Newcomer Sasha Acher '06 (Madison, Wi.) joined 2002 Olympian Bradley Wall '02 (Jindabyne East, NSW, Australia) and NCAA veteran Brayton Osgood '03 (Putney, Vt.) in leading the Big Green of Dartmouth to a third-place finish at the St. Lawrence Winter Carnival, the opener of the 2003 Eastern Intercollegiate Skiing Association season held this weekend in Ottawa, Ontario.
In her first collegiate race, Acher finished fourth in Saturday's slalom and sixth in Sunday's follow up slalom to lead the Dartmouth alpine women. Emily Copeland '04 (Rexford, N.Y.) combined a sixth-place finish on Saturday with a fifth-place finish on Sunday.
For Dartmouth's alpine men, Wall -- who competed for his native Australia at the Salt Lake Olympics last winter -- recorded back-to-back third place slalom finishes. Meanwhile, defending NCAA slalom champion Roger Brown '04 (Norwich, Vt.) saw a streak of seven first-place finishes, dating back to last season, broken when he failed to finish the second run of Saturday's slalom. Brown rebounded with an eighth place finish in Sunday's slalom. Both slaloms were won by Brown's cousin, the University of Vermont's Jimmy Cochran.
In cross country racing, Osgood followed up a fifth place in the men's 10-kilometer freestyle Saturday with a second place finish in Sunday's 10-kilometer classical pursuit. Andrew Hunter '04 (Redfield, Me.) combined a 17th place finish Saturday with a 15th place result on Sunday, while Eben Sargent '05 (Orleans, Vt.) finshed 18th on Saturday and 19th on Sunday. The Big Green women got top 20 finishes out of Sue Kloek '03 (Pittsford, N.Y.), Liz Harrington '05 (Duluth, Minn.) and Emily Chenel '04 (Winthrop, Mass.) in the women's 5-kilometer freestyle Saturday. In the 5-kilometer pursuit on Sunday, Chenel finished 10th, followed by Kloek in 11th and Jean Polfus '06 (Lake Tomahawk, Wi.) in 21st.
Vermont won the carnival with 628 points. New Hampshire, on the strength of first-place team finishes in all four cross country events, was second with 607.5 points; Dartmouth finished in third place with 588.5 points.
The carnival circuit moves on to the Granite State next weekend for the University of New Hampshire Winter Carnival Friday and Saturday.
