Dartmouth Winter Carnival: alpine report

The alpine squad returned home from Dartmouth this week slightlydisappointed, after a series of successes in Friday’s GS were followedby a number of mishaps in Saturday’s slalom. Adding to the team’stroubles, men’s Captain Matt Basilico was sidelined by a back injurysustained in training last week, so the Crimson team was operating atless than full strength.On Friday, the Crimson alpine and nordic teams pulled within 45 pointsof overtaking St. Laurence, which would have put the Crimson in 8thplace for the first time in a long time. Freshman Margie Thorp, despitehaving a fractured left hand (the result of a gnarly crash at theX-Games in Aspen, where she competed in the SkiCross event), finishedtwo solid runs that put her in 33rd place, 8.29 seconds off theleader’s time, and brought home 15 team points for the Crimson skiers.On the men’s side, sophomore Chris Kinner continued his comeback streak,placing 26th in a very tight race (just 2.67 seconds off the leader)and receiving 17 team points. The real excitement for the day, however,was provided by freshman Alec Boardman: during the first few moments ofhis second run, Boardman cartwheeled down the steep trail when anunexpected bump in the course ripped one of his skis off his foot.Though fortunately unhurt, the rules prevented Boardman from completingthe race. Other points-earners for the Harvard alpine team in Friday’srace were, for the men: Sam Harrison (49th place, 8 pts), PavloKononenko (51st place, 7 pts); for the women: Jay Teng (44th place, 9pts), and Tess Wood (48th place, 7 pts).On Sunday, the team enjoyed some brief sunshine, though the warmth madefor soft snow conditions, not entirely ideal for alpine racing. ChrisKinner made a costly mistake at the top of his first run, and was unableto make up for it despite some really fast skiing down the rest of thecourse; as a result, he failed to finish top-30 for the first run.Making the top-30 first run, or “making the flip,” is highly desirablebecause the top-30 run in reversed order for the second run; the skierin 30th starts 1st , in 29th starts second, and so on. For racerswith high bib numbers, like Kinner (starting bib #64 in this race – theresult of a season-ending injury sustained in January training lastyear), “making the flip” provides an opportunity to race the second runon a clean course, free from the frustrating, time-eating ruts thatdevelop in the snow around each gate of the racecourse. Unfortunately,Kinner finished 38th first run, just under a second too slow for thecoveted 30th position. Then on the second run, he was skiingaggressively to make up for lost time when a rut launched him sidewaysand face-first down the trail. Kinner missed a gate of the course andhad to hike back up to it, which added a significant amount of time tohis run and took him out of contention. The points-earners forSaturday’s race were, for the women: Margie Thorpe (38th place, 10pts), Jay Teng (42nd place, 8 pts), and Tess Wood (49th place, 7 pts);for the men: Chris Kinner (34th place, 12 pts), Brad Alvarez (40thplace, 9 pts), and Sam Harrison (41st place, 8pts).At the end of the day, when the points earned by the nordic and alpineteams were combined, the Crimson fell a disappointing 119 points shortof passing the St. Laurence Saints, remaining in 9th for at leastanother weekend. The team remains hopeful, though. Basilico may recoverin time to race a few more times this season; Thorpe’s hand is on themend; and next week brings the Harvard team to Jiminy Peak, MA, for theWilliams carnival, where they will strive to overcome their unluckysetbacks.