2024 NENSA Eastern Cup - Henchey Memorial CL Sprint Day
Men’s quarterfinal 3. - Photo Phil Belena
Fresh snow blanketed Craftsbury just in time for the 2024 NENSA Henchey Memorial Eastern Cup. A total of 363 racers from all around New England toed the line in the morning qualifier, with age group heats running throughout the day until after 4:00pm. While this recap will only cover the open categories, complete results across all categories can be found here..
Quincy Massey-Bierman striding training hill in the heats. Photo - Phil Belena.
The top 30 qualifiers in the women’s field spanned just over 22 seconds. Ava Thurston of Dartmouth College placed first by six seconds ahead of Quincy Massey-Bierman from Middlebury College and Emma Charles from University of New Hampshire. The latter two were separated by less than three tenths of a second.
Sofia Scirica, eventual 3rd place on the day. Photo - Phil Belena.
In the men’s field the top 30 were separated by under 18 seconds. The top spot in the qualifier was taken by Luke Allen of Dartmouth College, only 0.09 seconds ahead of Jack Christner from Middlebury College. In third place was Charles Martell of University of New Hampshire.
Ava Thurston, 2nd. Photo - Phil Belena
Luke Allen, a native of Ottawa, Canada, stormed through all his heats to eventually take the win in the men’s final ahead of Christner and Finn Sweet of University of Vermont. Allen noted the recently snowy conditions “made for a pretty beautiful track out there.” On strategy, Allen’s goal was to “get out fast and stay out of trouble by racing my own race from the front. Taking the inside corners was also a good idea because the tracks were a little faster on the inside.”
Men’s semi with Dartmouth’s Luke Allen taking the win over Finn Sweet. Photo - Phil Belena.
“There were a couple skis in my way at some points, a little bit of yelling at some points, but pretty smooth honestly,” said Sweet of the men’s final. Christner agreed, noting “very solid tracks and really fast snow, just a lot of fun.” Sweet, a local to Craftsbury, described the atmosphere throughout the day as “nice, with low-key crowds. It feels great to race at home with a home crowd.” Christner added a “huge shoutout to all the volunteers today, it’s pretty cold out here, so thank you for that!”
Men’s open podium (L-R): Jack Christner, Luke Allen, Finn Sweet.
In the women’s final it was Massey-Bierman who ended the day on top, with Thurston in second and Sophia Scirica of Middlebury College in third. Massey-Bierman identified the snow depot as the point on course where the chaos of the final came to a head: “Everyone had different speed skis and there was a lot of tracking that went on.” EMXC alum Scirica added the final “definitely had a lot of tactics, and it was a little aggressive, but in a fun way. The racing was awesome - it was great that three of the women in the final were also from outside Boston.” Silver medalist Thurston said that all in all “it was a really fun day, with great weather and awesome skis. It was fun in the final to have the whole college crew out there.”
The excitement continues tomorrow with individual start freestyle races starting at 9:30am.
Women’s open podium (L-R): Ava Thurston, Quincy Massey-Bierman, Sophia Scirica. Photo - Phil Belena