State Champion Spotlight: Ethan Harriman

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We are doing a new feature on the website: spotlighting each individual state champion.  Our first one is Ethan Harriman of Maranacook, the class B classical state champion.  We asked him a few questions about his preparation for the state meet, his mindset on meet day, and what is was like winning states as a team.

1) What were your preparations leading up to the state meet?  Preparations leading up to the state meet consisted mostly of keeping a sharp and positive mentality.  Our bodies were already where they needed to be to perform well in the races.  We kept skiing, but for shorter lengths of time and did very quick and short speed to hone our muscles.  Everybody saw the course, knew what needed to be done, and set their minds to it.  Another trick was attempting to dodge the sickness running rampant the week and days of the state races.  It was incredibly difficult to avoid, but we had to take care of ourselves.

2) How did you deal with the pressure and emotions that come along with competing in a state meet?   The emotions and pressure that come with competing in a state meet are helpful to me.  Usually, I ignore the emotions and let the pressure I put on myself fuel my ability to do well.  Other than that, I honestly try to keep my mind off of it until it is really crunch time.  A teammate describes this as my "calm energy."

3) What was your reaction when the Maranacook boys team won the state title?  When I heard that we (Maranacook boys) won the state title I was very excited.  I knew we were capable of doing exceptionally, but I also knew we had some good competition.  We were able to keep our heads, race fast, and defend our lead from the previous day.  This was one of my season goals for our boys team and I am thrilled we achieved it.

4) Coming into the season, what were your goals and did you achieve them?   Coming into the season I had a few simple goals.  The first was to ski like never before because it was my last year and I was prepared.  This meant training hard and continuing to give it all I had throughout the season.  It paid off in the success of many races.  The second, a goal shared with teammate Luca DeAngelis, was to have us both place first and second in the state meet.  We weren't sure who would finish in which place, but we wanted it to happen.  Luca and I accomplished this and it was a great feeling since we've been skiing together for many years now.  The third goal was to have our boys win the state title.  Through dedication from both the racers and team cheerers, we accomplished this goal.