The Women's Alpine Ski Team tied with Clark College for seventh place of 16 teams at the Eastern Regional Championships in Waterville, NH two weekends ago. Their split scores were eighth in the slalom (SL) and seventh in the giant slalom (GS).
Though the team did not finish as well as it would have liked - missing the cut for Nationals by two spots - sophomore co-captain Courtney Benson had positive things to say about the weekend.
"The experience we all had there was incredible," she said. "It was a great finish to a year in which team unity was more important than results."
That said, the women's team had a solid year, defending its second-place division finish from last year. Once again, the team was one off first place, finishing just behind powerhouse Green Mountain College (GMC). But the competition at Waterville was even stiffer than their usual division foes, as GMC finished only sixth.
Boston College finished the weekend perfectly, capturing first in both the SL and GS. They were trailed by University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Brown University, Colby-Sawyer College, and Smith College. These five teams will represent the Eastern Collegiate Ski Conference from March 13 to 15 at the Nationals Championship race in Waterville.
The team must start looking ahead to next year when they will be faced with losses of three consistent scorers. Co-captain senior Kate Meierdiercks will graduate this spring and the team will miss her consistent finishes and strong leadership.
Tufts' two other departures, Benson and sophomore Sophie Dabuzhsky - both consistent point-scorers - will be attending study abroad programs next year.
Meierdiercks finished her Tufts career well, placing 32nd in the SL and 39th in the GS out of the 68 best skiers in the region. She hopes to pass her leadership on to rising seniors, Anne Marie Braun and Jordana Fish.
"Though they started off the season finishing in the middle, hard work paid of for them as they finished the season in the top ten in the league," Meierdiercks said. "Their commitment will pay off next year when the team will count on them to lead them back to Regionals."
On the other hand, the men's ski team did not have the success of previous years. They experienced a situation similar to what the women's team will go through next year. After losing four of their top-five skiers to graduation last year, the men's team did not expect too much this year.
In addition, the team lost its most promising freshman, Brian Costello, to a season-ending injury before he competed in a single race for Tufts.
Despite these setbacks, the team was powered by a core of young sophomores, including captain Nat Sager and Michael Kraft. The veteran leadership came from senior Jack Kramarczyk and junior Michael Coughlin.
Next year, the team loses its most dominant skier in Kramarczyk who graduates. Thus, the leadership will have to come from Coughlin.
"He is a strong skier who really came on towards the end of the year," Sager said. "The coaches have been impressed with his improvements on the slopes and his ability to lead the team next year."
As a team, the Tufts men finished the regular season sixth, two places out of the Regionals race. In the last half of the season they narrowed the gap, but eighth and seventh-place finishes in the GS at Bearkshire and Haystack Mountains, respectively, kept the team out of the top four necessary to qualify for Regionals.
Next year the team hopes these results will be different.
"We will be seeing more guys in our summer program at Mount Hood," Sager said. "This training can provide valuable experience and mental toughness for the season to come."
With Costello coming back from injury and hopefully not too many juniors going abroad the team could make up the difference from this year and make an appearance at the Regionals race next season.
