The girls varsity ski team, a Nicolet and Shorewood co-op team, competed at state last weekend, placing tenth overall. The competition took place over the course of two days, each girl competing in three categories: slalom, giant slalom and super G.

“We actually placed tenth out of 22 teams, which was a lot better than we expected to do,” said Kate Dickman, senior. “That was just a fun way to cap off the weekend by actually doing well.” 

“I feel good because no one really thought we would actually make it to state,” said Grace Bailey, junior. “There were a lot of doubts about it.” 

The team placed twelfth in the conference, the last qualifying place in order to get to state, so they didn’t expect much from the competition.

“Heading in, we didn’t have too many expectations,” said Adam Novajovsky, head coach. “We finished twelfth in the conference, so we were actually the last team to sneak in. But when we got there, the girls skied really well. We were really focused on just going there, doing the best we could [and] having some fun.” 

The season started in November, which gave the girls lots of opportunities to improve leading up to state. 

“Every race they’ve gotten better and better, so the fact that we kind of peaked at the right time and peaked at state was a culmination of all their hard work and the time they’ve put in throughout the season,” Novajovsky said.

With only six members, each girl had a role throughout the entire season in order to succeed as a team.

“Everyone on our team had a really big role to play,” Novajovsky said. “That’s kind of what’s cool about skiing; you ski as an individual on the course but you’re scored as a team, so everyone matters.”

Novajovsky found that the girls became very close.

“I think the team was so close knit and they all got along and kind of skied for each other instead of just focusing on their own results,” Novajovsky said.

“Our team’s pretty solid this year,” Bailey said.

The girls feel especially proud of beating Whitefish Bay, which, according to Dickman, was a big goal.

“Our only goal was to beat Whitefish Bay,” Dickman said. “Whitefish Bay placed seventeenth and we placed tenth. So we felt really really good about that.”

Two members placed well individually in the competition. Grace Bailey placed eighteenth overall and Emma Bailey, freshman, placed ninth. Although the season has ended for the team as a whole, the sisters will continue as alternates in the national competition.