Despite the absence of two top skiers out due to injuries, the women's skiing team kept ahead of its competition, finishing in first place in the giant slalom last weekend at the Boston College Carnival.
The Bears currently occupy the number one overall standing in the Eastern Collegiate Ski Conference, and they are not in jeopardy of losing that spot with a 14-point lead over the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, which stands second overall.
With Nina DiBona '07 out for the season with an ACL injury and co-captain Stephanie Breakstone '06 out with a back injury, Brown was down two top skiers but still managed to win the Giant Slalom by more than 3.5 seconds, with four skiers in the top 15 places.
"Everyone was feeling a little bit more pressure, because we didn't have Nina and Stephanie there. On Saturday, it showed that we were feeling the extra pressure, and we let it get to us in a negative way, but on Sunday we came together as a team," said co-captain Hilary Swaffield '06.
Despite suffering a leg contusion at the Brown Carnival that kept her out of practice last week, Kelly O'Hear '07 pulled out a 53.31 in the slalom, the fastest time of the event by more than a second. O'Hear finished second overall in the Slalom with her two-run total and third overall in the giant slalom. "It is a little intimidating once you get hurt to go back out and race again," said O'Hear.
"She probably would have finished in the top ten for guys," said Head Coach Michael Leblanc when commenting on O'Hear's performance in the Slalom.
Swaffield put up another impressive performance, finishing second in the giant slalom and ninth in the slalom.
"She didn't have the best day of her life in the Slalom, but she was able to come through when it really counted," Leblanc said.
Janet Marley-Mauzy '07 finished ninth while Sophie Elgort '08 finished 14th in the Giant Slalom. "The past two weeks, Janet's GS has just exploded," Leblanc said.
"Janet is going to be a huge contributor to our team for the rest of the season," O'Hear said about the rapidly improving Marley-Mauzy.
This Saturday and Sunday, Brown will head to their last two regular season events at the Colby-Sawyer Carnival and St. Anselm Carnival, both held in New Hampshire.
