Corrected and updated Feb. 24, 2023
In the final race of the season before the state championships for the Bromfield/North Middlesex ski team, the boys placed second and the girls placed seventh out of nine teams in the slalom event of the Massachusetts Bay State West Alpha Division on Wednesday, Feb. 14, at the Nashoba Valley Ski Area. A light layer of fresh snow dusted the cold course, a sheet of ice underneath.
The boys fell to Westford Academy by nine points. Bromfield/North Middlesex’s top skier, Oscar Pride, was absent from the race on Wednesday. Pride is ranked second in the league and has placed in the top five of every race he has participated in. Also missing from the race was Cole Maddalone, who is ranked fifth in the league and second on the team. Despite missing their top two skiers, the boys were able to pull second place as two junior varsity racers, Cole Janda and Andrew Zaslavskiy, moved up to varsity.
Bromfield members of the Bromfield/North Middlesex boys team pose following an earlier race this season. From left: Rowan McCarthy, Oscar Pride, Cole Maddalone, and Owen Wood. (Courtesy photo)
The boys finished the season second in their division with a record of 42-6, just one win short of being first in the league. Rival Westford Academy took the title with a record of 44-4. Bromfield/North Middlesex has four of the top 10 racers in the league, the most of any other of the nine teams in the Alpha Division of the Bay State West League.
The girls team finished the season with a record of 8-40, falling to Groton-Dunstable by seven points. Madison Rausch, ranked 20th in the league, was just four places away from qualifying to compete at the state championships.
The team was coached by Boris Ivanov, a parent of skiers on the team, and Gavin Maddalone, a former ski racer who graduated from Bromfield and helped coach the team while working on his college degree.
As the regular season closes, there is one race left for select skiers, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Alpine state finals. Oscar Pride, Cole Maddalone, Owen Wood, and Rowan McCarthy qualified for the race and will represent the team at the event. Bromfield/North Middlesex boys had more than three skiers qualify for states, which means they are eligible to race as a team. As one of the top two teams in the league, Bromfield/North Middlesex is allowed to bring an additional racer, Jasper Pride. The team makes up almost a third— five out of 18—of the racers from the Alpha Division going to the state championship, with the most boys to qualify for states out of the teams in the league.
The MIAA Alpine state finals will be held at Wachusett Mountain Tuesday, Feb. 27.
Annabelle Purcell is a freshman at the Bromfield School.
Editor’s note: This article has been corrected and updated to state that the Bromfield/North Middlesex boys missed the league championship by one win, not three. The order of names in the group photo has also been corrected.
Slalom 3, final race, Bay West League Alpha Division
Boys (Bromfield top 5 finishers)
- Owen Wood (25.94 seconds), third
- Rowan McCarthy (27.58), 10th
- Jasper Pride (29.55), 18th
- Andrew Brown (30.36), 23rd
- Cole Janda (31.18), 24th
Girls (Bromfield top 5 finishers)
- Madison Rausch (32.25 seconds), 16th
- Anna Ivanov (35.32), 26th
- Audrey Slavin (35.98), 30th
- Ruby Hunt (36.63), 34th
- Sophia Purcell (40.37), 45th
