Coming off an undefeated carnival season, Dartmouth's ski team could not maintain its perfect record and rounded off the year finishing seventh at the NCAA championships on March 14, hosted by Bates College.
Accumulating a total of 555 points, the Big Green triumphed over much of the 22-team competition, but fell short of the University of Denver's winning 659-point tally.
Dartmouth again matched up well against its competitors from the East, managing to beat every other Eastern team except the University of Vermont, which placed fifth with 573 points. Vermont's performance at the competition was surprising, since the overall team rarely threatened Dartmouth's undefeated carnival season, men's Nordic skier Patrick O'Brien '10 said. The competition from Western teams, meanwhile, proved to be too great for Dartmouth to overcome.
The competition's location at Bates, where the Big Green kicked off its season, lent Dartmouth an advantage.
"Bates was hugely helpful, and it was also helpful because we skied the same distances," O'Brien said. "[Being familliar with the venue] is somewhat helpful at individual start races, but more so at mass start races, since we knew to expect where on the course we should put down an aggressive front."
Each school fielded up to three competitors from each of the women's alpine and cross-country and the men's alpine and cross-country teams. This limitation prevented the Big Green, which fielded three athletes in each category, from dominating any one race as it often does when its full roster competes, but the restriction did not stop the women's cross-country team from continuing its past successes.
The women's cross-country competitors, Sophie Caldwell '12, Hannah Dreissigacker '09 and Rosie Brennan '11, all did well in their individual seasons, as Caldwell competed in the World Junior Championships in Praz de Lys Sammand, France, while Brennan and Dreissigacker both contributed top finishes to propel Dartmouth to team wins at the carnivals.
The women won the 15-kilometer freestyle, as Brennan placed third with a time of 38:41.2, garnering the best finish for Dartmouth overall.
Caldwell followed in fifth, clocking in at 38:49.8, while Dreissigacker nabbed tenth place to give the Big Green team the win, earning 113 points.
The women's team also placed second in the 5-kilometer classic race, where Brennan again had the best finish for Dartmouth, clinching fourth place with a time of 14:14.2.
Although the team faced mainly unfamiliar teams, women's cross-country coach Cari Thompson said that this was not a significant factor when examining Dartmouth's results.
"There is certainly the unknown, and that is a challenge, but we're racing in an individual sport, really, and each athlete goes out there and gives a best effort on that day," she said. "It is not like a basketball game where you scrutinize the tactics of the other team -- here you are racing against the clock so the other teams are not so much of an issue."
Nonetheless, the Western teams certainly showcased their talent, dominating the women's alpine in both the slalom and giant slalom races. Skier Courtney Hammond '11 finished in eighth place in the giant slalom with a total time of 2:37.21, and also placed sixth in the slalom, clocking a total 1:45.30. In both of the races, the University of New Mexico, the University of Alaska at Anchorage and the University of Utah held on to the top-place finishes.
"This year, there were no clear favorites out of the Western division, and the carnival winners were constantly changing around week to week," O'Brien said. "With the skiers, there was also a lot of different or new names so it's hard to keep track of who's coming back."
In the men's cross-country events, Dartmouth's best finishes were in the 20-kilometer freestyle, in which O'Brien finished in seventh place with a time of 44:42.6, followed by Nils Koons '11 in 14th, and Glenn Randall '09 in 18th place.
The Men's alpine skiers also struggled, as Rusty Heise'09 provided the team's best result with a 13th place finish in the giant slalom event. Ace Tarberry '11, who had Dartmouth's best finish in the slalom race, did not finish in the giant slalom.
"Obviously we did not have great results at the championships, but we did have great moments, which was pretty exciting," Thompson said. "Unfortunately, the competition fell during finals, which made it harder for the athletes to concentrate, and sometimes you can make it work, but sometimes you can't."
Despite a disappointing finish to the competition, 11 Big Green athletes, including O'Brien, Caldwell, Brennan and Dreissigacker, were honored with an All-America or Academic All-America nod for their performance at the championships or for their academic excellence.
"Overall, it was a bit frustrating to place seventh, but we would have had to have a lot of things go right to get on the podium," O'Brien said. "There was some unfortunate luck during the race periods, some people were a bit off, but a lot of people came off the events feeling motivated for next year to try to do better."
