Dartmouth Falls Just Short of Podium at NCAAs

We were just four points short of third place; Dartmouth has been in the top five for five years in a row. Press release below.

For immediate release
March 8, 208 [sic]

CHODOUNSKY’S SLALOM THIRD PACES BIG GREEN TO FOURTH AT NCAA
CHAMPIONSHIPS

BOZEMAN, MT – Senior David Chodounsky (Crested Butte, CO) closed out his stellar Dartmouth career with a third place finish in the men’s slalom Saturday at the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Skiing Championships, pacing the Big Green to a fourth place finish in the team standings.

Chodounsky, who won the NCAA slalom title as a freshman in 2005, sat in sixth place after the first run, but vaulted three places in the second run to finish 1.05 seconds behind Denver’s John Buchar, to took the title in 1:42.10. Denver’s Seppi Stiegler, the younger brother of U.S. Ski Team star Resi Stiegler, was second. The title was Buchar’s second of the championships: he won the men’s giant slalom Thursday.

Other Dartmouth finishers were freshman Ace Tarberry (North Conway, NH) in 19th place and sophomore Francis Fortin-Houle (Repentigny, QUE) in 30th.

In the women’s slalom earlier Saturday. . . Big Green sophomore Hayley Jones (Whitehouse, NJ) was the Big Green’s top finisher, just missing All America honors in 11th place. Senior Michelanne Shields (Colorado Springs, CO) was 20th; freshman Courtney Hammond (Mercer Island, WA) was 23rd.

Dartmouth, the defending national champion, held it’s fourth-place slot from Friday to the final team standings – best among Eastern schools competing in the Championships. Denver, which stood in second place going into Saturday’s slalom, rode Buchar’s win, Stiegler’s second, and Lathrop’s third to overtake rival Colorado for the team title. Denver finished with 649.6. Colorado was second with 619, Utah was third with 550, just four points better than the Big Green with 546. This is the fifth-straight year that the Big Green has finished in the top five.

Dartmouth returns to Hanover with one NCAA champion: junior Glenn Randall (Collbran, CO), who won the men’s 10-kilometer freestyle cross country race on Wednesday. The Big Green also garnered six All American nods: in addition to Randall and Chodounsky, seniors Elsa Sargent (Orleans, VT) and Susan Dunklee (Barton, VT) and freshman Rosie Brennan (Park City, UT) all notched top-10 finishes in cross country. Brennan is Dartmouth’s only double All American, with top-10 finishes in both the freestyle and classical technique races.