Light Whitening

Last weekend's fourth-place team finish in the Alpine events of the Dartmouth Winter Carnival might seem to bode well for the future of the Harvard ski team.

After all, they considered their fifth-place slalom finish and seventh-place downhill result at the 1973 Middlebury Carnival respectable, because all it takes to qualify for the NCAA is a fourth-place overall team finish. And at Middlebury last year Ben Steele won the slalom and the combined title, so when the team finishes fourth and Steele placed fifth twice at Dartmouth, the team would seem to be balancing out. Right?

Well, not exactly. And as for the future, there may be a lot of hope, but with next year's freshman class being cut by fifty bodies, they can't even trade for as many draft picks as the Redskins.

One of the key changes which will affect Harvard in the next three weeks of Eastern Intercollegiate Skiing races is team scoring. No longer is the combined performance of the top three finishers of each team to count. No longer will coach Peter Carter be yelling at his fifth man, "Snowplow! Sideslip! Stem! Just stand up! If you race I'll kill you!" after two more daring Harvards have already levelled spectators and explored the woods.

Now, the rules dictate counting only the top third of the field for points, with a few added sub-asterisked stipulations which are too arcane to grasp without prior knowledge of scoring theory. So, with ten schools sending five racers to the post, as at Dartmouth, only the first 17 finishers count. Scattered brilliance will be rewarded, steadiness becomes obsolete and ski team members may do independent studies on the philosophy of kamikaze under Dr. Carter this spring.

As for the future, guess who scored just about all Harvard's points at Darthmouth? Senior Ben Steele. Steele cannot be termed Harvard's answer for 1975. Sophomore Gordon Adler just barely broke into the scoring with a 17th in the giant slalom and placed relatively well--22nd--in the slalom, but out of the points. Freshman Eric Jewett, who promises to make the top grade in intercollegiate racing (he prepped at Burke Mt. Academy under top junior racing coach Warren Witherell) has shown flashes of good racing this year, but could only manage 24th in the Dartmouth slalom. Tom Cavin and Scott Johnson have both done well this year in training in North Carolina and in some Eastern races, but they have yet to break into the top against Carnival competition.

In cross country, Paul Finnegan was disappointed with his 21st-place finish, but Carter cited a training letdown immediately following exams and an unexpectedly heavy tracking through deep new snow as mitigating factors.

Carter expects Finnegan and perhaps Peter Dillon and Tony Leggett to place in up-coming Williams and Middlebury carnivals, but no one should expect to catch champion Darthmouth. The Big Green won their own carnival without America's top cross-country racer, Tim Caldwell, who was with the national team during last weekend's romp.

As for jumping, Carter could only dream of a proposed rule change which might allow graduate students one year of eligibility. Last spring, Vermont's champion Peter Kongsli was mulling over enrolling at Harvard as a pre-med special student after he graduates.

And of course, Carter is taking courses at the law school. Now, if Willie Draper, the last Crimson skier to place high at the NCAA finals could only be convinced to return from the Banzai Pipeline...