Having won the last two national championships, Dartmouth will look to defend its title in San Jose, Calif. come April.
The field in Boston featured the winners of the last four national championships. Cornell won in 2003, and the Delaware Blue Hens, Dartmouth's fiercest rivals, were champions in 2002.
Since Nationals in 2003, Dartmouth has not lost a meet. The Big Green swept its competitions throughout its national championship campaigns of 2004 and 2005. And including last Saturday, Dartmouth has won both Eastern Qualifiers this year.
With one silver and three gold medals, Holly Ponichtera '07 scored the most points in Boston, but she was only one of six Dartmouth winners.
After winning and finishing second in her first two events, co-captain Taylor Grant '06 impressively completed a triple salchow in her third.
Coach Michael McGean '49 called Grant's triple salchow "the most difficult technical element of any Dartmouth skaters," saying that she just added it to her program for her senior year.
Meanwhile, Nicole Newman '08 landed a double axel in winning the senior short program.
Dartmouth's three other winners were Sarah Zimbler '09, Katie Collins '06 and Kate Schmidt '09. Zimbler won two events.
"The team performed admirably, overcoming injuries and illnesses to jump ahead early in the competition," said McGean. "They never looked back."
Co-captain Katherine Kalaris '07 had a personal best in the long program, and Cynthia Chen '02, Hallie Damon '08, Severina Ostrovsky '07, Dan Dittrick '08 and Rachel Feder '09 also added points to Dartmouth's final tally. A former Dartmouth undergrad, Chen is eligible to skate because she is currently enrolled in the college as a graduate student.
"Dartmouth's skaters took an early lead and continued to impress us all day long," said coach Loren McGean. "I think it was the best ever overall competition for Dartmouth's figure skaters." In addition to being his colleague, Loren McGean is Michael's daughter.
Unfortunately for Lauren Morgan '05 and Zoe Dmitrovsky '09, last weekend's oncoming blizzard ended the competition before its scheduled conclusion on Sunday. Morgan lost her chance to compete in the event she had won at Cornell in November, and Dmitrovsky was unable to skate in the team maneuver event.
After Dartmouth built itself an early lead, Michael McGean said he learned that two of the top Delaware skaters had to sit out their events with injuries. He did not, however, believe that their absence had an effect on the final result.
Overall Dartmouth netted 14 more points than in November at Cornell. "We can be proud of the amount we've improved in just a few months," said Grant.
Dartmouth will return to the ice once more before Nationals, when the team will face the same teams it defeated in Boston at the Penn Quaker Classic in Philadelphia, Pa. set for the first weekend in March.
