The ground is beginning to look more like it should in the spring than in the winter, but the Dartmouth ski team is still going strong on the trails and slopes of New England.
In its fifth week of competition, the team went south to the Williams College Carnival Friday and Saturday, to ski its last races before the Eastern Collegiate championships at Middlebury College this week.
Both men's and women's teams struggled, but the men managed to hold on to second place overall, falling a bit further behind the University of Vermont Catamounts. The women posted some of their best individual results while slipping to fifth place in overall scoring.
Alpine star J.P. Daigneault '97, who won five of his first six collegiate races this season, did not look invincible on the first run of giant slalom Friday, but charged down the steep face of Jiminy Peak in the second run and took the race by almost half a second.
In the slalom, Daigneault used an excellent first run to edge Graham Garber of Williams by .17 of a second, bringing his record of wins to seven.
Daigneault was not entirely pleased with his team's performance. "We just skied less horribly than the other teams," Daigneault said. "I'm glad we got rid of the bad skiing before the NCAA's."
Captain Jay Nohl '94 grabbed fifth in the giant slalom and eighth in the slalom. Andy Martin '96 and Jeremiah Thompson '96 took seventh in the giant slalom and slalom, respectively, to secure both wins for the undefeated alpine men.
Nohl said he is pleased that his team took a victory despite falling short of its best performance. The alpine squad should do very well in the upcoming Eastern and NCAA championships, he added.
Daigneault, Nohl, Martin and Robinson have already qualified for spots at the NCAA's to be held in Sugarloaf, Maine in three weeks.
Only four skiers from a team are allowed to enter each event, but coach Peter Dodge said he may consider racing Kyle Webb '97 or Thompson based on results from Middlebury.
Nordic captain Todd Grover '94 had his best race of the season, posting fourth in the 10km freestyle.
Grover was only .06 of a second from breaking into the top three and interrupting the domination of Aki Partanen and twin brothers Trond and Knut Nystad, who took first through third in both Nordic races for the Catamounts.
On Saturday the Nordics raced a 7.5km classical pursuit race in which racers start the same distance behind the leader as they finished on Friday. "We went into Saturday feeling pretty good, but in the morning we were a little concerned about getting the right wax," Brant Stead '96 said.
Most of the team chose wax that did not work well for the warm conditions and when they tried to push off the snow, the wax didn't grip and they slipped, according to Stead, who moved from 19th to the late-20s in the race.
Cory Smith '96 was the only Nordic skier to overcome the problems with wax. Smith continued to produce strong results, finishing fifth, only six seconds out of fourth.
Colter Leys '96 also had trouble with his wax. Leys started in 15th-place based on Friday's results, but moved back in the classical race to finish in the early-20s.
Grover scored the second best result in the classical race, finishing ninth from his fourth-place start.
Grover and Smith will both compete in the NCAA's for the Big Green, while Leys and Stead both need to race well at Middlebury to earn their spots.
Nordic co-captain Liza Kiesler '94 attacked the trails to lead her squad with a fourth place in the freestyle race and a sixth in the classical pursuit.
Co-captain Jane Eckels '94 posted her best results of the season with a 13th-place finish in the freestyle race and 18th in the classical pursuit. Wendy Osterling '95 placed second for the team, finishing 11th in the classical pursuit.
Kiesler is the only member of her squad who qualified for the NCAA's, but Heather Eliassen '95, Osterling and Eckels may qualify if they ski well at Middlebury.
Alpine captain Jesse James '95 matched her Nordic counterparts' finish, taking fourth in the giant slalom Friday, but fell on her side in the midst of an excellent first-run of slalom.
That left the team's top performance up to Pam Finnerty '97, who didn't even race the giant slalom because of a broken nose and sprained shoulder suffered in training.
Finnerty attacked the slalom course at Brodie Mountain to finish 11th with a brace holding her shoulder in place and a face guard protecting her nose.
"Pam really toughed it out and gave a gutsy performance," Coach Dave Gregory said.
James is the sole member of her team to have already qualified for the NCAA championships, but Finnerty, Nora Stowell '96 and Kate Buhrmaster '97 all have a good chance to qualify if they race their best at Middlebury, Gregory said.
