Skiing Goes to Williams Carnival

The clouds drained on New England this weekend, but the white stuff did not dampen the spirit at this weekend's Williams Carnival.

The Harvard Ski Team traveled to Williamstown for another weekend of alpine and cross-country skiing, placing last in the team standings despite improved individual efforts.

The Crimson placed 11th this weekend with 81 team points, the same spot they occupied last weekend when they traveled to Dartmouth to celebrate the bacchanalian Winter Carnival that occupies Hanover for one weekend each year.

The Crimson garnered 88 points at Hanover a week ago.

As at Dartmouth, the University of Vermont placed first with 732 points behind the strong skiing of Matt Knittle and Scott Kennison, who placed first and second in the Slalom and giant slalom, respectively.

Shaina Mulkern led Vermont's effort in the women's events, taking first in the giant slalom and second in the slalom.

Middlebury placed second with 638 points and Dartmouth took third with 569 points.

Despite finishing at the bottom of the team standings, the Crimson has been improving its individual efforts.

"We are getting better," said freshman downhiller Ryan Myers. "It's all a matter of training, and we don't have the advantages that other schools have in being near hill every day. We've been training on Sundays after races and we've just been working with what we have."

Myers was the top Crimson finisher this weekend on both the Alpine and Nordic teams, the two components of Harvard Skiing. He placed 46th in the men's giant slalom on Friday with a time of 1:56.38 and 45th in the slalom the next day in a time of 2:00.84.

The conditions made the courses slick but hard to deal with--three Harvard skiers did no complete their races in the slalom on Saturday.

"The conditions on the mountain were very icy, and it was a very hard snow that was falling," Myers said. "The actual falling snow did not make much of a difference during the race, because the course was just becoming icier as it got colder."

Sophomore Sarah Luskin led the women's downhill efforts. She placed 51st among the 56 skiers in the women's giant slalom on Friday in 2:17.43, and was 50th in a field of 53 in the slalom on Saturday with a time of 2:26.27.

In the nordic events, held across state lines in Prospect, Vt., sophomore Kate Damon led Harvard with a strong performance in the women's freestyle pursuit on Saturday. She placed 42nd in a field of 52 with a time of 1:30:55.8.

Sophomore Julia Silvis led the Harvard women in Friday's 10K Classic with a 53rd-place finish.

Junior Brad Williams took 54th in the men's 10K classic on Friday and 49th in the men's freestyle pursuit the next day, tops among Harvard men in the two cross-country events.

Harvard will play the Carney again this weekend when it travels to the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association Championships at the Middlebury Carnival in Middlebury, Vt.

Action starts on the slopes of the Middlebury Snow Bowl and the paths of the Rikert Touring Center at the Bread Loaf campus on Friday.