As the snow melts across Vermont’s mountains, the Middlebury ski team capped their season with a flourish, racing to sixth place at the 2025 NCAA Championships — their best finish since 2008. The four-day competition at Dartmouth College saw the Panthers tally 252.5 points against scholarship powerhouses, with the University of Utah claiming its fifth title in six years with 590 points. The University of Colorado placed second and Dartmouth College rounded out the podium in third.
Taking place against a backdrop of bad weather and rough conditions, the event highlighted both individual excellence and team depth for the Panthers, who qualified the maximum 12 athletes for the championships. Only 10 athletes competed, because Kjersti Moritz ’28 and Dominic Shackleton ’28 were busy representing their countries at the International Ski Federation’s World Junior Championships. The Nordic side had a full squad with three men and three women competing across all events.
“It was really special to be competing on the East Coast with the whole team there,” Logan Moore ’25 said. "All our friends came as well, so it was awesome to race in front of them. I’m really proud of the team as a whole and how we race and hold ourselves with composure."
Throughout the winter, the Panthers consistently finished in the top three spots in six of eight carnivals against the East’s elite program This included runner-up finishes at both Dartmouth and on their home mountain, where they accumulated their most points since 2019 (877.5) and landed in the top two spots in each discipline.
“Finishing ahead of schools like Montana, Alaska and University of New Hampshire that are full scholarship D1 schools is really impressive,” said Head Alpine Coach Stever Bartlett. "With all the European talent those big schools can bring in with scholarships, to be competitive with that group in both Alpine and Nordic feels really good.”
Three Panthers earned All-American honors: Bradshaw Underhill ’25 in slalom and giant slalom, Moore in the 20K freestyle, and Shea Brams ’26 in the women’s 20k freestyle.
The championships offered a fitting finale to a dominant collegiate career for Underhill, the college’s alpine standout. The senior — who first claimed the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association (EISA) Bib Leader title in both disciplines during the regular season — secured First Team All-American status with fourth in the giant slalom and Second Team honors with sixth in the slalom. His fourth-place showing marked the highest finish for a Middlebury alpine skier since 2018.
“I had aspirations for some better results,” Underhill said. “I was three-tenths out of the podium on Wednesday and three-tenths out of the win on Friday, so that was a bit hard to swallow. But I'm very excited to get All-American honors and help Middlebury finish high in the standings.”
Over the course of the winter, Underhill made the podium seven times, winning four giant slalom events and three slalom races, including a dominant sweep of both events at the Middlebury Carnival.
On the Nordic side, Moore delivered a performance for the program's record books. He earned First-Team honors with fifth-place in the 20k freestyle (45:48.9) — the best finish for a Middlebury men's Nordic skier in a decade — after a disappointing performance earlier in the week.
“On Thursday, I just had a bad race," Moore said. “There wasn't an explanation. Sometimes you just don't have a great day. I was really looking forward to Saturday because I knew I was gonna have a pretty good shot at doing well, and then I just went out and gave it hell, and it went really well.”
Brams earned Second Team All-American honors with ninth place in the women's 20K freestyle. Her time helped the women's Nordic squad accumulate 48 points in the event — the second-highest discipline total for the Panthers.
The team's depth proved crucial to their overall high finish. Rookie Nicholas Unkovskoy ’27 made his NCAA championships debut with a 13th-place finish in the giant slalom and 24th in the slalom. Mika-Anne Reha ’25, competing in her third championship, secured 17th in the slalom and 20th in the giant slalom. Sophia Tozzi ’26, in her second straight NCAA appearance, placed 26th and 27th.
In the 7.5K classic, the women's nordic team put together one of the championships’ most impressive collective performances with Brams, Maggie Wagner ’26 and Sofia Scirica ’27.
“The women's race in the 7.5 kilometer classic on Thursday was probably my highlight,” said Head Nordic Coach Andrew Johnson. “The way all three of them skied, including Sofia, who's a first-time qualifier, and the fact that they put together a team result that was fifth place on that day—I was really pleased and proud.”
Mason Wheeler ’26 paced the men's nordic squad in the classic with an 18th-place result, while Jack Christner ’25 finished 25th. Christner, an EISA Second Team honoree, had tallied top-10 finishes in six of seven disciplines during the regular season.
The coaching staff for both teams credited their success to training environments and team culture. The Panthers' proximity to Rikert and the Snow Bowl provides an edge, while Bartlett has built a community with assistant coaches Santi Fernandez and Abby Copeland.
“We're one staff. They do the same hard work,” Bartlett emphasized, who was recently named EISA Coach of the Year. “We focus on team culture and how athletes will fit with us. It's not only about hard work but inclusivity amongst our team. If you're Brad winning seven races or a first-year skiing one carnival, we're all the same — that's what we drive home.”
Johnson takes a similar approach with the Nordic team.
“We keep a smaller team with the goal of providing more resources, both in terms of financial support and racing opportunity, but also in coaching support. Our athletes tend to be younger and more local compared to D1 programs that get older European athletes,” he said.
The Nordic team implemented a “pre-camp” approach to prepare for the championships, moving athletes off campus a week and a half before the event to minimize the risk of illness and focus on the Champs.
The future looks especially bright for the women's Nordic team, which returns its entire squad next season.
“They're going to have seniors next year that are just going to be unbelievable and kind of be a backbone to the success,” Moore said.
For seniors like Underhill and Moore, the NCAA Championships represented their final collegiate competition, though both plan to pursue professional skiing careers.
The Nordic team will compete at one more race series this year in Lake Placid after spring break before the end of their season.
As Vermont’s racing season concludes and spring approaches, the Panthers can look back on a season that honored the program's rich tradition with top-six finishes in every competition, while pointing toward an equally promising future.
“With our young talent and the leadership we've seen this season, we're excited about the future of our program,” Bartlett said.
Ting Cui (she/her) is a Sports Editor.
Ting has previously contributed as a sports writer and spent the past year in Washington, D.C., where she interned at the National Press Club as a policy analyst and politics writer. She also interned as an Editor at Fair Observer this past summer, focusing on stories related to international politics and security.
Ting is majoring in Political Science and minoring in History. She is also competitive figure skater for Team USA and enjoys hiking, thrifting, and consuming copious amounts of coffee.
