The Tufts alpine ski team learned the hard way that sometimes great just isn't quite good enough.
At the Eastern Regional Championships, held at Waterville Valley this past weekend, a fifth- and seventh-place finish out of 13 teams in the slalom and giant slalom competitions, respectively, left the Jumbos out of a Nationals bid for next weekend by a slim margin. A fifth-place overall finish was necessary to qualify for the National Championship in Winter Park, Colo., and while Tufts was within the boundaries after the first day of competition, a tougher second day left them just out of the last spot.
Nevertheless, Tufts saw some great performances from its male skiers, while the women did not compete in Regionals. The Jumbos were led by sophomore captain Brian Bresee in both the slalom event on Saturday and the giant slalom on Sunday. Bresee finished eighth overall in the slalom with a time of 1:32.66, less than three seconds off the pace of the winner, Colby-Sawyer senior Travis Plass. On Sunday, Bresee managed a tie for 18th place with a combined time of 2:17.45. Again, Bresee was mere seconds off the lead as the first-place finisher came in with a time of 2:12.20."
"I felt like with the slalom, I didn't ski one of my best races," Bresee said. "Giant slalom is kind of my weaker [format] -- I'm still working on it.
"Seconds are really important," Bresee continued. "Especially at Regionals where it is much more competitive, everyone's going to be a little more spread out."
A consistent middle man for the Jumbos, sophomore Thomas Valentin finished the two slalom races in a combined time of 1:39.52, which was good for 26th place in the individual standings. Classmate Arlin Ladue finished close behind in 29th with a time of 1:42.41. In fourth for Tufts was junior Greg Hering, who came in 0.7 seconds combined behind Ladue at 1:43.11.
"Overall, the team did really well," Bresee said. "We had solid performances from both [Valentin], who's been doing really well all year, and [Ladue] as well."
"We skied really strong[ly] in slalom, placing fifth as a team, on a really tough course against teams who ski the hill more than we do," Hering said. "This same trail has held over 10 World Cup races and is one of the most challenging in the East. Our giant slalom performance was solid, but we just need more time on snow. The competition was stiff [because] the division above us is more intense than our division."
The Jumbos, who ski in the Thompson Division of the Eastern Region, finished second in their division behind perennial powerhouse Castleton State. But in the Regional competition, Thompson Division's one-two punch only finished third and fifth in the slalom and sixth and seventh in the giant slalom, emphasizing the disparity between divisions in the region.
Plymouth State University crushed the competition on Saturday, winning the slalom course by over eight seconds between their top three racers combined. On Sunday, Colby-Sawyer stole the show, beating second-place UMass Amherst by nearly four seconds. Plymouth State finished in a close third.
All things considered, the weekend was a success, and the only thing holding the Jumbos back from a trip to Nationals next year is time and experience on the slopes.
"We just have to ski some more giant slalom -- we need to get some more training in," Bresee said. "We definitely have room for improvement, and hopefully, we'll be able to get it next year.
"Nobody had a huge expectation that we'd get to Nationals," Bresee continued. "It's a huge challenge to actually beat some of these teams out to qualify. We were a long shot for Nationals, but I'm happy with how we performed. We're a very young team, so we're looking good going forward into next year."
