Alpine team has great success in the slalom at Colby
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Thompson |
Jones |
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Papineau |
Manter |
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Sampson |
Canney |
WATERVILLE, Maine — The Bates alpine teams made the most of their final slalom run of the season at the Colby Carnival today. Both the men and the women showed tremendous effort today, as many of the skiers raced to secure and solidify their spot in the upcoming NCAA Championships. Bates is hosting the NCAA Championships on March 11-14 at Sundary River in Bethel, Maine and Black Mountain in Rumford, Maine.
On the women’s side, three-time NCAA Championship qualifier and senior tri-captain Liz Thompson (Rangeley, Maine) raced to an eighth place finish, her highest finish on the season. Thompson finished with a time of 45.33 seconds. Also, finishing strong in the slalom event was fellow tri-captain Megan Papineau (Keene Valley, N.Y.) who finished in 17th-place with a time of 47.05. seconds. Papineau has qualified for the NCAA Championships twice in her career.
Rounding out the point-scorers for the women was the final captain, Emily Sampson (Plymouth, N.H.), with a 20th-place finish in a time of 47.70 seconds. Like Papineau, Sampson has qualified for the NCAA Championship twice in her career. Although she didn’t score points, first-year Kristen Waddle (Harpswell, Maine) was right behind Sampson with a solid 21st-place finish in a time of 48.19 seconds. Waddle is competing for her first trip to the NCAA Championship.
After today’s slalom race, the women sit in fifth place out of 10 teams, with 79 points, just ahead of St. Lawrence (76) and well ahead of Colby (68) and Williams (64).
On the men’s side, first-year Alex Jones (Whitehouse Station, N.J.) led the way in the slalom with a 13th-place finish, his highest of the season, with a time of 48.48 seconds. Sophomore Ben Manter (Vassalboro, Maine) was next in 16th place with a time of 49.14 seconds. Rounding out the top three point-scorers for Bates was sophomore John Canney (North Clarendon, Vt.) in 26th place with a time of 52.01 seconds. First-year phenom Bump Heldman (Auburn, Maine) was disqualified in his only run of the day. Bates does not have any current skiers with NCAA Championship experience, but are strongly competing to place a couple in the Championships taking place at Sunday River from March 11-14.
After today’s slalom race, the men sit in sixth place out of 10 teams, with 67 points, jsut ahead of St. Michael’s (60) and well ahead of St. Lawrence (53) and Middlebury (49). The combined Bates alpine and Nordic ski teams are in sixth place out of 12 teams at the carnival, with 313 points. The Bobcats are well ahead of Williams (277) and trail Colby (329) after day one of theColby Carnival.
The alpine team hits the slopes again for their final day of regular season competition on Saturday, Feb. 28 for the men and women’s giant slalom. The men begin the first giant slalom run at 9:30 a.m. followed by the women at 10:40 a.m. The alpine teams finish up the carnival with their second and final giant slalom run at 12:30 p.m. with the men racing first followed at 1:40 p.m. by the women.
View complete carnival results at http://www.eisaskiing.org/BART/Results09/mc09.htm.