The women's lacrosse team made an impressive run all the way to the NCAA championship game this spring, validating their preseason national ranking of third. The team struggled early, dropping a couple of games to less touted opponents and opening the season with a devastating 11-10 double overtime loss to Syracuse. A loss to Duke to close the regular season put in question the at-large bid to the tournament that the team had hoped for, but the selection committee smiled on the Big Green, paving the way for Dartmouth's dash to the finals.
Dartmouth carried a lead in the championship into the second half, but lost it for good seven minutes into the period. The loss denied Dartmouth what would have been its fifth NCAA title and first women's national championship in school history.
While team national titles do not litter the College trophy cases, the men's ski team has continued to build an impressive collection. For the fifth consecutive year, a Dartmouth skier took home the NCAA slalom title. Karl Johnson '06 captured the title this past year, putting together a solid pair of runs at Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs, Colo. Last year's champ, David Chodounsky '08, fell in his first run, finishing behind both Johnson and his brother Erik Johnson '06, who finished 12th.
The Johnsons also had a successful spring sailing for Dartmouth. The sailing team finished fifth in both the coed and women's Dinghy national championships hosted by the College of Charleston. At the regatta, the heavy current on the Cooper River was difficult for the visiting sailors to navigate, and the hosts took both championships.
Men's soccer brought some championship hardware back to Hanover this fall, tying for first place in the Ivy League earning a seed in the NCAA tournament and a bye in the first round. The team went 10-3-5, 5-1-1 in the Ancient Eight, but were stymied by winds upwards of 35 miles per hour in the second round of the tournament, dropping a crushing 1-0 decision to St. John's. The Big Green could not create sufficient offensive opportunities in the bizarre conditions, which made for a disappointing end to an impressive campaign.
Traditionally a powerhouse, men's cross country had endured a bit of a slump in recent years, not having gotten a team NCAA tournament bid since 2001. This fall, the Big Green emphatically broke out of that slump. Led by All-American Ben True '08, Dartmouth's harriers dominated the Ivy league. At the Heptagonal championships, the Ivy league championship, Dartmouth placed four runners in the top seven, with the fifth in twelfth place. The finishes left the Big Green with 30 points, comfortably in front of second place Princeton, who finished with 47. At the NCAA championship meet, Dartmouth had another banner day, hustling to a fifteenth place finish, the program's best since 1998.
While it didn't stand out in the highlight-filled history of the program, the men's hockey team skated to another impressive record this winter. After a horrid start, the Big Green bounced back to earn co-champion status for its regular season in the ECACHL. The team's early struggles, and a routing by Harvard in the semifinals of the ECACHL playoffs, kept the Big Green out of the NCAA tournament.
