This year, I was lucky enough to represent Northcross at the Auckland Primary & Intermediate Snowsports Championships. My team of five other skiers, one snowboarder, and I competed against a total of 33 intermediate students from 11 different schools!
After waiting over half an hour, all the skiers in my team headed out to get ready. We lined up and I glanced around at the other competitors who looked like professionals. We all headed up the slope to do our practice runs. Everyone skied down extremely fast, and once we finished our practice run, we lined up in order for the timed run. I watched my teammates in disbelief at how fast they could go. After our second run we waited for what felt like an eternity in the hot restaurant, then the racing finally wrapped up and it was time for the first prize giving. We waited nervously as the officials made their final deliberations.
Everyone did exceedingly well; our fastest skier, Lucas Wuensche, placed 5th in the intermediate boys’ ski race division, and our only girl snowboarder, Cici Chen, came 4th in the intermediate girls’ snowboard slopestyle division!
Next, everyone geared up for the slopestyle division for the skiers and racing for the snowboarders. Going up to the top of the slope for the practice run, I was terrified thinking about what would happen if I fell. After my practice run I headed back up the slope feeling much more confident! At the top, ready for another round, I saw just how good the competition was—one person was casually doing what looked like 720s off the jump! When the judged runs started, I watched the first Northcross skier hit the jump. He was incredible, and I hoped I looked half as good during my run. In the end Northcross absolutely excelled at slopestyle, landing crazy switches, 180s, and other super cool tricks.
At the final prize giving, Northcross took out 3rd place overall! We walked away with three medalists:
- Lucas Wuensche placed 1st overall in the intermediate boys’ skiing division.
- Carson Zhang placed 3rd overall in the intermediate boys’ skiing division.
- Cici Chen placed 2nd in the intermediate girls’ snowboard division.
All of these Northcross athletes did amazingly well and truly displayed the Northcross learner dispositions or being explorers, persevering and being self motivated.
Written by Tristan Dold
