Men Last Again, Women Slip to Ninth

It was cold up at Dartmouth. Cold enough to preserve the trucked-in snow on the cross country course. Cold enough to save the man-made snow-the first used in the 70 years of Dartmouth Carnivals-on the ski jump. But most of all it was desperately cold of Harvard skiers as the men fell to their second consecutive last place finish while the women slid to a disappointing ninth place out of ten.

For Harvard's skiwomen, the Carnival began the way they had hoped it would end. The cross country squad plowed to its best finish in two years, placing seventh. Maureen Devlin posted a Harvard and personal best finish for this season at 22nd place, followed by Sara Sewal in 28th place.

The alpine skiers were paced by Kristin Hodgkin's top fifteen placing in the giant slalom but the slalom proved the Crimson's undoing as Hodgkins and Kerry Laing-Ronay toppled and senior captain Vera Fajtova placed 28th. Overall Harvard dropped to ninth place with 74 points in the team standings.

The ninth place finish drops the Crimson down to Division II competition for at least next week's Division II championships. If the skiwomen emerge in the time for the Middlebury Carnival. As Devlin defiantly championed, "Next week-hopefully it is just a formality, just to show we really should be in Division I."

The men's second tenth place finish in a row puts pressure on them to perform or face the prospect of a Division II season next year. Most importantly, the squad must find some strength in the nordic events.

We're going to have to struggle to stay in Division I," nordic captain Eric Nordel said yesterday. "If we don't get any snow between now and the Middlebury carnival (in three weeks), they'll probably hold the jumping at Lake Placid again."

The 70 meter Olympic hill requires experience that is not available on the Crimson squad. For the second week in a row, Harvard did not score a point in the jumping event.

"Because of the thinness in the jumping field this year, if we would just get one jumper we could get 12 or 13 points for just going off," Nordel said. "But We can't do that unless we get in some practice on a small hill."

The alpine skiers were paced by Kristin Hodgkin's top fifteen placing in the giant slalom but the slalom proved the Crimson's undoing as Hodgkins and Kerry Laing-Ronay toppled and senior captain Vera Fajtova placed 28th. Overall Harvard dropped to ninth place with 74 points in the team standings.

The ninth place finish drops the Crimson down to Division II competition for at least next week's Division II championships. If the skiwomen emerge in the time for the Middlebury Carnival. As Devlin defiantly championed, "Next week-hopefully it is just a formality, just to show we really should be in Division I."

The men's second tenth place finish in a row puts pressure on them to perform or face the prospect of a Division II season next year. Most importantly, the squad must find some strength in the nordic events.

We're going to have to struggle to stay in Division I," nordic captain Eric Nordel said yesterday. "If we don't get any snow between now and the Middlebury carnival (in three weeks), they'll probably hold the jumping at Lake Placid again."

The 70 meter Olympic hill requires experience that is not available on the Crimson squad. For the second week in a row, Harvard did not score a point in the jumping event.

"Because of the thinness in the jumping field this year, if we would just get one jumper we could get 12 or 13 points for just going off," Nordel said. "But We can't do that unless we get in some practice on a small hill."