By David Miles, Sports Correspondent
It was home cooking at its finest as the WUHS Snowboarding teams both concluded the regular season by taking first place at a GS at Suicide Six last week. South Burlington finished second in the boys’ competition and Black River was runner-up for the girls. Mill River boarders were third in both fields.
“The course was steep and it got icy quickly,” said Coach Dave Bloch. “All the schools struggled with the pitch on the Face. We tried to take a more strategic approach and it paid off.”
The Woodstock boys placed five in the top 10. Evan Bloch (in his first GS of the season) took third place and Evan Hotchkiss was fourth. Hotchkiss slid through the finish line after falling and getting up again.
“It was a pretty cool thing to see,” said Bloch of his senior’s adventures.
Also in the top 10 for the Wasps were Alex Blaiklock in fifth, Gabe Bango in ninth and Devin Mumford, in his first year on the team, claiming tenth.
Britney Poljacik not only was the highest finisher among the Wasps, she topped the entire girls’ field. Also placing for the girls were MacKenzie Dalton in 5th, Rose O’Brien in 6th and Grace McKeon in 11th.
“It was nice to be on our home turf after traveling around the state for several weeks,” said Bloch. “That’s a nice way to end the regular season.”
The boarders are now off until the state competition. It will be held at Killington in a couple of weeks, over two days, on March 1-2.
This article first appeared in the February 16, 2017 edition of the Vermont Standard.