While most other Dartmouth students were relaxing on their spring break vacations, Jennifer Collins '99 was shredding up the slopes en route to adding an Northeast Collegiate Athletic Association title and the U.S. national title to her already long list of accomplishments.
Last Sunday, Collins capped off six days of skiing at Sugerloaf in Maine with a win in the giant slalom for the national title.
Notably, Chris Puckett '94, a member of the US team since 1987, won his second overall title at the nationals at Sugerloaf with strong finishes in all four events.
While he has always been a force in the national race for overall points, Puckett's second place finishes in the downhill and giant slalom were personal bests. His best result in an individual event prior to last weekend was third place.
Though she lost a pole at the start of her first run, Collins still finished fourth in the nationals, but her second run, improved by 1.2 seconds, clinched the title for her.
"When I got to the bottom I didn't even have to look at the scoreboard," Collins said.
She did not have such a good feeling in the first run skiing with only one pole. She lost both the pole and a glove just out of the first gate and ended up with frostbite by the end of the run.
"As I was going out of the start my basket got stuck in a hole. It throws off your balance a lot," Collins said.
"It just felt so off."
Representing the men's team at Sugerloaf were J. P. Daigneault '97, Andy Martin '96, Jeremiah Thompson '96, John Kline '99, Andrew Pennock '99, Ben Robinson '97 and Pete Ruprecht '98.
All competed in the slalom and giant slalom, and three also competed in the Super G.
Daigneault led the way, finishing 13th in the slalom and 14th in the giant slalom in fields of over 100 competitors."He is one of the top 10 skiers in Canada now," said men's coach Pete Dodge.
In the giant slalom he was followed by teammate Robinson who finished 15th.
In the same event, Ruprecht finished 18th, Martin 19th, Thompson 25th, and Kline 30th. Most of the top 15 finishers in the event were members of the Canadian, American or Japanese national teams.
Ironically, the 17th place in the giant slalom was nabbed by Dartmouth student Dave Viele '98 who is a member of the US National Team and does not ski with the Big Green.
Collins' NCAA victory also came in the giant slalom on March 6th at Deer Park in Bozeman, Montana.
In her two runs she totaled 108.59 seconds, good enough to best Colorado's Caroline Gedde-Dahl by over a tenth of a second.
Due to schedule conflicts, Collins was the only woman from the Dartmouth ski team who was able to compete in the NCAA championship.
In the NCAA meet Daigneault was named first team All-American after his fourth place finish in the slalom and fifth in the giant slalom. Martin was also named All-American with his fifth place finish in the slalom.
