Top-ranked Ellefson heads list of four Bates skiers to make NCAAs
LEWISTON, Maine — Bates College junior Sylvan Ellefson was named First Team All-East by the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association, and will go to the NCAA Ski Championships next week as the EISA’s top-ranked male skier.
Ellefson’s monster finish to the regular season — he earned first place 10K Free Technique wins at the last two carnivals, Williams and Middlebury, and finished second in the 15K Classic Technique race at Middlebury on Saturday — pushed him to the very top of the men’s individual rankings, with 325 points to 320 for runner-up Glenn Randall of Dartmouth. Thus, after achieving a Bates first with by winning an EISA race, then reprising the feat a week later, Ellefson has established another Bates first by earning the EISA’s top ranking.
Ellefson (Vail, Colo.) will be the lone Nordic skier from Bates at nationals, which will be hosted by Montana State University March 5-8, although junior teammate Sam Evans-Brown (Gilmanton Iron Works, N.H.) and first-year Megan McClelland (Keene Valley, N.Y.) came close.
Ellefson will be accompanied, however, by three teammates from the Bates women’s alpine team. Juniors Liz Thompson (Rangeley, Maine) and Emily Sampson (Plymouth, N.H.) will be making their third and second appearances at NCAAs, respectively, and first-year Micaela Holland (Belmont, Mass.) will join them. Senior Whitney Fahy (Carrabassett Valley, Maine) is the first alternate.