Skiing Race of Champions: Blair’s Celley, Delbarton’s Friedrich capture state titles (PHOTOS)

Going into it, both Morgan Celley and Louis Friedrich were trying hard to not think about their final runs.

Deep down both knew that if they put together just a solid run at least, a state championship would be well within reach. But thinking about all of that and not wanting to fall was something they were trying to avoid.

“I knew where I was at, but I wasn’t thinking about that at all,” Celley said.

“You try to not know, but I knew,” Friedrich said.

At the end of it all, Ceeley, from Blair, and Friedrich, from Delbarton, both finished with strong final runs to secure the girls and boys overall state titles, respectively, as the New Jersey Interscholastic Ski Racing Assocation’s Race of Champions at the National Winter Center’s Winter4Kids facility, in Vernon.

Celey swept the slalom and giant slalom events in the girl’s division, while in the boy’s division Friedrich won the giant slalom and finished in second place in the slalom. Pingry freshman Parker Junger won the slalom in the boys division.

The championship performance for Celley, who’s just a sophomore, comes after a sixth-place finish at the R of C in her freshman season. Celley was in a position to finish on the podium last year but fell on her final run to take her out of the running for a state title. This season she got the job done.

“It’s been a steady build up [from last season],” Celley said. “I haven’t done anything much different this year, but I just really wanted to finish all of my runs this time around. I’m grateful I was able to do that.

Celley’s positioning atop the standings was steady throughout the event, as her first two runs of 33.43 and 41.33 were the best amongst the girls division. With second runs of 42.23 and 44.08 respectively, Tenafly’s Megan Yi and Kristen Yi were close behind Celly with a chance to overtake her going into the final run, but Celley posted a 44.63, which was best again to clinch the title.

After posting her two best times last season of 47.11 and 47.94, Celley improved her top times by about six seconds this season.

“This is really exciting,” Celley said. “I’m really thankful for my coaches and my teammates. It feels surreal right now.”

On the boys’ side, Friedrich also was in a position to get on to the podium last season before falling on his final run. This year, Friedrich was in second place going into his final run before finishing with a top time of 45.29, and just beat Junger out by 0.16 seconds, to take the championship.

For Friedrich, a junior, part of this season has been about learning from his past mistakes and understanding what his goals are.

“I understand a lot more of what my goal is,” Friedrich said. “Obviously every year the goal is to win a state championship, but last year there were still some questions around if I could do it or not. After falling last year, I came into this year knowing I could win so I was really pushing myself to get to this point.”

Not wanting to get too caught up in the moment after last season’s late crash at the R of C, Friedrich went back to the basics and relied on his training and his experience in these clutch moments to end well this year.

“It’s one of those things where you just had to trust that you’ve been in this spot before,” Friedrich said. “You just have to clear out the idea of ‘this is for a state championship, but it’s also just another run.’ Go back to the training and everything else you’ve done throughout the year to get this done. If I put down a good run, I knew that I had it.”

Coming up next for both Celley and Friedrich are the NJISRA team state championship race on Monday, Feb. 27, and then potentially the Eastern High School Championships in New Hampshire should the two choose to participate.

But for now, both will take in this moment of being crowned a state champ after coming up short in seasons past.

“I’m super grateful,” Friedrich said. “I’ve had a lot of good coaches throughout the years, and I have a great team behind me. Just the idea of having everyone root for me and then to do it, not just for myself but for my team, is a great feeling.”

“This season’s been pretty good and I’m excited to keep growing from this moment. But all that matters is that my team and I were able to do well together today.”

BOYS

OVERALL

1-Louis Friedrich, Delbarton, 2-Parker Junger, Pingry, 3-Camden Collins, Pingry

GIANT SLALOM

1-Louis Friedrich, Delbarton, 2-John Devir, Don Bosco, 3-Nicolas Fonseca, Morristown-Beard

SLALOM

1-Parker Junger, Pingry, 2-Louis Friedrich, Delbarton, 3-Camden Collins, Pingry

GIRLS

OVERALL

1-Morgan Celley, Blair, 2-Kristen Yi, Tenafly. 3-Megan Yi, Tenafly

GIANT SLALOM

1-Morgan Celley, Blair, 2-Megan Yi, Tenafly, 3-Kristen Yi, Tenafly

SLALOM

1-Morgan Celley, Blair Academy, 2-Kristen Yi, Tenafly, 3-Megan Yi, Tenafly

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