McLoon Leads Skiing Again

For the past three years, you could set your watch to it: Come March, Anna McLoon would be the Harvard Nordic and alpine ski teams’ lone—yet steadfast—representative at the NCAA skiing championships.

The 2004 season was no exception, as the Nordic women’s captain single-handedly led the Crimson to a 19th-place finish at the NCAA championships after a characteristically strong season that included a first-place finish at the Vermont Carnival.

The perennial EISA competitor, McLoon graduates with a sparkling list of accomplishments, including numerous top-five finishes over the years and, most notably, individual victories at the Vermont Carnival in both her junior and senior years.

This season, McLoon claimed the title in the 5K Classic with a winning time of 18:59.9. In 2003 she won the 10K Classic, becoming the first Harvard skier in more than 20 years to win an intercollegiate cross country event.

While the contributions made by McLoon during her tenure at Harvard are difficult to replace, her young supporting cast has benefited from a gentle learning curve this season and should be ready to shoot out of the gate in 2005.

“We’re going to miss her greatly, but we’re going to go on...We’re building,” Nordic coach Peter Graves said.

Freshmen in particular made a significant impact in their rookie seasons. Making up more than a third of the teams’ combined roster, the fresh faces provided an invigorating boost to the team’s success on the hills.

For the women’s Nordic team, freshman Jenna Harlow will be the only experienced skier heading to the slopes next year. Harlow made substantial progress in her first season of intercollegiate competition, gaining invaluable experience which will undoubtedly be useful in her role as captain next year.

“[Harlow] was up for my wild and crazy ideas during captain’s practices, like bike trips, long runs along the river, roller skiing in Cambridge neighborhoods,” McLoon said.

The men’s half of the Nordic team was anchored by captain Ross Macdonald, who is also a Crimson editor, and freshman Russ Leino, a midseason transfer from the cross country running team whose lack of skiing experience was more than made up for by his enthusiasm.

“He was an inspiration to us,” McLoon said of Leino, who will take over duties as men’s Nordic captain next season. “He was aggressive and competitive, even without knowing the technique.”

Freshman Daniel Tsai made an impressive debut for the men’s alpine team with the top giant slalom finish of all Crimson skiers in his first event, the St. Lawrence Carnival.

A competitive racer in high school who took time off from training his senior year to pursue music, Tsai nevertheless managed to place in the top 30 at multiple carnivals this season. Only the top 30 finishers score NCAA points.

“My goal for next year is to get good training in and consistently score NCAA points,” Tsai said. “I want to continue to find the form that I’ve had in the past.”

Tsai will be a co-captain next year along with freshman Eric Ode, taking over the men’s alpine duties from current captain Matt Perone. Sophomore Sam Simon, also a Crimson editor who took the fall semester off to work on a political campaign, will be rejoining the team next year, too.

The women’s alpine squad was led by junior captain Molly Simmons and sophomore Susannah Dickerson, turning out consistently solid races throughout the season.

In addition, the women’s team claims an accomplishment that few other Harvard teams could match—a Rhodes Scholar in senior Rachael Wagner.

Simmons, who will be captain again next year, spoke highly of the team’s improvement.

“We’re getting stronger, finishing higher every year, and we hope to continue that trend,” Simmons said.

The alpine squad will spend the next months searching for a new coach, as coach Lisa Smyth will not be returning after five seasons at Harvard.

—Staff writer Lisa J. Kennelly can be reached at kennell@fas.harvard.edu.