Another Ninth-Place Finish for Ski Team

For the Harvard alpine and nordic ski teams this 2006 season, nine has been a lucky number.

Coming off a ninth-place showing in the first event of the season at the St. Lawrence Carnival, the Crimson repeated the feat last weekend, finishing ninth at the Vermont Carnival at Mount Mansfield Saturday.

Although ninth place may not appear to be a huge success for the young Harvard ski program, the back-to-back ninth place performances are a step in the right direction.

“We’re a growing program moving forward against incredibly formidable teams, with skiers that compete on either the U.S. or foreign national teams,” said Harvard nordic coach Peter Graves. “Last week, moving into ninth place was a big step for us.”

The team’s performance was an improvement on last year’s efforts, when the Crimson finished 10th in every race. Against such deep and talented competition, rising just one place gave the young team reason for confidence.

“Relatively speaking, this is a young team,” Graves said. “And it’s exciting right now to have a young group of skiers to go up against this kind of competition.”

A prime example of the youth emergence is freshman Jessica Alvarez. She was the alpine women’s team top finisher on Saturday, accomplishing a 37th-place showing in Giant Slalom. For the nordic squad, fellow freshman Katherine Maynard made her first ever start at the Carnival, placing 55th.

Harvard’s effort is all the more impressive considering the conditions they faced on Friday and Saturday. Torrential rains muddied the skiing conditions on both days, making ski preparation and waxing integral to the Crimson’s success.

“Especially on Friday, the conditions were very hard,” said women’s nordic captain Jennifer Harlow.

“I thought we did better than other teams with our waxing,” she added.

The equipment preparation paid off for the team and especially for Harlow. Coming off a team-best 48th place finish at St. Lawrence, Harlow jumped seventeen places to finish in 31st on Saturday with a time of 20:58:5.

Harlow is looking for even more success in the future as she continues to recover from a hip flexor injury that she suffered in July.

“I am not in as good as shape as [I was] last year,” Harlow said. “But I’m going out there trying to push it to get back into peak condition.”

Harlow may not even have a chance to continue her rise next week, as snowfall counts remain low and conditions for skiing remain poor across New England.

“We’re looking forward to a very historic Dartmouth Carnival [next week],” Graves said. “But right now we don’t know where the cross-country competition is going to be held.”

On the men’s side, sophomore Matt Basilico repeated his performance at St. Lawrence as the top alpine male finisher, notching a 35th-place showing with a time of 2:36:26 total, while sophomore Alex Levin and junior Corey Rennell finished right below Basilico, placing 36th and 37th respectively.

—Staff writer Walter E. Howell can be reached at wehowell@fas.harvard.edu.