Crimson Takes Ninth Again

Not unlike the United States Postal Service, the Harvard ski team has been known to deliver through rain, sleet, or snow—or hail, lighting, and maybe even some unnerving gusts of wind.

A weekend characterized by unpredictable weather saw the Crimson alpine and nordic teams finish in ninth place at the Williams Carnival, held at Prospect Mountain, Vt., and Jiminy Peak, Mass. The ninth-place finish in the 11-team field was the team’s fourth in as many events this season, a level of consistency that has placed higher expectations on a young but talented Harvard squad.

“It’s a step up from tenth place, where we’ve traditionally been,” said Harvard nordic coach Peter Graves. “I’m pretty optimistic, but we have a lot of work to do to move up to seventh and eighth place. This is forward progress for our ski team.”

Harvard’s total of 292 points beat out scores from St. Michaels and Bowdoin, but it wasn’t easy—Friday’s action featured some of the strangest weather of the season.

“We had a lot of wind, some very high wind, very near us,” Graves said. “A 20-degree temperature drop, rain, snow, sleet...the weather conditions particularly during the women’s cross country race were very rare.”

“It was particularly tricky because of the weather on Friday,” said women’s nordic captain Jennifer Harlow. “We saw everything from rain to hail to lighting to snow. The wind was crazy, and it made it difficult for everyone.”

Harlow’s best output of the weekend came in the women’s 10k, where her time of 30:17.00 placed her 42nd. Harlow escaped the bizarre conditions.

“The storm didn’t hit until right after I finished,” she said. “That might’ve helped me have good races.”

One of the best performances of the weekend came from freshman David McCahill, who led the men’s 10k freestyle team.

His time of 24:02.00 was good enough for 31st place, and although the Crimson only took ninth place in the event, they were helped by a strong performance from an up-and-coming skier.

“These are encouraging signs,” Graves said. “Of course, everybody would like to see first or second or third, and we’re moving towards that, but we’re making forward progress, and that’s good.”

On the alpine side, Harvard had strong outings from freshman Jake Segal, who finished in 25th place in the slalom. His two runs clocked in a 1:00.14 and 1:12.88, and he took 43rd place in the giant slalom with a combined time of 1:45.63. Junior Daniel Tsai’s giant slalom time of 1:44.82 checked in four spots ahead of Segal at 39th.

Next weekend, the teams will travel to Middlebury, Vt., for the final tune-up prior to the NCAA Championships in Steamboat Springs, Colo. The recipe for the final two weeks of the season is much like it has been for the first four.

“We’re going to do what we’ve been doing to get prepared,” Harlow said, adding that such preparation was “the same thing we’ve done for all the weekends.”

And although all of those weekends have ended with similar results, according to Graves, the team’s progress has been undeniable.

“We’ll probably round out the season at about the same place we’ve been,” he said. “But, we’re working really, really hard. I’m proud of what we’ve done and I’m optimistic we can do better.”

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.