Sister Act: Elisabeth and Mary Bocock go 1-2 in giant slalom on day 3 of U.S. Alpine National Championships in Vail

After skiing out on the first day of the U.S. Alpine National Championships in Vail, Elisabeth and Mary Bocock knew they needed to do something special for Monday’s giant slalom.

“Our parents are out here,” Elisabeth said. “So I’m glad we got to do something (today).”

The 20-year-old repeated as giant slalom national champion, mastering the Golden Peak course in a two-run time of 2 minutes, 5.10 seconds while her older sister came through 0.15 seconds later for silver.

“Super exciting,” Mary Bocock said of the sister act. “Especially because my better event is super-G, so, I was really going into this with completely no expectations.”

First-run leader Katie Hensien slid two spots to third while NorAm overall champion Logan Grosdidier — who was fourth after the first run and rocketing through Main Arena on her second — skied out with three gates to go. The 17-year-old Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club athlete broke a pole in the DNF. Meanwhile, Ski and Snowboard Club Vail alumna Kaitlin Keane moved up five spots for seventh.

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“Considering it’s been 20 celsius like every day, I’d say the snow is pretty good. It’s holding up,” Keane said.

After narrowly missing another U.S. Ski Team nomination, Keane competed this year with the international ski academy, Apex2100, working with former SSCV coach Andrew Keating in the PG program. She finished the season ranked fourth in the NorAm super-G standings — just eight points back from runner-up Katie Rowekamp. Keane said her best weekend of the year came in the Aspen speed series two weeks ago, where she took fourth and sixth in two downhills and third and fourth in a pair of super-Gs. Unfortunately, in the final race, the Vail Mountain School graduate finished 0.01 behind Elisabeth Bocock, losing out on the 10 points that would have given her World Cup starts in the event next year.

“Which was unexpected but exciting — but then also sad because it was close,” Keane said. “Lots of close races for me this year, but it went better than expected and I’m happy about that.”

Finishing the season on the hill she started at when she was 4 was also nice.

“It’s like a comfort. You know how the hill is going to run,” Keane said. “It’s nice to end the year in your own bed. I love it here — this is my favorite hill ever.”

Needless to say, so does Elisabeth Bocock.

“I love Vail. Perfect time of the year,” she said after winning her second-straight GS title and third national title total (she also won the super-G in Sun Valley as an 18-year-old). “Sunny, get your tan on a little bit. It’s a hard hill though — it’s tiring.”

The season was a trying one for the four-time FIS Junior World Championship medalist. After finishing 19th in the World Cup season opener, Bocock posted five DNFs and a disqualification in her next seven races. She scored World Cup points in the GS and slalom in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia and had a 12th place result in the Kronplatz, Italy World Cup on Jan. 20, but it was too late. As her parents made plans to be in Italy for the Olympics, a sick feeling swelled up in Bocock’s stomach.

“All of our family was coming out; I was like, ‘I’m not going to make it,” Elisabeth Bocock said. “But then Mary did, so she was picking up my slack.”

Mary Bocock described the 2025-26 campaign as a “breakthrough” season.

“It lucked out that it happened to be an Olympic year,” she added. The 22-year-old’s best performance came in the final World Cup before the Olympics when she placed 15th in the super-G in Crans Montana, Switzerland on Jan. 31. While she posted a DNF in the super-G and didn’t start the downhill, the elder Bocock said her Olympic experience was “really exciting” nonetheless.

“Obviously I would have really loved if Elisabeth was there, too,” she said. “But we have more chances.”

While Mary heads back to Dartmouth, Elisabeth plans to race the slalom — the fourth and final event of the U.S. Alpine National Championships — on Tuesday.