Program Notes

2009 NCAA Championships competitor Micaela Holland '11

The Bates ski team is consistently one of the most successful programs at Bates, finishing among the top 21 schools at the NCAA Championships in the nation for 11 straight years. Two Bates Alpine skiers qualified for the NCAA Championships in 2009, helping the Bobcats to finish 13th in the nation, their fourth consecutive top-15 national finish. Bates sent a school-record eight skiers, including five Alpine skiers, to the 2006 NCAAs, and the Bobcats finished 12th overall, their best placing since 1998.

2009 Review

The Bates alpine team had a terrific season amidst the hype of hosting the 2009 NCAA Skiing Championships on their home mountain, Sunday River, in Bethel, Maine. The Bobcats had numerous skiers vying for a spot in the NCAA Championships right up until the last carnival race of the season.

On the men’s side, the roster was marked with talented youth. The team was composed of four sophomores and three first-years. First-year Bump Heldman narrowly missed qualifying for his first NCAA appearance after a tremendous inaugural season. Heldman (Auburn, Maine) came to Bates after spending a couple of years with the US Ski Team. Also making a strong push for their first ever NCAA appearance were first-year Alex Jones (Whitehouse Station, N.J.), as well as sophomores Ben Manter (Vassalboro, Maine) and August Felix (Cambridge, Mass.). The pure talent and growth the young men’s alpine team showed this season is a sign of great things ahead.

On the women’s side, senior tri-captain Liz Thompson (Rangeley, Maine) earned her fourth straight appearance in the NCAA Championship, a school record for women’s alpine. Also earning a spot at NCAAs was sophomore Micaela Holland (Belmont, Mass.), her second appearance in as many years. Senior tri-captains Megan Papineau (Keene, N.Y.) and Emily Sampson (Plymouth, N.H.) made strong bids to return to NCAAs, as did first-year Kristin Waddle (Harpswell, Maine), but all came up just short. At the NCAA Championships, Thompson and Holland both achieved personal-best NCAA Championships finishes in the women's slalom competition, finishing 11th and 18th, respectively, out of 34 competitors at Sunday River.

Liz Thompson '09 achieved her goal of a top-15 finish, placing 11th in the slalom in her final race as a Bobcat. (Photos by Lincoln Benedict '09)

Thompson finished out her career in triumphant, though somewhat bittersweet, fashion, checking in with a two-run combined time of 1:45.61, only 0.21 seconds behind Eva Huckova of Utah for 10th place and All-America status. A day earlier, Thompson came in 18th in the giant slalom, at the time her personal best result at nationals. Holland finished slaloms with a time of 1:47.93, good enough for 18th-place, the best national finish of her career thus far.

Thompson and Holland along with their Bates Nordic teammates, Sylvan Ellefson (Vail, Colo.), Sam Evans-Brown (Gilmanton Iron Works, N.H.) and Natalie Ruppertsberger (Plainfield, N.H.), helped Bates finish 13th in the country, up two spots from last season. It is Bates' fourth consecutive top-15 national finish.

While the women’s alpine team will graduate three incredibly talented skiers, the returners will be ready to compete for a spot in the NCAA Championships in 2010.

Training and Competition Facilities

Bates' training and competition facilities are among the best in New England. The alpine team trains and races at Sunday River in Bethel, Maine, while the Nordic team has its home course at Black Mountain in Rumford, Maine. In March 2009, Bates will host the NCAA Championships at these home courses for the first time since 1999. The Lewiston-Auburn area boasts several trails close to campus for in-season training. Campus and the surrounding area offer challenging terrain for dry-land training.