With Winter Carnival upon us, this weekend is your only chance to catch the Big Green ski team in action this year as they host the Dartmouth Winter Carnival.
"A lot of people are excited to come out for the races," Andy Martin '96 said. "It's always fun to ski in front of your friends."
Dartmouth rolls in to the Winter Carnival fresh off another second place overall finish to the University of Vermont at its home Carnival last weekend. The second place finish was Dartmouth's second in two weeks.
Coming off last weekend's encouraging performance, the ski team is looking to make a strong showing for the home fans this weekend.
"This is really the only race all year when people come out and see what it's all about," Martin said. "It's a great time for people to experience ski racing and it's a lot of fun."
Women's captain Nora Stowell '96 agreed. "This weekend is what everyone on the team looks forward to. It's our home carnival, on a familiar hill, and all our friends come out to support us which is really exciting."
When asked about his team's chances of pulling off a victory this weekend, Martin '96 was very positive.
"This is the best team we've had in the four years that I've been here," he said. "All six of our alpine racers have a chance to win a race on any given week. We have a very deep team. I think we can definitely win this weekend."
Stowell was equally optimistic about the women's chances.
"This is the best women's alpine team we've ever had," she said. "The women's alpine team can easily capture a victory if everyone stands up with decent runs. "
All teams will be looking to build upon the strong performances in the UVM Carnival last weekend.
In that competition, the men's alpine team skied strongly as usual, but came in a disappointing second due to a stroke of bad luck.
Dartmouth's misfortune occurred when Jeremiah Thompson '96, who was in second place after the first slalom run, missed a gate at the end of his second pass. If Thompson had finished, the men's alpine team would have been victorious, but his unfortunate miss slid the men down to second place behind UVM.
Strong individual showings were made by two of the younger members of the team, Jaime Reigle '99 and Andy Pennock '99.
Reigle was the leading Dartmouth finisher in the slalom, coming in a solid second, Reigle's first top-three finish.
Pennock also finished well in the slalom, coming in fourth. However he saved his best effort of the weekend for the giant slalom, where he captured second place.
"This was probably the first weekend that the UVM alpine team didn't fall apart, but we probably still should have won," Martin said.
The women did not have as much luck, finishing a distant third, behind UVM and Middlebury, respectively.
About the only bright spot for the women's team was the continued dominance of Jen Collins '99. Collins captured a double victory in the women's slalom and giant slalom and has now won a race at every meet this year.
The men's nordic team also had a good weekend as they defeated UVM in the men's 10 kilometer freestyle event. Dartmouth was led by the top five performances of Colter Leys '96 and Captain Cory Smith '96, who finished second and fourth respectively.
Despite these fine performances, the true key to defeating UVM was the fact that Dartmouth placed their third and fourth finishers in the top ten. Paul Stone '98 and Chris Dums '97 came in sixth and ninth respectively to earn the team the decisive points.
"We really needed someone to step up into the third scoring position and it looks like Paul has accepted the challenge," Smith said.
The Big Green will hope that "someone" will show up at Carnival this weekend as they begin competition this morning.
The action begins at 9:30 a.m. at the Dartmouth Skiway with the men's and women's giant slalom.
Also today, the men's and women's nordic races will be held at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vt., beginning at 10:00 a.m. These races were moved to Stowe Wednesday afternoon because of the lack of snow locally.
On Saturday the men's and women's slalom begins at 9:30 a.m. at the Skiway and, starting at 9:00 a.m., the men's and women's combined cross country relay will be held at Stowe, Vt.
