Last weekend, the Dartmouth ski team continued its winning streak at the Middlebury Carnival, finishing with a total of 928 points. Middlebury finished second with 902 points.
The Big Green saw impressive performances from a number of its skiers. For the women's Nordic team Susan Dunklee '08 won both the 5k freestyle and 10k classic races. In the freestyle, Elsa Sargent '08 finished a close second behind Dunklee. On the men's side, Nils Koon '11 and Glenn Randall '09 took third and fourth in the 15k classic race, respectively. On the alpine side, Courtney Hammond '11 continued her recent surge and finished third in the slalom and giant slalom. Captain Michelanne Shields '08 took sixth in the giant slalom. Ace Tarberry '11 led the Big Green men with a fourth place finish in the gaint slalom.
The team hopes to defend its 2007 NCAA crown next weekend at the NCAA Championships in Bozeman, Mont.
The team heads into the championships as one of only three teams out of twenty to qualify 12 skiers, the maximum number granted to any team in the championship. Expected to lead the charge for the Big Green next weekend is captain David Chodounsky '08, the 2005 NCAA slalom champion and two-time NCAA All-American.
Men's Basketball
Not much changed for the Big Green men's basketball team last weekend, and the Ivy League standings remained constant across the board. Dartmouth (9-15, 2-8 Ivy) split its two home games, beating Princeton (5-19, 2-7 Ivy) and losing to Penn (10-16, 5-4 Ivy). Last Friday's win did not lift the Big Green from the cellar of the Ancient Eight, and Princeton remains in seventh place with one less league loss.
At the other end of the spectrum, Cornell (18-5, 10-0 Ivy) leads the league with a perfect conference record. As the Big Red's berth in the NCAA tournament becomes increasingly likely, analysts have started to follow Cornell and favor its chances of becoming a possible tournament sleeper team.
Brown (15-9, 7-3 Ivy) is also having a strong season as it continues to fight in second place, but it is not likely to beat out Cornell for the NCAA tournament berth.In addition, Columbia (13-12, 6-4 Ivy) and Penn both board conference records of above-.500. Yale (10-14, 4-6) and Harvard (8-18, 3-7) have earned the fifth and sixth spots in the Ancient Eight, respectively.
Women's basketball
The Big Green rebounded from a a pair of losses to earn two home court wins against Ivy League cellar dwellers Penn (4-20, 1-8 Ivy), 62-47, and Princeton (5-20, 2-7 Ivy), 72-60.
Dartmouth (10-14, 7-3 Ivy) is still within striking distance of league leaders Cornell (17-6, 9-1 Ivy) and Harvard (15-9, 8-2 Ivy). Poor performances by either of these teams this weekend, coupled with a Big Green sweep, could transform the Ivy title outlook overnight.
Brittney Smith '11 received her sixth Ivy Rookie of the Week honors, her third in the five weekends since Ivy play began. Her presence on both the boards and the defensive side limited last weekend's opponents' points in the paint and in second-chance points.
With only two weeks and four games remaining, the league's top five teams are each separated by only a single game. Cornell, Harvard and Dartmouth are one, two and three in the league, respectively, and still deep in the hunt. Columbia (9-15, 6-4 Ivy) and Yale (7-16, 5-5 Ivy) are hoping to advance in the rankings this weekend.
This weekend, the Big Green looks to avenge its road losses against Cornell and Columbia. Dartmouth will face the Big Red in Hanover on Friday night. This game is a must-win for the Big Green, as Cornell will travel to Harvard on Saturday, where a loss by either team will help Dartmouth's playoff chances.
Women's hockey
The Big Green enters the first round of the Eastern College Athletic Conference hockey league's postseason tournament this weekend. Dartmouth (16-7-6, 13-5-4 ECAC) will host Colgate (12-14-5, 9-9-4 ECAC) in the first game of the best-of-three series Friday. The second game will take place on Saturday, and the teams will play a third game on Sunday, if necessary.
Colgate hosted Dartmouth last weekend and the Big Green picked up a 4-1 victory to clinch the tournament's third seed, which rewards the team with home-ice advantage.
Colgate defeated Dartmouth earlier in the season, taking a 1-2 overtime win from the Big Green in Hanover in January.
The two teams have met three times in the ECAC tournament. In 2002, 2003, and 2005, the Big Green swept the Raiders and advanced in the tournament.
The winner of the ECAC championship receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, which will take place in March.
Men's Hockey
The Big Green (10-13-4, 5-12-3 ECAC) will wrap up its season on the road this weekend and hopes to generate some momentum for the Eastern College Athletic Conference hockey league's playoffs.
The Big Green is currently tied for ninth place in the conference with 13 points, and will travel for the first round of ECAC playoffs. On Friday the Big Green will travel to Ithaca, N.Y. to take on Ivy rival Cornell (13-11-3, 11-8-1 ECAC). The Big Red is currently tied for fourth in the league with Union (14-11-6, 11-7-2 ECAC), and needs four points on the weekend to clinch a first-round bye. On Saturday, the Big Green will take on Colgate (14-13-5, 8-8-4 ECAC) in the final regular season game for both squads. The Raiders are tied for seventh in the league with Yale (12-11-4, 8-8-4 ECAC).
Elsewhere in the league, conference leader Clarkson (18-10-4, 13-4-3 ECAC), ranked ninth nationally, and second-place Princeton (17-10-0, 14-6-0 ECAC), ranked 12th nationally, have wrapped up first-round byes. The Golden Knights are just one spot ahead of the Tigers in the league rankings and the two teams will face off on Friday.
Tennis
Dartmouth men's tennis team (5-4, 0-0 Ivy)went 2-0 over the past week, improve its record to 4-4 on the season. The Big Green easily handled Marist (3-2, 2-0 MAAC) by a 6-1 margin last Saturday, in what was slated to be a doubleheader with Stony Brook.
Stony Brook was unable to make the event due to weather complications.
Dartmouth continued its strong play against an overmatched Boston College on Wednesday, winning the contest at 5-2.
The team now faces a two week break before it resumes play on March 16 at Utah to begin the spring season.
The women's squad (7-0, 0-0 Ivy) dominated Rutgers 6-1. Dartmouth's women undefeated at 7-0, the only Ivy League team still undefeated. As a result, the squad entered the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division I national rankings, sneaking in at No. 75.
On the season, the Big Green women have downed two Big East teams and two Atlantic Coast Conference teams.
The team resumes play on March 15 at University of South Florida, which is ranked 43rd in the ITA.
