As it turned out, the two skiers had nothing to be nervous about on that long chairlift ride.
Hammond laid down the fastest second run of the day and leaped from eighth to first place with a combined time of 1:45.32. Jones, who was just half a second behind, finished in third. The pair proved to themselves and their team that they can dominate in slalom.
Dartmouth bounced back to win the carnival this weekend, regaining its footing on its home turf with an overall score of 725 points. Chief rival Middlebury College -- the winner of last weekend's carnival at the University of Vermont -- took second with 697 points and UVM was third with 664 points.
Slalom races have been the chink in the armor for Dartmouth's ski team this year. Last weekend, the Big Green suffered a bitter third place finish, which ended an undefeated streak that included the entirety of the 2007 season and the NCAA championship. The loss was in large part due to mishaps in the men's slalom race, where the team finished seventh.
"It's getting to me," Hammond said. "I've been thinking about slalom too much."
Hammond and Jones attributed their performances to their mental preparation.
"Today, I decided to think less and just go for it," Hammond said.
The freshman skier also won first place in the giant slalom on Friday, single-handedly racking up 200 points for Dartmouth. It proved more than enough to nail down the win for the Big Green at the Dartmouth Skiway.
"I felt better in slalom today than I have all season," Jones said. "I felt more confident. I think that confidence helped."
On the other hand, the men's alpine squad had another tough weekend, despite the team's overall victory. Women's alpine captain Michelanne Shields '08 attributed the men's struggles to the high level of competition in the men's alpine circuit.
"We're just another team," Shields said. "You can't win 'em all. And you can't really blame the guy's team. If you don't give 110 percent on the men's circuit, you don't have a chance."
This all-or-nothing attitude is certainly necessary to reach the top spots, but when skiers are taking the tightest and straightest line around the gates, the attitude could prove messy. In a split second, a skier can clip a gate, hook a tip and crash, straddle and be disqualified, or even have to hike back up the mountain to get around a missed turn. These kinds of mistakes continue to riddle the men's performances.
Men's captain Dave Chodounsky '08, who finished sixth in the giant slalom, did not finish the slalom race on Saturday. Ace Tarberry '11, who finished third in the giant slalom, had hang-ups in his second run, dropping him out of the contest after a fast first run. Rusty Heise '09 was Dartmouth's only top 20 finisher on Saturday, ending the race in 17th place.
The struggles are not due to lack of talent, as Choudounsky was runner-up in slalom at last year's NCAA championship. Big Green skiers are attacking each course as hard as possible, but they may need to take the fragility of the overall standings into consideration, especially with the postseason coming up. As The Boston Globe noted after last weekend, Dartmouth is not invincible.
By the grace of the snow-gods, the Nordic squad was able to host its races in Hanover at Oak Hill for the first time in years. Oak Hill was originally a downhill slope, so the hilly terrain provided a big advantage for the Big Green, according to Pat O'Brien '10.
"Skiing at Oak Hill was a huge advantage," O'Brien said. He finished third in the men's 20k classic race. The course was full of long climbs and swift descents around what O'Brien called "screaming" corners.
"No one from our team had ever raced the course because it had been so long since the Dartmouth Carnival had been at Oak Hill," O'Brien said. "Still, being able to train there every day this year was a huge bonus."
Last year, the competitions were held in Stowe, Vermont.
The men's team showcased its depth and consistency in both races. Glenn Randall '09 took second place in the 10k freestyle, with Nils Koons '11 just two seconds behind. Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess '09 took 10th place to wrap up the win for the Big Green.
In the 20k classic race, Vermont's Juergen Uhl, the overall leading points scorer on the men's Nordic circuit this season, took home another first place finish. O'Brien was third, Randall fourth, Blackhorse-von Jess took 11th and Koons took 12th. These four skiers have been trading places and times all season, but have consistently combined for solid team scores.
"Everyone really pulled together this week," O'Brien said. "I think we showed the other teams how willing Dartmouth skiers are to fight it out for every last place and point."
The women's Nordic team looked impressive again, as the Big Green skiers demolished their competition.
Middlebury's Alexa Turzian deserves kudos as the lone thorn in the side of the nearly impenetrable flank of the Dartmouth women. In the 5k freestyle on Friday, Turzian stole the top spot with a time of 13:54. She was followed closely by four Big Green women, all within 10 seconds of one another. Ida Sargent '11, Susan Dunklee '08, Rosie Brennan '11 and captain Elsa Sargent '08 took second through fifth places, respectively.
Again in the 15k classic race, Turzian was the only woman to red-rover the Big Green's grip on the podium: she took third behind freshmen Ida Sargent and Brennan, while Elsa Sargent, Dunklee, and Hannah Dreissigacker '09 locked up fourth through sixth place for Dartmouth.
The Big Green women have tyrannized the East this season, winning every race they have entered. It looks as though an epic clash with Northern Michigan University is inevitable at the NCAA championships later this season. In 2007, the Wildcats swept the podium, however, the Big Green has returned three of its four NCAA qualifiers from last year's team and has seen unprecedented success from freshmen Sargent and Brennan, so Dartmouth will be in prime position to challenge NMU.
The ski team will move on to Williams College this weekend, where it will compete in the last carnival of the season before the Eastern Championships the following weekend.
