Snowmen Slip To 8th Spot at Williams Meet

A lot of little falls led to one big fall for the Crimson ski team at the Williams Winter Carnival last week-end. After Friday's giant slalom and cross-country events the Crimson stood in third place. After Saturday's slalom and jumping the mighty snowmen had melted into eighth.

Friday, three Alpine skiers placed in the top twelve in the giant slalom. The Alpine team contributed 95.7 points to Harvard's overall standing when Greg Peters placed tenth, Steve Blodgett 11th, and Peter Gagarin 12th.

In the cross-country event, Nordic team members Jon Chaffe (third) Jim Sise (13th), and Bear Barnes (15th) contributed an additional 93.6 points to the Crimson.

Peters and Gagarin earned their USEASA class A Alpine rating on Friday. Since Blodgett already has an Alpine A-rating and Chaffe has a cross-country A-rating, the team now has more USEASA A-rated skiers than any previous Crimson team.

The skiers that did everything right on Friday did everything wrong on Saturday. In the slalom, Blodgett's 20th place finish was the best of the Alpine team. Every member of the Alpine team fell near the end of what could have been an excellent first slalom run. Although the second runs were appreciably faster than the first runs, the meet had already been lost beyond recovery.

In the combined slalom standings Blodzett (20th), Gagarin (23rd), and Genesen (27th) credited the team with only 79.1 points and an eighth in the slalom.

In the jumping, the Crimson landed at the bottom of the list with a measly 70.9 points when Barnes placed 26th, Liver-more 27th, and Chaffe 31st.

The team's performance last week-end showed that the team has more potential than any team in recent Harvard history but that it has not had enough practice to withstand the mounting pressure of a meet.

The pressure of equalling Friday's performance prevented the skiers from achieving the mental concentration necessary for a good shalom run or a good jump. While going through one gate, a slalom skier must plan how he will take the next three gates.

The Crimson did its best skiing during the practice sessions on Sunday. To qualify for the nationals the team must ski well under pressure.