The Hopkinton High girls’ ski team knew that defending its Division III Alpine state title wouldn’t be easy and that Gilford was going to be the team to beat. The Hawks skied well, but in the end, the Eagles were just a little better.

Gilford won both the morning giant slalom and afternoon slalom portions of Monday’s D-III ski championships at Gunstock for a total score of 759 points to Hopkinton’s 741.

St. Thomas (679) was third. Belmont sophomore Ella Stevens defended her slalom title and finished fifth in the GS to lead the Raiders (673) to fourth.

Bishop Brady (647) came in fifth. Lebanon (612), Laconia (590), Newfound (517), Hillsboro-Deering (204), Kearsarge (169), White Mountains (151) and John Stark (68) were the other team scores.

“Essentially, Gilford came to play today and just simply beat us,” Hopkinton head coach Scott Zipke said. “The girls skied well in the GS but faced a 14-point deficit heading into the afternoon slalom. In the slalom, the differences tightened even further, to only a four-point difference, but it just was not enough for us to pull off the three-peat.”

Gilford and Hopkinton dominated the day, claiming 16 of the 20 slots for the Meet of Champions (the top 10 in each discipline qualify).

Newfound’s Elle MacDonald won the GS with a combined time of 1 minute, 22.55 seconds from her two runs, edging Gilford’s McKenna Howard by .10 seconds.

Hopkinton sophomore Lia Chapin finished third in 1:23.27, with junior teammates Marcella Guadagno (seventh) and Avery Loew (eighth) punching their tickets to MOC and sophomore Anne Pearce rounding out the scoring with an 18th-place finish.

In the slalom, Stevens defended her crown by posting times of 42.24 and 43.52 seconds, good for a combined 1:25.76, just ahead of Gilford freshman Lily Bishop by .05 seconds.

“Ella skied with good tactics and confidence today,” Belmont head coach Kevin Charleston said. “She knew which sections to look for speed and take the risk needed to win. It took every bit to defend her title. Lily Bishop skied great today.”

“Gilford improved immensely with the addition of (Bishop),” Zipke added.

Loew (fifth), junior Anne Pearce (eighth), Chapin (ninth) and Guadagno (10th) all qualified for MOC in the slalom, and Gilford’s skiers went 2-3-6-18 to maintain an edge over the Hawks.

“The loss, although tough to take, was a good learning experience, and it will leave the Hawks even hungrier for 2026,” Zipke said. “With no graduating seniors, all the girls already have expressed optimism that they will improve and give Gilford a good fight for the next state championship.”

For fourth-place Belmont, Riley DeGange (16th GS, 16th slalom), Meg Soucie (19th GS, 19th slalom) and Anna McDonald (34th slalom, 35th GS) joined Stevens as the other scoring skiers.

Tess Lavoie (11th slalom, 14th GS), Natalie Sherman (22nd GS, 26th slalom), Jillian Howe (24th slalom), Elise Barnard (26th GS, 28th slalom) and Emma Burnett (27th GS) scored for fifth-place Bishop Brady.

Kearsarge’s Savannah Caswell (13th GS, 22nd slalom), Hillsboro-Deering’s Brie Proulx (37th GS, 37th slalom) and Addison Brown (38th GS) and John Stark’s Sophie Gray (36th slalom) were the other local skiers who competed.

Stevens, Chapin, Guadagno, Loew and Pearce will compete at the Meet of Champions on Feb. 18 at Cannon Mountain’s Mittersill Ski Area.