Since 1924, Dartmouth alumni have competed in each of the Olympic games and most of them began their successful careers as a part of the Dartmouth ski team.
Last season was a challenging one for the Big Green. Although individual achievements were extremely impressive (six of the team members received All-East Honors and four were chosen as All-Americans), the combined team finished at the NCAA tournament in 10th place.
Considering the level of excellence at the national competition, the team and coaches were proud of the result, but the Dartmouth ski team is striving to end this year closer to the fourth place finish it gained in 1988.
The ski team is divided into four categories: men's alpine, women's alpine, men's cross-country and women's cross-country.
Heading the men's alpine team is Peter Dodge '78, a former member of the U.S. Ski Team. He will be assisted by captain Andrew Martin '96, one of the team's favored competitors and a member of the All-East Honors second team in the 1994 season.
Together, the coach and captain hope to lead Jeremiah Thompson '96, JP Daigneault '97, Ben Robinson '97, Joe Gilbertson '97, Daniel Dalseth '97, Kyle Webb '97 and Peter Ruprecht '98 to a victorious winter of competition.
Captain Jesse James '95 was the only member of the women's alpine team who qualified to compete in the NCAAs last season, but under the leadership of former Dartmouth Outing Club president Mark Schiffman '90, this year may prove to be more of a successful one for the team.
The three returning women, Nora Stowell '96, Pam Finnerty '97 and Kate Buhrmaster '97, will be joined by freshmen Rebecca Davenport and star-recruit Laura Turner '98 on the Carnival circuit and are excited about pushing themselves to the limit.
"The team's pretty strong, everyone trained very hard this fall. The team is psyched, but we won't know how well we'll do until the clock starts ticking," James said. "That's going to determine how prepared we really are."
The cross-country trails this season will be covered by a strong group of athletes.
The men's team, coached by Director of Skiing Ruff Patterson, is sure to turn some hat-covered heads this year with the expertise of Captain Cory Smith '96 combined with the talent of Brian Jaquet '95, Colter Leys '96, Brant Stead '96, Paul Stone '98 and Eric Mass '98.
Cami Thompson, a former member of the U.S. Ski Team, is in her sixth season as the women's cross-country coach.
She is working with captain Heather Eliassen '95 to ensure the success of team members Diane Sabot '95, Laura Burgel '96, Danielle Fillion '96, Denali Kemppel '96 and Valerie Wrenholt '97.
After a strenuous off-season of training, this team should be ready to hit the trails and place highly at the winter Carnivals.
The Big Green will begin this season at the Johnson State College Carnival on Jan. 20 and 21 where they will compete against 14 other eastern colleges, including longtime rival and last year's NCAA champion, the University of Vermont.
The team will ski in six Carnivals in total, one of which will be hosted by Dartmouth on Feb. 10 and 11, and the skiers who qualify will end the season in mid-March at the NCAA National Championships at the University of New Hampshire.
"Our goal is to try to build the four strongest teams as we can. Hopefully, we will qualify as many people as we can to go to the NCAAs and those individuals will score as many points as possible so we can get a high team score," Patterson said.
