Relay Day at Junior Nationals always occurs on the last day of a full week of racing. By design, it’s meant to focus the individual efforts of an entire winter by placing them in the context of a Team. Drive to the heart of our sport: a wintertime, cold, individual pursuit, made wonderful by the warmth of pursuing it together.
For Team New England this year, Relay Day represented another opportunity. After a sometimes frustrating week of near-misses on All-American finishes (top 10), there was a tangible way for skiers who had already accomplished much in the week of racing to boost their teammates to their goals. A strong relay leg, a last burst of speed against a tired field, by any one skier could be the difference.
As it would turn out on the day, those race-defining, team-boosting efforts would begin and end with two skiers who had led their peers in the Eastern Cup all season: James Underwood and Lea Perreard, both out of Ford Sayre Ski Club in the Upper Valley of New Hampshire-Vermont.
Read the full article at NENSA.net >>
