, Haylie Gagnon was 47th in the GS (58.55) and 48th in the slalom (56.79), while Dani Costello was 54th in the GS (59.19) and 41st in the slalom (56.19). Then for the boys, Jayden Pabst was 22nd in the slalom (48.08) and 55th in the GS (1:00.56), and Henry Gagnon was 43rd in the slalom (50.67).