The ski team fell short of what it hoped to accomplish at the U.S. Collegiate Ski Association National Championships held in Winter Park, Colo., on March 5-10. Brown finished seventh as a team, two slots lower than last season's fifth place performance.
National powerhouse Sierra Nevada College dominated the competition, winning both the slalom and giant slalom events. Brown's MacConnell Division rivals Boston College and Colby-Sawyer College posted impressive team efforts, capturing second and third, respectively. The Bears tied the Eagles and the Chargers for first at Regionals just two weeks earlier. In Colorado, however, Brown could not overcome the different conditions presented by the Rockies.
"The variables were against us," said Elisa Handbury '10. "(In Colorado) there was warm, soft snow while we have firm, colder conditions in the East."
Despite the disappointing team finish, the Bears did turn in some solid individual performances. The most notable of those came courtesy of captain Kelly O'Hear '07, who earned All-American team status for the fourth straight year. She placed sixth overall.
On Wednesday, the Bears competed in the giant slalom, which is usually their stronger event. But they struggled to an eighth-place finish. In the field of 101 competitors, O'Hear led Brown with her 13th-place performance. She completed her first run in 1:07.73 and her second in 1:05.65 for an overall time of 2:13.38, less than four seconds behind winner Lea Lozar of Sierra Nevada.
Sophie Elgort '08 was Brown's next finisher, taking 38th overall with a total time of 2:22.77, and Handbury rounded out the scoring with her time of 2:24.33, good for 43rd overall. Mallory Taub '08 also competed for the Bears, finishing 49th. Anna Bengtson '09, one of the team's strongest skiers, had a rough day and failed to complete her first run.
Bruno had a better showing in the slalom on Friday, finishing fifth. O'Hear continued her success, finishing sixth out of 93 competitors in the event. She recorded times of 49.52 and 49.46 for her first and second runs, respectively, for a total time of 1:38.98. Lozar claimed first again, winning in a time of 1:36.62.
Handbury finished a strong 18th in 1:43.21, and Bengtson bounced back from Wednesday's mishap and took 24th in 1:44.83. Elgort also finished impressively, posting a total time of 1:48.23, placing her 32nd. Meghan Casey '08 did not complete her second run as she was disqualified for a gate violation.
Although the team finished in the top 10 in the nation, the Bears were still crestfallen.
"We're pretty disappointed," Handbury said.
Bengtson was also saddened.
"We had mistakes here and there. It wasn't what we were hoping for, but I wouldn't say it was bad," Bengtson said. "But it wasn't good either."
Though the Bears did not achieve their goals at Nationals, they had a season many teams would envy, winning Regionals for the first time since 2004. The team should be competitive next season as it returns all the skiers who participated at Nationals, except for O'Hear.
O'Hear looked back on the last race of her collegiate career as bittersweet.
"We had a great time out in Winter Park," she said. "We entered Nationals on a pretty strong note. We expected to do well at Nationals but ... we made the best of the situation."
