Things are looking up, once again, for the Marymount Regals downhill ski team.

SDSSAA Girls Level I Champions five years running (2011 - 2016), the Regals had a tougher go of late.

The 2025 run of SDSSAA/NOSSA/OFSAA success, however, was far more reminiscent of times gone by as the duo of Kate Bouchard and Alexys Wagemann helped lead the Regals run up the rankings.

An accomplished hockey goaltender with the Sudbury U18 "AA" Lady Wolves, Bouchard suggested that the portability of skill-sets between the two sports certainly has not hindered the development of the younger sister of club skier and city Open Women's champion Lauren Bouchard.

"There's a lot of edgework in skiing, same as in hockey," noted Kate, a 16 year-old grade 11 student at Marymount who returned home with both an OFSAA gold (giant slalom) and bronze (slalom) medal.

"Hockey really helps build up my leg muscles."

Teaming up with Alexys Wagemann, Tia Kingshott, Lylah Jebreen and Serena Studzinski to finish 6th in team giant slalom and 7th in slalom, Bouchard made note of the pre-event preparation and race strategy mindset that was particular to the venue that hosted the high-school provincial championships at the end of February.

"Osler (Bluff) had a very noticeable pitch, where the hill goes from flat to steep and then goes back," said Bouchard. "I approach it knowing I can be very early for some turns and then once I go beyond a certain gate, I can speed up."

"I can do that when I know that I can control myself between the gates, that there would be nothing there to steer me off course."

A one year and one grade senior to Bouchard, Alexys Wagemann was born in Toronto but moved with her family to Collingwood around the age of three before making her way to Sudbury a few more years after that.

"My dad was a semi-pro skier; he taught me to ski when I was three," said the one-time city champion (high-school division - prior to the arrival of Bouchard) who also competed at the OFSAA Snowboarding Championships this year.

Though she is quite proficient in both disciplines, Wagemann did suggest that her preference on any given day might have little to do with elements that she can control.

"It's influenced by the conditions of the hill," she said. "If you're skiing and it's choppy and hard, I would likely be more comfortable on my skis. If it's more powdery, the snowboard can easily ride over is there."

And for as much as one might think that speed in one necessarily equals speed in the other, this young athlete from a very busy household (six children in all) suggested otherwise.

"They do not go hand in hand," she laughed. "I have seen so many friends go from skiing to try snowboarding. They are two very different things."

Still, at the core of both sports lies an attraction that Wagemann cannot deny.

"I think I am like my dad in that I really like adrenaline," she said. "I like speed in everything. That's why I like giant slalom more. Because it's wide, you can get more speed."

On the boys side of the ledger, the Lockerby squad of Ryder Coe, Mac Young, Ethan Hodder, Cam Young and Maks Beljo earned bronze in the team giant slalom event, with Coe placing fifth in the individual standings.

In the boys individual Open races, Quinton Thorsteinson of Lockerby earned a 13th place finish, missing out on the top ten by less than a second in the giant slalom, with Ava Woods of St Benedict matching that performance in the Open Girls slalom event.