The third-place team finish is the highest for the Big Green since 1982, when the men's and women's championships were combined.
With five individual All Americans and a Slalom Champion, Dartmouth was able to finish well ahead of archrivals the University of Vermont and Middlebury, which placed fifth and seventh, respectively. Both teams had beaten Dartmouth throughout the season in the Eastern Intercollegiate Carnival Circuit.
"This is awesome," said Cari Thompson, director of skiing and women's cross country. "The best part is that we had an All American in every discipline. Every one of our athletes contributed."
After combining the Nordic and alpine scores, host Colorado finished first in the team standings with 654 points. New Mexico was second with 556, followed by the Big Green with 537.5 points.
The highlight of the week-long event was Dartmouth's claim to an unprecedented five straight years of men's slalom titles. Karl Johnson '06 followed in the tracks of Roger Brown '04 in 2002, Bradley Wall '02 in 2003, Paul McDonald '06 in 2004 and David Chodounsky '08 last year to win the slalom with two stellar runs at Howelson Hill.
Completing his first run 0.68 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor, Johnson held off a strong second run by Alaska-Anchorage's Timothee Theaux for the crown, winning in 1:13.85, a half-second better than Theaux. New Mexico's Tor Fodnesbergene was third.
"I love the feel of this place," said Johnson of Howelsen. "It reminds me a lot of Cochran's, where I grew up in Vermont. Once you have the right mentality, you do well, and I felt great all day. We have a great bunch of guys, and we're pushing each other all the time. We all knew it was there; we just had to put it together."
Johnson's twin brother Erik, competing in his second NCAA Championships, finished in a respectable 12th place. Defending slalom champion Chodounsky crashed on his first run and finished a distant 32nd.
Karl Johnson also gained All American honors in the giant slalom where he finished in sixth place. Chodounsky finished in 14th while Erik Johnson went off the course on his first run.
For the women's alpine team, it was Michelanne Shields '08's turn to shine. The sophomore grabbed All American honors in both the giant slalom and the slalom. Tough snow conditions during the giant slalom did not deter Shields from a 10th-place finish even after losing a pole on her second run. In the slalom, she was able to move up to eighth place after posting the second fastest time on her second run.
Dartmouth's Sealy Livermore '08 was 20th in the slalom and 26th in the giant slalom and Alex Fucigna '07 finished 22nd in the slalom.
The Dartmouth Nordic team battled the high altitude to pull off a number of extraordinary races. In the men's 10-kilometer classic race, Ben True '08 earned All American status with an impressive fifth-place finish, only 46 seconds off the pace of race winner John Stene of Denver University, who took the event in 27:57.7.
"I thought it went pretty well," said True. "I tried to go out easy, because of the altitude. I got a little out of breath, but I was able to hang in there."
The competition was True's second NCAA Championships event in less than four months. In November, he finished 32nd at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Indiana.
Mike Sinnott '07 and Glenn Randall '09 also had strong races, finishing among the top four Eastern skiers in 12th and 17th place, respectively. Along with the Dartmouth trio, Vermont's Juergen Uhl, who finished in 16th, was the only other Eastern skier to finish in the top 20.
In the 20-kilometer freestyle race, Randall collected his first All American honors finishing in fifth place, tops among American skiers. Randall, who led for a brief time late in the race, finished 25 seconds behind winner Kit Richmond of Colorado, who finished the four-loop course in 55:14.7. Sinnott was 13th and True was 28th.
In the last race of the championships, Alison Crocker '06 earned the third All American honor of her career finishing fifth in the 15-kilometer mass start freestyle race.
"We all had really fast skis," said Crocker. "I was able to stay with a second pack for the second and most of the third laps till the end where I sprinted to the finish for fifth place against a [Colorado University] girl."
Crocker was a minute and a half off the pace of race winner Jana Rehemaa of Colorado, who finished in 46:27.4. Susan Dunklee '08 held on for a gutsy 12th-place finish, while Kristina Trygstad-Saari '07, who missed the classic race with a fever, finished strong in 22nd. Earlier in the week Crocker finished 13th in the women's five-kilometer classic, followed by Dunklee in 18th.
"It was an incredibly gutsy performance by the whole team," said Thompson. "Freestyle is not necessarily Ali's strength, but she stayed with the lead group. Susan skied hard and just missed being an All America, and Kristina, for being sick, finished really strong."
