Skiers Qualify for NCAAs at Middlebury Carnival

In warm conditions, the Harvard Alpine ski team competed in the two-day Middlebury Carnival this weekend. The competition was the East Regional qualifier for nationals. The Crimson only qualified Rebecca Nadler, the alpine captain, for the NCAA championship.

Friday held the slalom competition. The men’s team struggled with freshman James Stevenson leading the way placing 52nd with a time of 1:45.13. The other four Harvard skiers all finished, with sophomore Simon Merryweather, sophomore Dan Rittenhouse, freshman Daniel Fowler and sophomore Matthew Mansson finishing 54th, 61st, 64th and 65th respectively.

“Friday, the weather was undesirable,” Rittenhouse said. “It was warm and raining most of the day, by the time most of the team went it was poor conditions with holes in the course.”

On the second day, the conditions were much more favorable, but the Crimson struggled finish the runs down the slope. Three of the five skiers did not finish either their first or second runs. Merryweather finished one spot better in 51st this race with a time of 2:03.71. Stevenson also finished, placing 54th.

The woman’s team qualified one skier for nationals in Nadler. She finished 16th in the slalom competition with a time of 0:52.16. Because of a lightning strike before the second run that disabled the quads, only one run was counted for the slalom, a rarity for skiing competitions. The next highest-placing skier for the Crimson was freshman Kaitlyn Gibson who finished 33rd, with a time of 0:55.29.

On Saturday in the Grand Slalom, Nadler finished in 8th place with a total time of 2:01.40. Nadler’s result qualified her for nationals for the event she won an NCAA championship in in 2012 as a sophomore. Gibson also placed 29th in the event. All four women’s skiers for Harvard finished both runs of each race.

“It was Rebecca’s last race with the entire team, and although the team did not do as well as we had hope, we celebrated her career,” Mansson said. “We brought out a bottle of champagne and sprayed her with it, and the whole team carried her off after it was over.”

—Staff writer Jacob W. Lynch can be reached at jacoblync@gmail.com.

—Check thecrimson.com for updates.