All good things must come to and end, which the Tufts Alpine Ski Team learned in finishing its postseason on Sunday and Monday at the United States Collegiate Snow Sports Association (USCSA) Eastern Regional Championships. At the meet, held in Waterville Valley in Hew Hampshire, the women came through with a sixth place finish, and the men finished 12th-place tie with Boston University.
"The results were pretty much in following with how the season went," coach Paul Wang said. "For the men, the competition is always tough, but they did well. The women came in sixth, which is a pretty impressive performance."
Competition did prove intense in the men's slalom competition (SL), in which there were no Jumbos to be found in the top 20. In fact, the best result came from senior Nate Soles, who finished in the 40th spot. Freshman Michael Krafft ended up in the 46th spot, with senior Matt Dreier close behind at 48th. Junior captain Jack Kramarczyk came in 62nd, and senior John Johnson fell on his second run. Overall, the team completed the event in 11th place.
"The guys did what we expected," Kramarczyk said. "The competition was a lot better than we've
had all season; it's on an entirely different level, but it's really cool to ski against them."
In the giant slalom (GS), the Jumbos' highest finish came from Dreier, in the 40th position. Soles
finished in the 46th spot, while Kramarczyk and Johnson finished next to one another at 50th and 51st. Sophomore Mike Coughlin was not far away, at 55th. The team seized the 12th position in the GS.
"We've had a great season, and a bunch of us will be participating in postseason races not affiliated with Tufts in order to keep up our skills," Kramarczyk added.
The men's team looks to make this season a learning experience for next year. The squad will lose Soles, Dreier, and Johnson to graduation, but the team is still optimistic for the future.
"The men's team has good potential," Wang said. "Goldberg will be back; Kramarczyk will be skiing more consistently, and Krafft and Coughlin will definitely improve if they continue to work in the off-season."
"Those are the guys we've got our eyes on right now as our top men, and now we're in the process of electing new captains for next year," Kramarczyk added. "In past years, we've left the fate of our team in the hands of the captain."
On the women's side, the five skiers representing Tufts performed well despite the fierce competition. In the SL, junior Erin Boucher brought in the 34th spot, freshman Sophie Dabuzhsky came in 38th, junior captain Kate Meierdiercks 40th, junior Lindsay Melton 45th, and freshman Courtney Benson 65th. Overall, the women's squad took the seventh slot.
In the GS, Boucher finished 24th, Melton came in 28th, Dabuzhsky 29th, and Benson 33rd. Meierdiercks fell on her first fun. The team seized the sixth position overall.
"This performance was pretty consistent with how we've been performing throughout the season," Meierdiercks said. "It was unfortunate [that I fell], but the depth of our team made it so it didn't really matter, the other girls just stepped up."
"It was a rough course, but they did what they always do and skied well," Wang commented.
While the men did not look to go farther than Regionals, the women had maintained all season that there existed a real chance of qualifying for Nationals. By finishing sixth _ missing Nationals by just one place _ the team demonstrated its goal had been realistic.
"There was actually a period of about seven minutes when we were in fifth place, which would have gotten us to Nationals," Meierdiercks said. "Then a girl from BC came from the back of the pack with a really great run, taking us out of contention for Nationals and putting us in the sixth spot. Being so close and losing it was somewhat of a disappointment."
"At Regionals, they had a taste of Nationals," Wang said. "They'll want it more next year, and they'll work really hard to get it. They've got some pretty high expectations, but they know that they can do it, and keep doing what they're doing. They've got a good thing going."
"I'm really proud of us," Meierdiercks said. "After last year, I never would have thought that we would have made it this far. It really was a team effort, which fostered success. It was a real supportive environment. For next year, we've got the same five skiers [that were at Regionals] coming back, and we're going to be even hungrier for Nationals."
