After an up-and-down regular season, the ski team showed it is still a force to be reckoned with on the national stage with its performance this weekend at the USCSA Eastern Regional Championships, held at Waterville Valley, N. H. Brown finished in a three-way tie for first with Colby-Sawyer College and Boston College, the two most dominant teams during the regular season.
The three victorious schools topped a field of 16, with the Bears claiming second in both the slalom on Saturday and giant slalom on Sunday. Colby-Sawyer took third in the slalom and first in the GS, and Boston College won the slalom and finished third in the GS.
If a tiebreaker were held, Brown would have won whether the winner had been determined by individual places or race points, according to Captain Kelly O'Hear '07. For an unknown reason, a tiebreaker was not conducted - a highly unusual circumstance, said O'Hear.
"It was frustrating that we didn't win outright and that now, every time we say we won, we have an asterisk next to our name," she said. O'Hear said the team shook off the disappointment of sharing the championship and instead focused on the completeness of its performance this weekend.
"We finally realized our potential, and we're at the peak of our season," O'Hear said. "This weekend was definitely exciting and a great way to go into Nationals."
For a while earlier in the season, Brown struggled even to make the podium in conference carnivals. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Carnival earlier this month, the team came in fourth in the slalom. At the season-opening University of Connecticut Carnival, Brown finished fourth in the slalom and sixth in the GS.
But this weekend, Brown was the most consistent squad in both races. The Bears skied to a runner-up finish in the slalom, a surprising result since the event is not usually the team's strongest. O'Hear claimed a dominating victory in the event, besting the second-place skier by a second and a half. She completed her two runs in 49.63 and 46.35 seconds for a total time of 1:35.98.
Elisa Handbury '10 took sixth in the field of 68 with a time of 1:40.04. Sophie Elgort '08 rounded out the scoring, finishing 12th in 1:43.43. Meagan Casey '08 and Anna Bengtson '09 also competed for the Bears, taking 27th and 65th, respectively.
O'Hear said the Bears were pleasantly surprised by their finish because of the inconsistency they had struggled with in the event this season. But, O'Hear, said the team was expecting better once the postseason started.
On Sunday, O'Hear took gold again in 2:14.72, edging out Montana Molyneux of Colby-Sawyer by sixth-tenths of a second. Elgort captured seventh place in a time of 2:18.27, and Bengtson recovered from her sub-par effort the previous day, finishing a 10th with a time of 2:18.79. With Handbury finishing 13th and Mallory Taub '08 finishing 23rd out of the field of 77 competitors, Brown showed its depth in the GS. The Bears finished an agonizing 0.15 seconds behind winner Colby-Sawyer in the event.
In the overall individual standings, O'Hear claimed first. Bengtson commended the captain on her performance.
"Kelly was amazing, as usual," she said. "She's having an incredibly exciting senior season."
Handbury took eighth in the individual results, and Elgort finished in 11th place. Bengtson took 17th place, Taub 29th place and Casey 33rd place.
The entire team qualified for Nationals March 5-10, which will be held in Winter Park, Colo. According to Bengtson, all team members had an outstanding meet and are looking forward to skiing out West.
"Everyone is skiing their best and just having fun with it," she said. "Everyone is just incredibly psyched now. We've been on an upward trend. All we needed to do was get some training in. There is a lot of excitement about going to Colorado."
