WEB UPDATE, March 10, 11:50 p.m.
Jackson, N.H. -- All winter, a tide has been rising: the Dartmouth ski team has been winning one race after another, remaining undefeated deeper and deeper into the season. Saturday, the Big Green's towering wave of momentum washed away the competition at NCAA Championships. Dartmouth completed a perfect season, crowned by a national title.
"It's a dream," men's Nordic coach Ruff Patterson said. "Two years ago, we didn't think this was possible, that's honest," he said. But two years is nothing compared to the 31 years of drought that have just been quenched; this is Dartmouth's first NCAA National title since 1976.
But the season and the four days of racing for the championship were all suspended in a moment Saturday as Lindsay Mann '07 stood in the starting hut at the top of the slalom course -- she was Dartmouth's last racer. Each fan wearing green and white held their breath, knowing that if she completed her run, it would almost surely secure victory over the University of Denver, but if she fell, so would have Dartmouth's chances.
She sliced through course, pounding her turns, erasing every doubt. It was the fastest second run of the day, catapulting her into fourth place.
"I had nothing to lose, it's my last race," she said, unfazed.
In the end, Dartmouth finished a full fifty points ahead of D.U., and a whopping 106 points ahead of defending champion Colorado University, who finished third.
In order to win a national championship in skiing, each of the men's and women's Alpine and Nordic teams must be strong.
"All the teams, every single one did their job and were pretty damn solid," Patterson said.
And that is exactly how Dartmouth did it. Without a single individual champion and only two podium finishes in the eight separate races, Dartmouth drowned the competition.
At the end of the first day of competition, Northern Michigan University led the overall standing on the strength of their Nordic women, who swept the podium in the 5k freestyle. The Big Green women were all in the top ten, earning them All-American status: Elsa Sargent '08 was seventh, captain Sara Studebaker '07 was eighth and Susan Dunklee '08 took 10th. Ben True '08 took eighth in the men's 10k Freestyle, but captain Mike Sinnott '07, nearly undefeated in the regular season, finished 18th.
"The men's team had a rough time," said Glenn Randall '09, the men's third skier. "But the women's team more than made up for it." Still, after the first day, Dartmouth trailed by 23 points.
Day two moved to the slopes, where it became apparent that NMU hadn't qualified an Alpine team on par with its Nordic, and Dartmouth took over. Evan Weiss '06 led the men in the Giant Slalom, taking second place, and Michelanne Shields '08 led the women, grabbing ninth. Dartmouth finished the day just one point ahead of the University of Denver. The fight was on.
On day three, the Nordic skiers took to the trails again, this time for distance races. In the women's 15k, Northern Michigan again dominated the podium, but Dartmouth's trio all held firmly in the top twelve. On the men's side, True took a stellar fourth place finish, and Sinnott was eighth.
"At one point, I saw a D.U. skier and I just wanted to catch him and put as many skiers between us as possible," said Randall. "I skied my brains out." And it paid off: Randall finished 15 seconds ahead of Denver's third skier. By sunset on the third day, Dartmouth had extended their lead over Denver to 38 points.
In the early morning of Saturday, the fourth and final day, nothing was certain. In Alpine racing, especially slalom and especially at NCAAs where each team is only allowed three skiers, anything can happen. Thirty-eight points can exchange hands at the drop of a hat.
Men's captain Dave Chodounsky '08 gave the Big Green fans a scare on his first run when he appeared to straddle a gate and barely dove across the finish line. His time, the fourth fastest, was disqualified.
Just like that, Dartmouth's lead was in jeopardy. But men's coach Peter Dodge protested the disqualification, and after video review, Chodounsky's name was restored to the starting list for the second run.
"I knew from the start, one hundred percent, I didn't straddle," Chodounsky said. After solid first runs from Weiss and Alex Felix '08, as the sun brightened and the snow softened, Chodounsky returned to the starting gate.
He barreled down the course, hurtling through the hairpins and across the finish line into first place. Miraculously, the unprecedented sixth consecutive individual slalom championship suddenly seemed within the Big Green's grasp. Adam Cole of Denver had other plans however, snatching first place by just four one-hundredths of a second.
"I wanted to win, I was going for it," Chodounsky said. "But that mistake cost me."
The fans then turned to the Big Green women, and held their breath for each to finish. There was no need to worry, however, as the women smoothly slammed Denver, winning the race and adding an extra 25 point cushion. Mann was fourth, Shields took tenth and Hayley Jones '10 took 13th to seal the deal.
Denver's three individual championships and three podium finishes weren't enough to hold off the Big Green. In seven of the eight races, Dartmouth put three in the top 20, slowly and steadily building a lead. Dartmouth's consistency and depth proved a force too strong to be held back, breaking down the 31-year-old barrier.
"Next year is a new season, but now we've seen it," women's Alpine coach Christine Booker said. "Now we've seen how it's done."
