Dartmouth skiers roared into a fifth place team finish after four days of intense competition at the 2005 NCAA Skiing National Championship with seven All-American individual finishes, as well as continuing a dynasty of men's slalom champions, claiming first place for the fourth year in a row. The event was hosted by the University of Vermont at Stowe Mountain Resort and the Trapp Family Lodge from March 9 to 12.
Men and women's giant slalom opened the competition on March 9. Dartmouth's Courtney Calise '07 attacked her runs on the icy, gusty course for a podium finish of third place. "GS isn't usually my forte, but today it was. I am so extremely excited and I'm really thankful," Calise said.
Calise was the runner up at last year's championships in her specialty, the slalom.
Jamie Kingsbury of Vermont dominated on her home course to win the event in 1:55.03. Colby's Abbi Lathrop was second in 1:55.53; Calise was just three-hundredths of a second behind Lathrop. Dartmouth senior Christin Lathrop finished 25th after a fall on her second run, which dropped her from seventh place. Sasha Acher '06 finished in 21st.
In the men's giant slalom Dartmouth's Evan Weiss '06, overall leader in the GS for the East, finished in eighth place, earning him All-American honors. Dave Chodounsky '08 fell from sixth to 28th after a tough second run and Erik Kankainen '05 finished in 23rd place.
The nordic races opened on March 10 with the women and men's five km and 10 km classical races. Dartmouth's Alison Crocker '06 finished with an impressive fourth place in a field of strong Western skiers. "This is a good course for me, and I like it a lot," Crocker said of the Trapp Family Lodge layout where she won all four regular-season collegiate races she entered there this winter. Mandy Kaempf of Alaska-Anchorage won the race in 17:19.3, followed by Lindsay Williams of Northern Michigan in 17:29.1. Dartmouth's next skier was Liz Harrington '05 who finished in 12th place. Elsa Sargent '08, suffered from a cold, but battled to 36th place.
In the men's 10 km race, the Big Green men had trouble keeping up with the powerful western skiers. Denver skiers took 1-2-4 with Rene Reisshauer winning the race in 30:49.1, followed by his teammate John Stene in 31:10.9. Dartmouth's first finisher was Ben True '08, who had a great race, finishing in 14th place, one of the top Americans in a field dominated by Scandinavian athletes. Mike Sinnott '07 finished in 19th, and Ben Koons '08 finished 27th
"I'm really proud of all of our skiers," said Dartmouth head coach Ruff Patterson. "True has had his best races of the year here, and we've got a great base for the future. As a team, we're really solid, and today was just a fun day."
The third day of action returned to Stowe Mountain Friday for the slalom competition. Chodounsky, who was the overall slalom leader in the East, dominated the race with the fastest time of the day on his second run to win with a two-run time of 1:12.18. "The course was great, just my style," said Chodounsky, who professed to feeling no pressure in his first NCAA Championships. "I had a decent first run and was in pretty good shape, so I decided to charge it a little more in the second run. This year's been so great, and to end it like this is just awesome."
Kankainen earned All-American honors in his final collegiate race, finishing in sixth place. Weiss, who led after the first run, went off course in the second run and fell to 30th place.
"I've been lucky," says Dartmouth men's coach Peter Dodge, who has coached all four recent slalom champions, as well as two-time giant slalom champion David Viele '98. "We work to build the guys' confidence throughout the year, and come the Championships, we're able to just turn them loose. This is a group that moves in the right direction. We just keep them on the path in training, then on race day we stay out of their way."
In the women's slalom, Lathrop earned All-American honors in the final race of her collegiate career, finishing in 10th place. Acher also had a great race, moving up to 13th place. Calise had a rough first run and finished in 27th. The final day of competition was the women and men's 15 km and 20 km freestyle races. In the women's race, Harrington pushed hard for a strong 10th place finish. The top 10 finish by Harrington earned her All-American status in her final collegiate competition. "That was my goal before the race, although I would have been satisfied giving it my very best shot," said Harrington. "But to [be named] All America in my last race is really exciting."
Alaska-Anchorage's Mandy Kaempf won her second race of the championships, taking the event in 46:18.8, and teammate Nicole Deyong was second in 46:54.8. Crocker skied through the heavy snow and wind to finish in 16th place, Sargent finished 37th race.
In the men's race, sickness hindered the Dartmouth skiers. Denver's Rene Reisshauer came away with the victory, winning the brutal 20 km freestyle in 55:57.3. A pair of Colorado Buffalos, Erling Christiansen and Henrik Hoye, were second and third respectively behind Reisshauer. True remained healthy and finished in 19th place. Koons battled out the race to finish 37th, while Sinnott fell victim to a stomach bug that affected Koons earlier in the week and did not finish.
In the overall team standings, Dartmouth ended up in fifth place with 486 points.
