Author: Andrew Zimmermann
With everyone attentive and watching over Winter Carnival weekend, the Middlebury ski team as a whole turned out its best performance of the year, aided significantly by motivated racing from the alpine team. Having finished in third place for the majority of the carnival circuit, Middlebury forged ahead of Dartmouth College to capture a second place result behind the University of Vermont (UVM). The Panthers did so in the most important race of the regular season in what constitutes the Eastern Intercollegiate Skiing Association championships, which plays host to 18 teams from as far away as Michigan.
The weekend of competition kicked off at the Snow Bowl early Friday morning with the first run of the slalom. Both the men and women took to the hill skiing the same run at separate times and then repeated the process for the afternoon run. First-year slalom specialist Lea Davison was in second place after the first run, with a time of 46.07. Her teammates Sarah Brophy '02 and Brie Pike-Sprenger '04 also headed to lunch with solid prospects for a top 10 finish.
In the afternoon the top 15 racers from the first run switched, meaning Davison started 14th in the afternoon race. Despite increasingly difficult conditions, the poised first-year proceeded to decimate the field by easily taking the second run and winning the race by an unheard of margin of nearly 1.5 seconds. Team captain Brophy, skiing in her final slalom race at the Bowl, garnered an eighth place finish with Pike-Sprenger behind her in ninth. The women's squad fell just one point shy of tying UVM for first place in the event, a conclusion it would not let allow to happen again in the giant slalom (GS) the next day.
The men were led by John Rusten '05. As he has done all year, the versatile first-year has proven to be among the East's top collegiate contenders regardless of venue or race. He took second in the slalom and made a valiant effort for the win by winning the second run, making the final result a close one. Tyler Conrad '02, a key racer down the stretch, continued his fast skiing in his final year by placing sixth. Teammate Eric Rygg '03 showed versatility of his own by taking 11th.
The GS on Saturday was the better of the Panthers' days as they combined to win the second day of competition and solidify Middlebury's much-deserved result. The women's team was dominant and the men nearly pulled the upset of UVM, falling just four points shy of toppling the giants from the north.
The GS leader board looked like a "Who's Who" of Middlebury women's alpine skiing as five of the top eight finishers were clad in Panther blue. Jessica Smith '04 won her first GS race of the year after a steady ascension to the top. Smith has also added three wins in the slalom discipline as well. Pike-Sprenger came in fourth followed by Laura Scripture '04 who finished fifth despite having a sub-par second run. Brophy and Davison rounded out the bunch with seventh and eighth place results, giving the women a win over Dartmouth by 18 points.
The large crowd that came to see the women's race stuck around for the men, as they were the last ones down in the afternoon. With rowdy students and fans celebrating Carnival weekend, Conrad sliced his way to his best individual finish of the season, in second place. The cheers were loudest for Conrad, in his final race at the Bowl as fans propped on the final pitch of the mountain acknowledged his and all the seniors' efforts.
Rusten showed he will be a carnival mainstay for three more years as the first-year fought in his second run to earn 39 points that come along with fourth place. Fred Emich IV '04 came in 14th. Fred Coriell '02, the team captain and member of the band Grenade, which rocked until the early hours of the morning at the Farm that night, finished his Carnival career in 19th. Not to be forgotten was Rygg who had some trouble in the first run, setting him off the lead pace by an insurmountable five seconds. In the second run after nearly 50 other racers had started in front of him, Rygg skied down, noticed only by his teammates and astute competitors, to a time of 1:01.40, the fastest second run of any competitor on the mountain. He finished in 36th, but proved that two runs constitute a whole race.
With help from its nordic counterpart, Middlebury edged Dartmouth and nearly beat UVM, falling by just 22 points over the two days. The Panthers now have over a week to recover from the Carnival season. At the beginning of next week the team will pack up and travel to the Division I NCAA National Skiing Championships in Anchorage,Alaska.
It was announced Tuesday by the NCAA that Middlebury will send the maximum of 12 participants to the Championships. Three men and three women from the Alpine team will be part of the competition, which begins on March 6. Based on merit, Conrad, Rusten and Rygg will ski for the men while Brophy, Davison and Smith will compose the women's team. With the maximum number of participants representing the school, Middlebury stands a chance of contending for the National Championship.
On Wings of Alpine Ascendance, Team Off to Great White North
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