WOODFORD, Vt. — The Amherst Regional girls Nordic ski team has seen a plethora of different athletes lead the Hurricanes’ pack throughout the course of this season. Each meet it’s typically someone new at the front, and that’s what makes their team so dangerous in meets with high stakes like Tuesday’s 2025 MIAA Nordic Ski Championships at Prospect Mountain.

It can be one of Amherst’s five seniors or a skilled underclassman that soars over the line first. The ‘Canes have a deep roster, and it showed in their runner-up finish.

Amherst accumulated 72 points to earn second place out of 18 teams, only 11 points shy of Mount Greylock – Tuesday’s state champion. Acton-Nashoba (77), Newton South (85) and Leonx (89) rounded out the top five. Mohawk Trail, which rosters athletes who attend Hampshire Regional in a co-op, finished seventh (126).

“The girls are just a super, tight-knit group of athletes, and I’ve never been a part of a more supportive group,” Amherst co-head coach Nat Woodruff said. “They just love skiing. They’ve pushed each other since they started four or six years ago, some of them started in middle school. It’s amazing to see how far they’ve come together and as a group, performing really well but also becoming amazing human beings. I’m super proud of them.”

On the boys side, it was the Mounties again claiming first with 34 points, followed by Wahconah (55), Concord-Carlisle (68), Newton South (90) and the Amherst boys team (fifth, 104). The ‘Canes jumped up six spots from their 11th-place finish a year ago, and continue to trend in the right direction.

“They are moving up, and I expect even better next year,” Woodruff said of the boys.

Freshman Ella Workman spearheaded the Amherst girls this time, taking ninth place in a time of 27 minutes, 37 seconds. Elizabeth Sawicki slotted in at 18th (28:39), and the ‘Canes then had four finishers ranging from 22nd to 35th – keeping that pack skiing intact. Addie Mager grabbed 22nd (28:57), Isla Cusick finished 23rd (29:02), River Wolaver notched 31st (29:39) and Zoey Candito slid into 35th (29:50).

The girls have embraced the fact that it can be anyone who finishes first on their team on any given day. The group has used that to motivate one another in practice, and the more they push each other the better they do on race days. That’s clearly paid off and it showed on the biggest stage Tuesday.

“We’re super pumped,” Mager said of the second-place team finish. “We came off a strong season last year, and we had a really strong league meet season this year as well. Our spread is really close, so that helps. One of our main team theories is that we’re here because we love to ski, so we don’t usually think about outcome-goals as much. We focus on enjoying the process and enjoying the race.”

After finishing second behind Mount Greylock at last season’s state meet, the ‘Canes were hoping to get some revenge this time around. But although they didn’t win the title, they’re content knowing they gave it everything they had in the tank.

“This is what we expected of ourselves,” River Wolaver said. “We obviously were trying to get first, especially because we got second last year, but we’re happy with second.”

When asked if there was any individual that stood out in particular Tuesday, the three captains, Mager, Wolaver and Candito, all answered simultaneously, and without hesitation.

“Ella Workman,” they each said at once.

And with five seniors departing after this season, it’s going to be Workman leading the way next year. Tuesday’s state championships were a sneak peek of that.

The girls defeated Mount Greylock once this season, and also lost to the Mounties. Both the coaches and skiers were aware it would probably come down to those two just as it did in 2024. Regardless of the outcome, Amherst co-head coach Carl Cignoni was thrilled to see a western Massachusetts-filled leaderboard.

“We beat them during the regular season, and they also beat us, we go neck-and-neck with them,” Cignoni said. “But we’re also proud that western Mass. tends to win. The first and second place teams were western Mass. teams on both the girls and boys.”

As for the ‘Canes boys team, Amherst has improved year-in and year-out over the course of this decade. Last winter, the Hurricanes finished 11th at Prospect Mountain, and this year they took fifth. They’ve progressed as a unit as each year passes.

“It’s been a steady improvement since seventh grade,” Ian Burns, a sophomore who just wrapped up a fourth year on the team, said. “Every year we’ve kept on getting better. I’m really excited to see what we can become.”

Burns paced the Amherst team on Tuesday, coming in 14th place with a time of 23:18. Burns said the coaching staff applied about four coats of wax onto his skis the night before the race, so when he put them on, he could feel he was going to turn in a fast time.

And that he did, despite running on an empty stomach.

“I probably could’ve ate a little more for breakfast,” Burns joked. “I was nervous, so it was hard to eat this morning. And warming up, my legs are always tired – during and after warm up. I have to figure out how to avoid that.

“My team overall, we are really supportive of each other,” Burns added. “On the [starting] line, they put blankets on us, they make sure our skis are on correctly and all that. It’s just really helpful to know there are a lot of people supporting me there. That’s given me the confidence to ski well.”

Right behind Burns was training partner Calvin Miller, who finished 15th (23:22). The two have become close friends throughout practice, because they’re always striving to beat each other come race day. Iron sharpens iron, and it has certainly worked in the duo’s favor this season.

“It’s really great, and skiing with him all season, he’s gotten so much better than last year,” Burns said of Miller. “He’s been beating me consistently. I think having someone to train with that’s so close to you, it pushes you to get better, especially when they’re on the team.”

Otis Fairey (27th, 24:15), Hunter Pete (52nd, 26:37), Alexander Fitz-Gibbon (54th, 26:55), Ellis Rubin (66th, 28:05) and Geoffrey Fitz-Gibbon (67th, 28:08) also raced well for the Amherst boys team.

Mohawk Trail’s Ada Comer led the charge for the Warriors – finishing in 23rd place in a time of 29 minutes, 2 seconds. Behind her came Charlotte Niswonger (29th, 29:30) and Piper Oswald (30th, 29:38), then Anya Read (47th, 31:06) soon after.

Claire Pickard (59th, 32:57) was the only other Mohawk Trail finisher in the top 100 in the girls race.

Augustus Niswonger nabbed a top 15 finish in the boys race for the Warriors, as the Hampshire Regional junior took 13th with a time of 23:04 to lead the team.

“I did better than I expected I would do,” Augustus Niswonger said. “The skis were really fast, and it was a good race. I felt solid. I enjoyed it. The hills are obviously tough, but because of the new snow, it went really quick – which is great.”

Luke Pickard was the next finisher in yellow and blue to cross the line, doing so in 25:39 to take 41st place. Adam Muller (48th, 26:14), Lukas Manley (92nd, 31:41) and Malcolm Todd (93rd, 31:52) cracked the top 100 as well for Mohawk Trail.