BY KAREN BOSSICK
As many of his former Community School mates received their diplomas Sunday, Community School alum Peter Wolter watched, basking in another honor.
Wolter, a member of Community School’s Class of 2017, was named the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association’s Rookie of the Year for his performance on the Nordic team this past winter with the Middlebury College Panthers.
“To achieve it, I had to receive the best results throughout the season. I received two podiums and four other top 10s,” said Wolter. “There were 10 NCAA qualification races but I only raced eight of them due to being sick one weekend.”
Wolter said he has enjoyed skiing out East in Vermont’s Champlain Valley where Middlebury College is located and other Eastern states.
“There’s a really cool community that is created from seeing the same people from other teams every weekend for about two months,” he said.
The skiing is different, however, because the weather is so much more variable. It can dump snow one day, transition into rain overnight and then turn to ice.
“But I think it is making me a better skier,” he added.
Wolter, who received an invite to represent the United States in the U18 Nations’ Cup in Estonia during his senior year at Community School, got the opportunity to compete at the NCCA Championships in Steamboat, Colo., this year.
He was joined by Katie Feldman of Ketchum, another former Nordic skier with the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation.
Feldman also did exceptionally well in her rookie year at Middlebury.
She earned second-team honors and was a consistent finisher for the Panthers with eight top-10 finishes. She placed sixth four different times this winter, including in the 15K freestyle race at Middlebury Carnival. She was ranked eighth overall in the east, holding the eighth spot in the freestyle and ninth in the classic.
Katie Feldman was the team’s top performer in the women’s 15K at Steamboat. Wolter took tops among his teammates in the 20K.
Their coach—Andrew Johnson—was named EISA Coach of the Year after leading the Panther Nordic squad to its most impressive season since 2006 when it qualified a full squad for the NCAA Championships.
Johnson is a former Panther skier himself, as well as a two-time U.S. Olympian. He helped the University of Vermont Catamounts to the 2012 NCAA title before joining Middlebury.
Longtime Middlebury assistant Nordic Coach Patty Ross, who coached Sun Valley’s Simi Hamilton before he headed to the Olympics, received the EISA Service Award.
The Panthers finished eighth out of 23 scoring team at the 2018 NCAA Championships with Denver, Colorado and Dartmouth taking the top honors. The Panthers finished third among eastern schools.