While not quite as daunting as the mountains in Aspen Extreme, the Dartmouth Skiway in Hanover, New Hampshire, proved worthy of the Alpine club ski team, which competed in its third race of the season there, this past weekend. To date, coach Paul Wang's men are third overall in the Thompson Division Standings while the women's team finds itself in the second spot.
"The men's team is doing pretty well," senior Nate Soles said. "We're fighting for second."
The Jumbos find themselves behind some tough competition, especially Green Mountain College (GMC) in Vermont, which recruits Swedish students to complete its ski team. On the men's side, GMC has swept first place in both the slalom (SL) and grand slalom (GS) events at the first three races of the season, and their female counterparts have also taken first in all but one SL competition.
"GMC recruits a lot of Swedes," Soles said. "They really shouldn't be in our league, but it's a good challenge to race against them."
Junior Erin Boucher, a three-year member of the women's squad, agreed: "The teams ahead of us are insane, they train every day," Boucher said.
At Dartmouth, the men's team finished third overall in the giant slalom and fourth in the slalom event.
Senior John Johnson successfully maneuvered his way down the mountain in the GS competition, steering to an 11th place finish with a two run total time of 2:10.90. Other strong competitors were seniors Matt Dreir and Soles, who crossed the finish line in 19th and 26th, respectively. Freshman Michael Krafft followed close behind in 35th place.
"Michael [Krafft] is a good addition and shows promise for the future," Soles said.
In the slalom event, Soles finished 12th and senior captain Jack Kramarczyk came in 13th. Krafft (18th), Dreir (21th), and Johnson (24th) fared well in the slalom, as did sophomore Michael Coughlin (37th).
On the previous weekend Tufts' men raced at Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire, grabbing fourth in both the SL and GS events. This came after the season's opener at Mt. Snow in Vermont on Jan. 16 and 17. The men's group settled for third in both the SL and GS competitions.
The women's squad has grand aspirations for its season after the first three matches of the year, especially with the addition of some talented new faces. Currently, the team is ranked second in the Division standings.
At Dartmouth, the women were able to seize four spots in the top 15 in the GS, with freshmen Courtney Benson and Sophie Dabuzhsky capturing the ninth and eleventh spots, respectively, and juniors Erin Boucher and captain Kate Meierdiercks grabbing the 12th and 14th spots, respectively
In the SL, three members of the women's unit fought their way into the top ten. Boucher, Meierdiercks, and Benson hauled in the fifth, ninth, and tenth slots, respectively.
"We're pretty strong this year," Meierdiercks said. "We're looking at the possibility of going to the Nationals."
The schools selected for Nationals are chosen from the teams that make it to Regionals, which consists of the four best-ranked teams from each division.
Freshmen Dabuzhsky and Benson have already proved their worth for the team, stacking up a string of strong finishes in their first three performances.
"Courtney and Sophie are doing really well," Meierdiercks said. "They're already beating all the upperclassmen. They give the team even more potential for the future."
"I felt pretty shaky in the beginning of the season," Benson said. "I'm starting to find my niche on the team and really getting into competition mode."
Much of the women's success can be attributed to pre-season training, which started in September, and the disappointment of last year's season, when the squad did not make Regionals.
"We should have made it last year," Boucher said. "We were able to use this as motivation and it has really made us hungry."
"We've been training really hard," sophomore Beth Batiuchok said. "We're very impressed with our results."
The Alpine Ski Team's matches have come after a week-long training session over winter break at the Waterville Valley Training Camp in New Hampshire.
"[Waterville] was the best part of the season," Soles said. "It was a great training week. We really bonded as a team, and we came out with high hopes for the season."
"It was most helpful for people who haven't really raced before," Meierdiercks said. "The women also got a great deal of special attention from [Coach Wang], which was really beneficial."
During the season, the skiers practice at Nashoba Valley every Wednesday. The recent cold weather has made for good practice and race conditions, but this past Wednesday's rain forced the team to practice plyometrics indoors.
As for the near future, the Jumbos hit the slopes at Bromley this coming weekend.
