Alumni in Action: Ski and Snowboard Club Vail alumna earns EISA Rookie of the Year award
EagleVail triathlete Sullivan Middaugh opened his multi-sport season with a top-10 World Cup finish
Steve Fuller/Courtesy photo
Kjersti Moritz was named the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association Rookie of the Year and earned all-region second team honors last week after tallying 182 points in her first season at Middlebury. The Ski and Snowboard Club Vail alumna graduated from Vail Mountain School in 2023 but was not able to ski her true freshman campaign because of injury.
The U.S. Ski Team athlete made a splash this winter, earning top-5 finishes in all four carnival races she’s competed at. At her team’s home meet, she placed second in the slalom on Feb. 14 and then won the giant slalom the following day to become the EISA Female Alpine Skier of the Week.
The 20-year-old qualified for the NCAA championships March 5-8 at the Dartmouth Skiway but is declining the selection in order to represent the U.S. at the FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Tarvisio, Italy along with her sister, Liv, and fellow SSCV alumni Hunter Salani.
EagleVail’s XTERRA World Champion competes in first triathlon of the season
Sullivan Middaugh placed ninth in his season-opener, the World Triathlon Cup Napier. The EagleVail native completed the 750-meter swim, 20-kilometer bike and 5-kilometer run in 50 minutes, 58 seconds to finish as the second American. Spain’s David Castro Fajardo took the gold (50:29) as Aussies Braden Mercer (50:31) and Callum McClusky (50:32) battled for the other two podium spots. Reese Vannerson was the first American in fifth.
“Very happy with my first race of the season,” Middaugh posted on social media after his best World Cup result. “I showed big improvements in my swim. I was able to put down the fastest bike split of the day and caught the front group, putting myself in a good position for the run. I tried to hold into the fast pace on the run as long as I could and battled for every position.”
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The World Triathlon Cup was established in 1991 as a regular-season series of competitions to compliment the ITU Triathlon World Championships. In 2009, the World Triathlon Championship Series was created as the top professional circuit, turning the World Cup into a feeder series. Still, points earned in the World Cup are applied to an athletes’ World Championship Series ranking.
Last year, Middaugh won his first Americas Triathlon Cup in Calima, Columbia. He also won the Americas Cup in Punta Cana in August and was second on the series’ event in Edmonton. He made his first World Triathlon Cup start in Karlovy Vary, placing 20th before concluding his season on Nov. 9 with a 23rd-place result in the World Triathlon Cup Miyazaki.
Middaugh is a two-time XTERRA USA and 2024 XTERRA North American champion. Last fall, he captured the XTERRA short-track world title, but his main focus is draft-legal road triathlon, the competition seen at the Olympic Games.
Other Alumni in Action
- Sullivan Middaugh’s younger brother and fellow USA Project Podium teammate, Porter, sharpened up his form for the triathlon year by running a 14:12.08 5000-meter run at the John Thomas Terrier Classic at Boston University on Jan. 31. He opened the multi-sport race season with a sixth-place finish at the Americas Triathlon Cup La Habana on Feb. 16.
- Hunter Salani placed eighth in the downhill at the FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Tarvisio, Italy on Thursday. Germany’s Felix Roesle took the gold with a two-run time of 1 minute, 40.11 seconds. Swiss skier Philipp Kaelin was 0.02 seconds back in second and Austrian Matthias Fernsebner picked up the bronze. Salani — who has never broken the top-10 in any of his two previous junior worlds competitions — moved up four places after his second run on the Di Prampero slope.
- Colorado Mesa University thrower Augustine Hancock has hit the NCAA DII national provisional standard in the weight throw. The former Battle Mountain thrower’s 17.22-meter toss is currently ranked fourth in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and 39th in the country. Last spring, Hancock won the conference outdoor title in the hammer throw — after breaking the program record earlier in the season — and placed 17th at the national meet. This season, she won the shot put and weight throw at the ASU Qualifier on Jan. 25 and was second in the weight throw at the Colorado School of Mines Classic on Jan. 31-Feb. 1.
- Former Battle Mountain runner and SSCV skier Addison Beuche made her collegiate debut at the University of North Dakota this indoor season. The freshman has run four meets, running 5:12.15 in the mile at the UND Open on Jan. 31, 10:25.53 in the 3000 at the SDSU Indoor Classic on Feb. 14 and 2:27.53 in the 800 at the UND Tune Up on Feb. 21. The Fighting Hawks will compete at the Summit League Indoor Championships this weekend in Brookings, South Dakota.
- Bayli McSpadden put everything together at the Tropical Mountain Bike Challenge UCI cross-country race on Feb. 23 in Albergue Olimpico de Salinas, Puerto Rico. The Bear National Team cyclist placed sixth in the elite women’s short circuit and then got on the podium in the U23 cross-country race. McSpadden suffered a trimalleolar fracture in a crash in October of 2023, but came back to win the Vail Town Series season opener and place seventh in the U23 XC race at the USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships.
