USCSA Press Release: Week 1 Alpine Recap

January 18, 2026

Photo credits: Tom Martin

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jay Moyer
[email protected]

By Kaitlyn Frye

The universities of the Atlantic Highlands and Eastern conferences were able to kick off their first races of the season over the past week and a half, a full week ahead of many of the other conferences. 

Atlantic Highlands Conference
The Atlantic Highlands conference opened the season with their first races held at West Mountain. The Princeton men’s team was able to claim the top of the podium during the slalom race, thanks to efforts from Lorenzo Lizzeri in third, Andrew Rosen in sixth, and Eli Padoan in tenth. The United States Military Academy claimed second, and Columbia University took third. Eben Gifford finished in first place in the slalom race for Lehigh University with a scorching 1:10.57 second combined race time, although it wasn’t enough to bring Lehigh onto the podium for slalom, as they finished only fifth. 

However, a third place finish for Gifford, as well as high results for Nathan Driker in fourth, and Jack Darov in thirteenth, was enough to push Lehigh to second during the GS race. That still wasn’t enough to take the gold spot, which was snatched up by USMA and James Lahrman, who placed first, along with strong performances by Callum Donovan and Ryan Oberweis-Manion. Columbia University placed third in GS due to quick times from Mathias Habal-Shore, Augie Goldberg, and Reid Hu, who were also the top three racers for Columbia during their slalom race as well. 

The Lehigh women’s team started their season on fire during their opening races, taking first in both GS and Slalom. Abi Masillo placed first for the team in both events. Eliza Hirschey placed eighth in GS and fourth in slalom, with Sadie Gray quickly on her heels to take ninth and fifth in each event respectively. As a team, Fairfield University grabbed the silver spot in GS, with Rutgers behind them.  Fairfield also managed to take third in slalom, but this time they were beat out by Lafayette University, with Lily Gouse in second place, Gwendolyn Brown in eighth, and Katherine Schaefer finishing fourteenth. 

The Princeton women’s race showed Sophie O’Connor putting up a 1:22.93 combined time in GS, as well as a 1:33.38 in slalom, to finish third as an individual in both events.

East Conference
Over in the Eastern Conference, St. Joseph’s College of Maine dominated the Reynold’s Division in both the men's and women's races. During their first race, Avalin Beaudin, Megan Cook, and Sierra Mack of St. Joseph’s swept the podium with first, second, and third place finishes. All three appeared again in the second race at noon, where the women of St. Joseph’s cleaned up once again by claiming the top five finishes. Cook took second, Mack fourth, and Beaudin 5th, with Hannah Golden finishing third, and Kathleen Yeaton in first with a combined time of 1:15.80, a full second ahead of second place.

Despite high scoring from Logan Davis and Jack Price of St. Joseph’s Maine, placing first and second respectively, back-to-back-to-back finishes from Alexander Wiseman in fifth, Owen Benison in sixth, and Niko Fortier in seventh were enough to put Bowdoin on the top of the leaderboard for the 9:30 AM races, and pushing St. Joseph’s into second place. The men’s team of St. Joseph rallied for their second race, with a first place finish from Jack Price, a sixth place finish from Sam Plummer, and a seventh place finish from Owen Pethic to help push the team into first. 

During the opening race in the McBrien Division at Holiday Mountain, the men of the United States Coast Guard Academy showed out, particularly in racers Logan Schwartz and Noah Barnes. Schwartz finished first in both GS and Slalom events, putting up times of 28.78 and 29.52, for a combined time of 58.30, almost five seconds ahead of second place. Barnes claimed the second place spot in slalom, as well as third in the GS race. Racer Benjamin Cook of Marist reached the podium for both events also, finishing second in GS, and third in Slalom.

The podium for the GS and Slalom women’s races were dominated by the same three racers in both races as well. Liva Olina of MIT took first place in slalom, and third in GS. Kelsey Callahan of Marist College took first in GS and second in slalom, while Anna Erb of URI took second in GS, and third in slalom.

Although the Thompson Division was forced to cancel their Jay Peak races on the 10th, they were still able to hold GS races on the 11th, where both the men’s and women’s teams of Northeastern took first place. Ellie Stram of Northeastern took first individually. Haley Kutzer placed third individually, followed sequentially by her teammates Miriam Maculova, Piper Macartney, and Carey Ritter, giving the Northeast women five of the top six finishing times. The Northeastern men also claimed many of the fastest times, with Jake Strobeck  in third place, followed by Ethan Munson in fourth, Christopher Pyle in fifth, Asher Lockwood in seventh, and Miles Rucker in eighth. The Tufts team came in second, led by Alexander Doyle with a second place finish individually, and Nathan Kessler of WPI finished first individually, helping the WPI team into third place. 

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