Senior Lily Anctil will slip on her downhill skis for another season of competition, knowing the short-handed Leavitt Alpine ski team again won’t be able score.
The Leavitt Area High School honors student, who is hovering somewhere in the top 10 of her graduating class, has never been deterred by the lack of teammates.
Leavitt Area High School student and Alpine skier Lily Anctil takes a break Tuesday night from working out at the Edward Little High School weight room for a portrait. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
“I have always loved Alpine skiing, even when I was little. I had the opportunity to do racing and I didn’t want to, actually, because I would had rather ski with my family,” she said. “But once I reached high school, I was extremely competitive. Obviously, I am in three sports.
“Regardless of having a team, I wanted to compete to see where I placed, and then also just to have that team dynamic, even though it is quite small.”
Anctil has a career-best finish of sixth place in a regular season race. She will be competing this season alongside teammate Sophie Simard, a sophomore.
“I made it to (Maine) shootouts last year (at Black Mountain),” she said. “That was a pretty big achievement. I didn’t make it to, I guess the next step would be regionals, but just making it to shootouts was huge.”
The three-sport athlete’s tenacity and commitment has not gone unnoticed outside the Turner community. She claims she doesn’t have a favorite sport, but has a passion for all of the three she plays, which includes being a member of the Leavitt softball and soccer teams.
She accepted an early decision to study nursing at St. Joseph’s College as well as ski for the Monks’ Alpine team. She was recruited by St. Joe’s ski coach Margot Cosentino.
“Despite not having a scoring team in three of her years at Leavitt High, she stuck with ski racing,” Leavitt coach Scott Berube wrote in an email to the Sun Journal. “She is looking forward to one last successful high school season as she prepares to join the Monks next fall.”
Leavitt Area High School student and Alpine skier Lily Anctil takes a break Tuesday night from working out at the Edward Little High School weight room for a portrait. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
Berube said he is proud of Anctil’s work ethic and commitment to the sport.
“She is very consistent; she is a hard worker,” Berube said. “Lily is an exceptional teammate. She is one of the hardest workers. She is self-motivated and she has a deep desire to compete and improve.
“She is very technically sound (in both slalom and GS). Being a three-sport athlete helps her to maintain her composure in the competitive environment. … She leads by example. She is a great leader.”
Anctil vacillates when it comes to a preference for the slalom or giant slalom.
“You know, it has kind of switched every single year,” she said. “Like last year, I absolutely adored GS, and maybe that’s because I kept track of what speed I was going at and realized I was hitting pretty high speeds. But this year maybe I will like slalom more, like I did my sophomore year.”
Leavitt Area High School student and Alpine skier Lily Anctil takes a break Tuesday night from working out at the Edward Little High School weight room for a portrait. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
Anctil has high aspirations for herself when her freshman year at St. Joe’s rolls around in the fall.
“I want go on to pursue nurse anesthetist,” she said.
She is proud to be a part of the Monks’ Alpine team, too.
“Their ski team is absolutely phenomenal,” Anctil said. “I think going from just kind of being (like) individuals in high school to going into actually placing as a team is going to be completely different, obviously, but super exciting. I think I am excited for the team dynamic and also getting to travel together and hopefully make it to nationals, like (the Monks) did last year.”
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