Darien Skier Fay Rizzuto Earns Spot On Team Connecticut Roster

The Shoot-out competition to become a member of Team Connecticut is held each year to determine the Connecticut High School skiers who will represent Connecticut in the Northeast Regional competition.

Several members of the Darien High School team were nominated to participate in the giant slalom, event which is the first step in the Shoot-out for Team Connecticut. The top 30 girls and top 30 boys in the giant slalom event qualify to participate in the Slalom event. The top 12 boys and top 12 girls, based on their times in both events qualify for Team Connecticut.

The DHS boys nominated to compete in the giant slalom event were Will McCoy, Peter Del Col, and Pablo Castro. The girls nominated to compete were Fay Rizzuto, Allison Graham, and Taylor Hart.

The giant slalom event was held on Jan. 30 at Mt. Southington Ski Area and Del Col and Rizzuto qualified to move on to the slalom competition held on Feb. 6. Rizzuto then qualified to be a member of Team Connecticut for the Northeastern competition March 9-11 in New Hampshire.

The Darien High School ski team competed against Barlow, Danbury, Fairfield, Guilford, Pomperaug and Weston at the Mt. Southington Ski Area last Tuesday.

The girls varsity team finished second with a time of 329.90, defeating Barlow (334.38), Guilford (351.57) and Pomperaug (DSQ) and losing to Fairfield (323.48). The boys varsity finished third with a time of 322.28, defeating Pomperaug (325.51), Guilford (335.97), Barlow (342.27) and Danbury (372.66) and losing to Fairfield (298.30 )and Weston (321.36.)

Girls’ times this week were led by co-captain Rizzuto 51.25 and followed by Graham 54.54, co-captain Kailin Edgar 55.22, Hart 55.27, Katharine Graham 55.88, Courtney Kyritz 57.74, Kelsey Edgar 60.00, Sarah Swirbul 60.75, Isabel Selihausen 63.48, and Hannah Nilsson 65.54.

Boys’ times this week were: Del Col 50.40, co-captain McCoy 51.91, Castro 52.79, co-captain Chris Brophy 53.46, Matt Nelson 56.65, Nick Wolf 57.07, Connor Nackley 57.44, Alex von Stuelpnagel 58.52, Graham Lesco 59.04, Nick Howe 60.77.

More scores and information about the Connecticut Interscholastic Ski League may be found at http://www.cislracing.org/.

Coach Brian Zeyer said, “The kids did a great job. The boys ended their season with a record of 10 wins and 12 losses just missing qualifying for the State Championship competition by 92 hundredths of a second. The girls did well and finished the season with 12 wins and 5 losses and qualified to participate in the state championship races, scheduled for February 29 at Mt. Southington.”