Casco native Sierra Leavitt, who split her high school years between Lake Region and Carrabassett Valley and is now a senior at Colby College in Waterville, recently summited new peaks in her ski racing career, taking ninth in giant slalom at the NCAA Division 1 Championships and, two weeks later, competing in the U.S. Alpine Championships at Sugarloaf Mountain.

Leavitt’s performance at the D1 Championships, held March 11-14 at Whiteface Mountain in New York, earned her NCAA All-American status.

“I hadn’t ever qualified for NCAAs before,” Leavitt said. “So it was really cool to have qualified.

“We actually, as a team, qualified four girls; but you can only bring three. So I qualified, then had to be chosen by my coach; it was really a privilege to get to go.

“Once I was there, I didn’t really have any crazy expectations for myself. I knew that it would be amazing if I could get in the Top 10 and become an All-American, but it was sort of a goal that I always thought was unattainable.”

Leavitt started the competition seeded 31st of 34 skiers; her first run vaulted her all the way to eighth place. Her second dropped her back, but only one slot.

“It was pretty surreal, very cool.”

Leavitt, an English major, was also recently named to the New England Small College Athletic Conference Winter All-Academic Team. In 2014, she earned National All-Academic honors.

“Our coach (Danny Noyes) was pretty excited that the whole team he sent to NCAAs was All-Academic.”

This past weekend, Leavitt shared Maine’s own Sugarloaf with some of the biggest names in the sport – including Lindsey Vonn, Mikaela Shiffrin and Julia Mancuso – at the U.S. Alpine Championships. She finished 26th in the giant slalom.

Leavitt didn’t ski for Lake Region, but attended the school in the fall and spring of her freshman, sophomore and junior years. During the winters, and for the entirety of her senior year, she was enrolled at Carrabassett Valley, located near Sugarloaf, where she trained and competed.

Technically, Leavitt is in her fourth year at Colby – she’s a senior in that sense – but she’s not set to graduate until 2016, because she took a semester off during her second year. Which means she’s not quite sure yet about her direction, post-college.

“I didn’t ski that year, so I have this spring left, then I have one more semester, in the fall. So I’m going to go to school next fall, then ski again next year for Colby. I don’t have to make any decisions quite yet.”

Sierra Leavitt, of Casco, has been burning up the slopes this winter. Last weekend, she took 26th in the giant slalom at the U.S. Alpine Championships, held at Sugarloaf.Sierra Leavitt, of Colby College, skis during the first run of the Women’s Giant Slalom at the NCAA Division I Skiing Championships on March 12 in Wilmington, N.Y.