Just two weekends into the season, the men's ski team has already shown the potential to have a big winter. This past weekend, the Jumbos raced giant slalom (GS) against 10 other schools and took home second-place finishes on both Saturday and Sunday.
Senior captain Andrew Benson led the way, recording several promising times over the course of the weekend. Benson finished second in the individual results on both Saturday and Sunday.
Freshman Brian Bresee helped secure the team's second-place finishes by racing to a sixth-place finish on Sunday and a 12th place finish on Saturday. The third spots were filled by freshman Thomas Valentin and sophomore Pat Tonelli, respectively, on Saturday and Sunday.
"One thing to take out of this weekend is that on the second day Brian really elevated his performance and on his second run came in second overall," Benson said. "Pat's second run was also very solid, so I think we can expect better results in GS from both of them in the future. We are not quite as strong in GS, but if they can put their best runs together into one day, we have the ability to win those races."
The team finished behind Castelton State, which took first in both GS races and boasted seven top-10 finishers on the day. Despite racing to better times than nine of the other 10 schools present, the team was not satisfied with the way it raced.
"We didn't have a great two days as a team, and no one really skied that well," Tonelli said. "But Castleton is a varsity team and they have a lot of really good kids who finished in the top 10. We would have to have had a perfect day to beat them."
"Castleton is a tough program to compete against," Benson added. "They recruit heavily, they train at Killington or Pico, and they are very deep. It is going to take a lot to beat them week to week, but if we don't make mistakes and our top guys ski well we have a chance."
The Jumbos did knock off the high-powered Castelton squad just a week earlier during the first race of the season, a slalom competition at Killington.
On Saturday, January 12, Tufts' three fastest racers each had impressive runs to beat out Castleton by a combined time of about eight seconds. Benson once again led the way, finishing first on both days in a field of over 70 racers. Bresee and Tonelli had great days as well, taking third and seventh, respectively.
But Tufts couldn't keep its success going the next day, as the team emerged with a fifth-place finish. All of the Jumbos' top racers except for Benson fell or missed gates and had to hike back up the trail, leaving Tufts with mediocre times.
"We got a little unlucky and we all kind of screwed up in the same way," Tonelli said. "We had six guys who could have scored well for us and they all had to hike."
"We actually did a pretty good job to have three of our top guys fall and still get in fifth," Benson added.
The men are coming off a good year, and have only added to their roster, gaining multiple new skiers who have a chance to be top contributors. Bresee attended a ski academy before coming to Tufts, and has already shown his comfort on the slopes after scoring for the team in all of the first four races. Sophomore Greg Herring also looks to break into the top three for Tufts, as he returns to the snow after tearing his ACL and sitting out last season.
"We hope to keep improving," said Tonelli. "If the top five guys are able to get consistently good finishes we should be able to get to Nationals this year."
The women's team did not start off the season with any flashy finishes, but gained experience and perspective for future races. The Jumbos finished in sixth and seventh places in the GS races this weekend, after taking fourth and fifth the weekend before in slalom.
Sophomore captain Nicole Fontaine secured the best finish for Tufts in all four races, followed closely in second by senior Lauren Vasey. Freshman Lindsay Rutishauser came in third in three of the four races.
The women were not particularly happy with the results, but admit that this will be a rebuilding year that will provide a chance for the team's newest skiers to carve out a place for themselves.
"We have lost a lot of skiers from last year and we are looking for the younger girls to step up," Vasey said. "We need three places to finish, so Nicole and I need to ski our best and we need Lindsay or other racers to step up and fill that last spot."
