Andover Ski Teams Look to Cap Memorable Seasons at State Finals

Both the Andover Barons boy's and girl's ski teams will make history by competing teams will compete in the State Finals at Marquette Mountain on Monday.

"We've looked, but couldn't find anything that shows this has happened before in school history, which is pretty special," Coach Rob Brown said. The impact — considering the pending merger with Lahser to the new Bloomfield Hills High School next fall — began to sink in following the teams sweep at last weeks regional competition. However, Brown said there's much more to the motivations behind the each team's success.

Following a strong season that ended with a few disappointing crashes in last year, the girl's team worked hard all summer and fall with a simple goal: win everything they could, Brown said. They responded at regionals, coming back from a 3rd place finish in slalom to dominate the giant slalom to win first place

Girl's Achievements:

• Won LO Orion Invitational
• Won overall Divisional championships
• Won Regional championship
• Won DC Invitational (Our version of SEMSL Championships)
• The team Won all Dual Meets and ran the table for all of its big meets.
• 5 of our 7 girls consistently finished in the Top 10, with the other 2 consistently in the top 20.
• Multiple girls won several events, and multiple races where the entire team was in the top 15.
• The girl's won by 10 points and five skiers finished with top-15 results.

The boy's team was not considered a favorite for districts coming into the season, but they continued to exceed expectations, Brown said. Andover's boys led wire-to-wire and won by more than 30 points, with J.T. Stewart winning 1st place in the slalom, while four finished with top-15 results in either slalom or giant slalom events.

Boy's Achievements:

• Third at the LO Invitational
• Third overall at Divisional’s
• Won Regional championship
• Third at DC Invitational, despite competing without several students at the Junior Olympic qualifiers
• Boys went 6 -3 during their dual meets.
• Five of seven boys  consistently finished in the top 15, with 3 consistently in the top 10.
• Several earned top 3 finishes with one winning several events.

Sign up for the Bloomfield-Bloomfield Hills Patch free daily newsletter, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter for updates on this story and more about the Bloomfield area.