Senior skier Alec Nolan wrapped up the St. Lawrence University Alpine ski team 2026 campaign with a trip to the NCAA Championships, hosted by the University of Utah in early March.

Nolan recorded six EISA top 15 finishes this season, including two top fives. He recorded his first top five and career-best performance in the giant slalom at the Dartmouth Carnival on January 30. He then matched his career-best finish in the giant slalom at the Williams College Carnival on February 13.

Nolan capped his career with a 13th-place finish in the giant slalom and a 30th-place finish in the slalom at NCAAs. His 13th-place is the fifth-best result for the Saints at NCAAs, following two 11th-place giant slalom finishes from Graham Scott '15 in 2013 and Ava Mattson '22 in 2022.

Junior Emma Gatcliffe made history as the first female winter Olympic athlete to represent Trinidad and Tobago at the Winter Olympics. She served as a flag bearer for Trinidad and Tobago during the opening ceremony and competed in two events at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina d'Ampezzo, finishing 45th in the giant slalom.

Other highlighted performances on the men's side include Simon Trudeau, who placed 16th in the giant slalom during the Saints home carnival at Whiteface Mountain, and Kaiden Villeneuve finished 17th in the giant slalom at regionals.
Jacob Foote placed 22nd in the slalom at the SLU Carnival, Jakob Rogers placed 22nd in the giant slalom at UVM, and Charlie Welch finished 24th in the giant slalom at regionals.

On the women's side, Audrey Higgins-Lopez placed 17th in the giant slalom at Colby and 20th in the giant slalom at Dartmouth. Arielle Haccoun Choquette finished in 24th in the slalom at Colby and Mollie McTigue also recorded a 24th-place finish in the Slalom at UVM.

During her time with the Saints before the Olympics, Gatcliffe placed 32nd in the giant slalom at the SLU Carnival.

"I thought the year was a solid year with some really good results on both the men's and women's side, obviously with Alec racing to a couple top five finishes in the carnivals and qualifying for NCAAs was a high point of the season," said head coach Willi Steinrotter. "With a 13th-place finish in the NCAA GS, Alec had one of the stronger finishes we've had in the last 17 years."

"Our first years had some solid results and showed that they deserve to be racing at this level. With the college season over, we've had several strong results in the FIS races for both the men's and women's in the Northeast and Canada with a number of podium results. We're working on bringing in a strong recruiting class, which will help strengthen an already solid team."
 
The men recorded a season-best fifth-place finish in the giant slalom at Dartmouth, while the women opened the season with a seventh-place finish in the slalom at Colby.
This past season the teams traveled to Colby, hosted their home SLU Carnival, and participated in carnivals at Dartmouth, UVM, Williams and NCAA Eastern Regionals, hosted by Middlebury.

The Saints graduate six team members this season Mayson Blondek, Norah Dempsey, Audrey Higgins-Lopez, Nolan, Cordelia Sherwood and Andrew Van Slyke.

"It's always sad when you see a senior class graduate and it's not any different with this class," Steinrotter added. "This is a great group of men and women, who have had a very positive impact on the St. Lawrence Alpine ski program."

2026 Awards/Honors

NCAA Championship Qualifier
Alec Nolan

Auty/Reynolds MVP Awards
TBA

Frits H. Sample '94 Awards
TBA

CSC Academic All-District
TBA

USCSCA All-Academic
TBA

Team Captains
Mayson Blondek
Norah Dempsey
Alec Nolan
Simon Trudeau