Final Meet of Season Brings Ninth Place

The average person might find finishing ninth for the fifth time in as many competitions disappointing.

But not the Harvard ski team, which did just that this weekend at the Eastern Championships.

The Crimson has met with many challenges this season, aside from challenging strong competition.

Last weekend’s event brought on punishing weather, and this weekend brought more trouble, as the Alpine and nordic teams were forceably split from each other. The Alpine team remained in the championship’s usual location at the Middlebury Snow Bowl and the nordic team traveled to Craftsbury, Vt., to compete at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center.

“It definitely detracted from the happenings that usually occur at the Middlebury Carnival,” senior Susannah Dickerson said.

Neither team appeared to be bothered by the diversion.

For the nordic team, sophomore Oliver Burruss posted a personal best, finishing 45th in the Men’s 20K free technique with a time of 1:05:44.5.

In the same event, freshman Dave McCahill finished with the best result for the nordic team this year, placing 27th with a time of 1:02:51.3.

The women also had some exciting performances.

Junior Jennifer Harlow finished a solid 33rd in the Women’s 5K classic with a time of 17:24.8, and freshman Anna Schulz finished 52nd with a time of 19:16.1.

“This is our best showing in terms of total point production,” said Crimson nordic coach Peter Graves. “Everybody rose to the occasion, which is great because it’s the last event of the year. This is when all the training should pay off.”

For the alpine squad, Dickerson produced the best performance of the weekend for the women, finishing 41st in the slalom. She clocked in at 53.27 and 58.82 for a combined time of 1:52.09.

“My slalom was actually hysterical, because I literally fell through the finish line at the end of my second run,” Dickerson said.

Despite the slight embarrassment, Dickerson finished out her four years on the team with a personal best in the giant slalom, placing 49th with a time of 2:26.64.

Junior Kathleen Connors finished behind Dickerson for 47th place on a 2:02.76 time, and sophomore Jay Teng and freshmen Caroline Cochin de Billy and Jessica Alvarez rounded out the team with 49th-, 50th-, and 52nd-place finishes.

The men did not disappoint either.

Daniel Tsai produced the two best performances for the men for the weekend, finishing 36th in the slalom with a combined time of 1:38.97, and 44th in the giant slalom with a combined time of 2:14.81.

Harvard also took three of the four places from 57 to 60 in the giant slalom with performances from freshman Jake Segal and sophomores Matthew Basilico and Alex Levin.

“I’m really pleased the way the technique has improved—the way the knowledge of tactics have improved,” Graves said. “We as a core group, I think even as early as next year, are going to really produce some much-improved results.”

—Staff writer Madeleine Shapiro can be reached at mshapiro@fas.harvard.edu.