The alpine ski team's season will come full circle this weekend in Waterville, NH.
After beginning the 2006 campaign with a training week at Waterville Valley, the men's and women's teams will head back to this same mountain for New England Regionals and the final meet of their successful season.
Coming off two consecutive weekends of top-form skiing, both teams are ready to turn heads from across the region.
"Everyone has pulled together clean runs and has really gelled as a team," senior women's captain Eliza Appert said. "We have had some great experiences that prove how successful our teams can be."
The highlight of Tufts' season thus far came two weekends ago at the Mt. Snow and Dartmouth slalom races on Feb. 11-12, when both the men's and women's teams won Saturday and Sunday's events. Appert won the individual women's event on Saturday and finished second to Northeastern's Kristin Bondowski on Sunday.
"After four seasons, it was great to finally win," Appert said of her first individual collegiate victory. "It was my last slalom race weekend, so I knew it was my last chance to win. I just finally put it all together and had two fast runs. Placing second the next day was also fun and exciting - it was a good finish to my college racing career."
Adding to the women's first-place points total were seniors Lael Nelson and Chole Snider, who finished fourth and sixth, respectively.
Sophomore Andrew Benson led the men's side with wins on both Saturday and Sunday. Freshman Hans Tiefenthaler was right on his teammate's heels, coming in second place in the first race. The men's team finished ahead of rivals Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Boston University for its sixth first-place team finish of the year.
"Benson and [Tiefenthaler] have led the guys pretty much all season long," Appert said. "It seems like they're always finishing one-two."
Last weekend also proved successful for Tufts at Mt. Snow. After the first races on Saturday were cancelled due to technical difficulties, Appert skied to a fourth-place finish in the giant slalom, with Snider coming in 15th.
"Last weekend's GS race went well again and set the stage for a good Regionals performance," Appert said. "The women are not as strong in GS, but are improving and looking forward to Regionals."
The men nearly swept the top three positions in their GS events for the second time this season, but just missed the feat when junior Eric Johnson came in fourth behind Green Mountain College's Michael Weinberg. Benson and Tiefenthaler finished first and second, respectively.
Heading into Regionals this weekend, Appert holds the No. 2 ranking in the women's Thompson Division. Snider sits at eighth and Nelson rounds out the top three Tufts women in the league's tenth spot. The women's team is ranked second in the league, trailing only BU.
Tiefenthaler and Benson sit atop the men's side of the division with No. 1 and No. 2 rankings, respectively. Johnson is ninth and senior Andrew Tonelli ranks 15th among league skiers. The men also have a vice-grip on the top spot in the Thompson Division team rankings with 16 points. The next closest team, WPI, has 23 points.
This weekend's results against other divisions from the New England area will determine whether any Tufts skiers continue on to the national meet, to be held the first weekend of March at Sugarloaf in Maine.
"At Regionals, we will face tougher competition from the teams of the McConnel Division," Appert said. "However, we are looking to have our best Regionals performance yet and have a legitimate shot at Nationals."
