Nordic Ski | 2/13/2025 11:00:00 AM
With winter still in full effect the Clarkson University Nordic Skiing team will make another trek to the northeast, this time to the White Mountains for the ECSC Regionals at the Holderness School in Holderness, New Hampshire. The events hold extra importance this weekend as skiers will look to qualify through the two events for the USCSA National Championships that will be held in Oregon in mid-March.
The Events: Skiers will compete in the classic sprint on Saturday and 7.5 km ski on Sunday, both days will kick-off at 10 a.m. With the impending snow looming over the area for the weekend, the weather may impact race scheduling. In the event that the event cannot be held over the two days and with the importance that both races hold for qualification reasons for racers, the pair of races may be held Saturday with start times altered so that one begins in the morning and one in the afternoon.
The Team: After two weekends in Paul Smiths skiers will be looking forward to a different course albeit with somewhat similar conditions. Freshman Matthew Clarner has consistently placed at the top of the leaderboard for the Golden Knights so far this season including a first place finish, out of 30 skiers at the Jackson Jaunt 7.5k. Following two second place finishes in the 15km individual ski over the past two weeks at the VIC, Clarner helped lead the Clarkson "A" team to a first place finish in the classic team skate last Saturday, out of 21 teams. Junior Joey Rouhana has done his fair share across the 2025 campaign finishing within the top-3 of all events that he has competed in, including two first place finishes at the University of Vermont invitational in the skiathlon and the criterium. His last 7.5k race was also the Jackson Jaunt in early January, where he placed second just behind Clarner. Freshman Finn Payne will be looking to build upon a successful first season as a Golden Knight which saw him as a regular in the top-5 or top-10 finishers across the season while making up the third position of the Clarkson "A" team with Clarner and Rouhana. Sophomore Torsten Brickley and freshman Silas Bartol will be aiming for season-best finishes with qualification needed to advance out west.
For the women, Skylar Francis has continued to be the driving force for the Golden Knights managing an impressive fifth place finish out of 63 skiers on day one of ECSC Divisionals at Paul Smiths. The sophomore has two second place finishes as her best so far this season with one of them coming in the Jackson Jaunt 7.5k race, the same distance as day two is scheduled for this upcoming weekend. Clare Janas has been another constant in the scoring for Clarkson, the sophomore will be focused on bettering her course completion time in New Hampshire. After not competing this past weekend at divisionals, sophomore Raegan Joly will be back on the course for regionals where she will also look to build on her times throughout the season.
