BENNINGTON – As spring sports begin and the weather warms up, ski racers from the Crotched Mountain Junior Race Team are hanging up their skis for the season. The team enjoyed a lot of success and personal growth since the season began in early December.

To wrap up the season, the team competed in its final weekend of races, which were not only challenging races but some with fun twist, such as the T-shirt race, in which some members raced in grass skirts, and the reintroduction the Mug Race on March 27.

Crotched Mountain brought back its famous Mug Race, which was a very popular end-of-the-season race that drew large numbers of racers in the days before the mountain closed in 1989. This race was an extremely challenging Kombi Race, which combined all the diciplines into one run, such as slalom gates, giant slalom gates and stubby gates, which require the racer to quickly switch between methods of racing. Each racer received a hot cocoa mug for participating, and the award for the top three in each division was an engraved crystal mug.

The local team did well. RJ Humphreys posted the fastest overall combined time in the race (1:45.54), and Rhiannon Allison had the fastest womens time of the day (1:49.16). Both won first place in the J4 race, and Ashley Humphreys placed first for the J5 girls, all competing for Crotched Mountain. Taya Kerwin was presented the “Sportsmanship” award because she attempted to compete despite an injury at home. She stayed on the sidelines and cheered her teammates on.

The J4 boys (ages 11-12) all skied well in the challenging course. RJ Humphreys of Lyndeborough had two aggressive runs of 52.94 and 52.60, which were the fast times of the meet. He placed first with a 1:45.54 combined time. Luke Marin of Hollis skied very well and placed second with a combined time of 1:52.45. Bryce Laurendeau of Bedford also joined them on the podium to place third (1:53.36). Eli Tamok of Francestown placed 4th, and Bedford’s Vincent Dorow came in 5th. Silas Howe of Amherst placed 6th. Milford’s David Spaulding placed 7th, and Jacob Lysik of Hollis came in 8th for the Crotched Mountain team.

The J4 girls also had a strong showing. Mont Vernon’s Rhiannon Allison lit up the course for first place with a 53.85 time on her first run and 55.31 on her second for a combined time of 1:49.16. Maura Rapposelli of Peterborough placed 2nd with a combined time of 1:52.10, and the Amherst trio Anna Farrow, Alana Barretto and Kate Bermingham also medaled in 3rd-5th place respectively. Erika Wentz of Nashua placed 6th, while Sarah Tyler of Bennington placed 7th. Hannah Jorczak from New Boston took 8th; Taya Kerwin of Hancock took 9th, and Rhiannon King of Amherst rounded out the top 10. Bedford’s Samantha Smith placed 11th, while Ella MacDonald from Keene placed 12th, and Addy Catlin from Dublin was disqualified.

The girls J5 team (age 9-10) was successful, with Ashley Humphreys of Lyndeborough in first place with a combined time of 1:57.27. Bedford’s Kaitlyn Laurendeau had two good runs to earn 2nd

with a time of 2:01.39. Eloise Catlin of Dublin finished out the top 3 spot on the podium (2:06.87) and all were awarded crystal mugs while Whitney Fitzgerald of Bedford and Hollis’ Jocelyn Lysik came in 4th and 5th for medals. Sophie MacDonald of Keene placed 6th. Katie Taylor of Amherst placed 7th. Mary Martin from Hollis placed 8th, and Anna Pollak from Bedford placed 9th.

The J5 boys had a great time at the race. Rowen Ainslie from Hancock placed 3rd. Dylan Rivard from Goffstown placed 4th. Jack Ede of Amherst placed 5th to earn awards. Aidan Alusic-Bingham of Antrim placed 6th, with Henry Howe of Amherst right behind in 7th. Camden Maley of New Boston placed 8th. Brandon Bernsten of Hollis placed 9th; Milford’s Ethan Tronkowski took 10th, while Joey Pollack from Bedford didn’t finish his second run and was disqualified.

The Mug Race’s youngest division was the J6 racers, which showcased some amazing young racers 8 years or younger such as Malin Alusic-Bingham of Antrim, who showed the crowd you can be young, small but still very fast by taking first place with an impressive race, while Samantha Hughson from New Ipswich placed 3rd for the girls. For the boys J6, Kyle Rivard of Goffstown placed 2nd and Andrew Taylor of Amherst placed 3rd, while Crotched Mountain’s oldest racers also enjoyed success with Duncan Holden of Lyndeborough placing 2nd in the J3 race (ages 13-14) and Jasper Jones from Francestown placing 3rd.

“We had a great season. The athletes made tremendous improvements in their skiing abilities and confidence. All those long, hard training days were rewarded at the end of the season, with a straight month of competitions, and our athletes taking home awards from each event,” said J4 Coach Drew Craig.

Also held this weekend was the Chip Gilroy T-shirt race at Mt. Sunapee, which hosted almost 600 racers on a dual-panel course. Most teams host tailgate parties to celebrate the end of the racing season and enjoyed watching the race.

The Crotched Mountain Girls J5 team took a one-two punch out of the competition with the Humphreys/Laurendeau combo again taking the top two position but flipped this race’s results from the Mug Race with Bedford’s Kaitlyn Laurendeau placing first on the giant slalom course with combined time of 50.49. Ashley Humphreys of Lyndeborough came in second with a time of 51.29 in a steep field of talented girls. Katie Taylor of Amherst placed 19th.

The girls J4 race featured Rhiannon Allison in 6th place with a combined time of 47.93. Alana Barretto placed 7th (48.11), and Peterborough’s Maura Rapposelli placed 10th. Anna Farrow of Amherst placed 13th, while in the J4 boys race RJ Humphreys of Lyndeborough placed 17th with a combined time of 46.45. Luke Martin of Hollis placed 21st and Bryce Laurendeau came in 26th.