Alpiners Find Silver Lining in Rusten Result

Author: Andrew Zimmermann

On the slopes of the Alyeska Resort tucked in the Chugach Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska, the Middlebury alpine ski team in conjunction with its nordic counterpart, finished 11th out of 23 teams at NCAA National Skiing Championships. Over the course of four days Denver University proved that good things come in threes as the Pioneers claimed their third straight title. The University of Colorado finished second and the Utah Utes were third with the closest eastern school being the University of Vermont (UVM) in fifth place.

For the Panthers this championship was totally unlike last year's which the team hosted and finished seventh. First-year racer Lea Davison said, "Skiing in the West is a whole different ballgame." The snow in Wednesday's giant slalom (GS) for example, was soft, a condition which is very rarely found for racing in the East. First-year and Washington native John Rusten said of the conditions in the GS, "You can't charge as hard with the snow that way. You need a softer touch in turns to stay fast."

Rusten apparently had such a touch, as he earned the best result for the ski team, alpine or nordic, with a fourth place in the GS. With the result the first-year earned automatic first team All-American status.

"I was in fourth after the first run so I just tried to ski solid and get the best result possible," Rusten said. He and teammates Tyler Conrad '02 and Eric Rygg '03 faced one of the most difficult GS runs of the year as the steep, pitch-strewn slope at Alyeska gave the competitors all they could handle. Rygg finished 30th and Conrad 32nd as Tommi Viirret of the University of Nevada won the event in a time of 2:14.42.

The women faced an equally challenging GS run and had the disadvantage of skiing in the afternoon when conditions had in part deteriorated. The local favorite, Aurore De Maulmont of the University of Alaska-Anchorage claimed the women's GS title in 1:55.90. In support of its national title run, the Denver women's contingent finished third, fifth and sixth.

The Middlebury women were led by Captain Sarah Brophy '02, who was skiing in her final collegiate competition. She claimed the 27th spot in the nation with promising first-year Davison taking 29th. Jessica Smith '04, among the best Eastern racing has to offer, was 14th after the initial run. Smith however had trouble in the second leg of the race; losing one of her skis, but nevertheless finished and came in 33rd.

On Thursday in between the GS and slalom, the alpine team was afforded a chance to practice, adding to the two days it had before the GS to get acclimated to the skiing conditions. The slalom run ,accordin to Rusten, offered fewer challenges than the GS as it was much flatter and had fewer pitches. Roger Brown, a Dartmouth racer and competitor of the carnival circuit in New England won the race with Pierre Olsson of the University of Utah finishing second adding to his second place finish in the GS.

Rusten again led the Panther men by finishing 26th. Conrad was 30th and Rygg, if not for a slow first run would have finished higher than 35th.

As was the case throughout the weekend, the better adjusted Western schools were able to collectively, as a team, amass the most number of points. This proved the case in the women's slalom as the top seven finishers were from Western institutions. With the scholarships and the presence of many foreign racers, those schools are able to consistently assemble championship teams, as Denver has been able to do the past three seasons.

Marte Dolva of the University of New Mexico took the slalom with Mia Cullman of Colorado just .28 seconds behind. Among the top finishers was Davison who finished 12th just two spots away from All-American distinction. Middlebury's best slalom skier was coming off a win in the Middlebury Carnival and said, "Winning the slalom at Middlebury couldn't have set up a better situation for me coming into this race." The first-year maintained that her approach to this race was the same as any other and that is what helped in producing the result she garnered.

Brophy continued her solid skiing with a 23rd place finish giving Middlebury 17 team points. Smith, who had won slalom races on the carnival circuit, had to ski out at a tough point in the course but was said to have been "ripping it" by her teammates earlier in her run.

As the season has now expired on the alpine ski team, both Brophy and Conrad have finished their respective college careers. Both leave as team leaders and hand the torch to racers like Smith, Davison and Rusten. Although the results for the team were not up to the standards established by the Panthers in the regular season, many of Middlebury's racers came out of Alaska the wiser.

Whether it was Davison's newfound sense of skiing for a team or Rusten's determination to improve both his slalom and his GS for next year, the alpine skiing program has its sights set firmly on improve and has the young nucleus to make the improvement a reality.