Miss Hall’s wins first ever championship in alpine skiing

PITTSFIELD – Miss Hall’s School has always been known for their excellence in academics as the first boarding school for girls, founded in 1898.

Today – 115 years later, they are known as athletic champions.

The Hurricanes earned a Class C Alpine Skiing Championship by beating out both Bancroft and Brewster in part thanks to two local skiers.

Rachel Campoli (Dalton) finished fourth in the Giant Slalom and sixth in the Slalom, while fellow Berkshire County teammate Emma Whittum (Williamstown) finished 15th and ninth, respectively.

Hurricane Head Coach Rex Channell could not have landed a better job in town, as he inherited three Tri-State training skiers to his roster.

Pennsylvania skiers Haleigh Quigg (who finished first in the Championship Meet, both in the Giant Slalom and Slalom) and Phoebe Spare (who finished second overall in both events behind Quigg), along with Campoli, all train at Tri-State.

Tri-State training is an open skiing program to intense skiers who want to take their skills to the next level and compete against the county’s best. The program consists of 10 hours of training on the weekends at various ski mountains in the area.

For Campoli, only a freshman, she has been able to get over the hump this winter as she has improved both her time and finishes over the last eight weeks to solidify that third spot on the team behind Quigg and Spare.

“[Campoli] has been shaky up to this year – she hasn’t always been able to find the finish line,” Channell said. “This year, through our team races and through the championship, she put eight straight finishes together, which is phenomenal.”

Quigg, on the other hand, has dominated the slopes over the season, and her time of 32.56 on the Giant Slalom and 33.19 on the Slalom are times that would have beaten the boys in their race.

“[Quigg]’s got the heart, and she’s got the want inside,” Channell said.

After winning the championship, Quigg expressed her sentiments about her team rather than herself.

“I am happy for all my teammates, each and everyone of them came out of the start with determination and out of the finish line with a smile,” Quigg said.

Whittum also had a strong finish, as she was the team’s fourth place finisher in both events, finishing as high as ninth in the Slalom. The trained dancer uses skiing as an escape from her rigorous dance training to stay in shape and focused through the winter season.

With the first ever championship at the school in its 115-year history, the excitement has trickled down to the other sports as well and has really “amped” up the athletes on campus.

“Even the basketball team is on a four-game winning streak,” added Channell. “The whole school has been amped up, it has trickled down to the other sports – it fired everybody up.”

After the win, the girls were met with a hero’s welcome by the entire campus, and talk sparked that the skiing program could expand to attract other top-tier skiers to the program.

“The program is likely to expand, and I am excited about that,” Channell said.

While the Hurricanes may have created a firestorm on campus, their winning has only brought the athletes closer together no matter whether they win or lose.

“That is what I love most about our team, we are like a family – always supporting each other no matter what,” Quigg said.

Posted by Tim Davis on February 28, 2013. Filed under High School Sports,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry