By Josh Weinreb
Franconia, n.h.
Peterson was gaining time on Wednesday’s leaders from collegiate ski teams across the country. All she had to do was finish.
Then disaster struck. On one of her turns, Peterson hit a patch of snow and hit the ground. Her heart sank. Peterson, who holds the course record at Mittersill and had finished her first run only 0.79 seconds behind the individual leader, was handed a did-not-finish and was taken out of contention for both a team and individual score.
It wasn’t the start to the NCAA Championships the Dartmouth ski team wanted. After one day, the Big Green — which entered nationals with perhaps its best chance at a title since winning in the White Mountains in 2007 — sat in fourth place overall with 107 points, behind Western powerhouses Montana State (149), Denver (136) and Utah (133).
“We had a pretty good game plan for the second run, but the shadows creeped in and she just couldn’t see the snow,” Dartmouth women’s Alpine coach John Dwyer said. “I felt bad for her, I felt bad for the team, but that’s ski racing. … It’s a tough pill to swallow.”
Throughout the day, Dartmouth seemed to lose precious ground. Thomas Woolson let out frustration by snapping his ski pole in half after his second run. Brian McLaughlin, the Big Green’s strongest skier and its lone podium finisher on Wednesday, slipped from second to third place in the men’s GS after Colorado’s David Ketterer surged his way into first place with a day-best 1:05.33 on his second run.
“It’s awesome to be on the podium any day,” McLaughlin said. “It was a hard-fought race.”
The worst luck of all belonged to Peterson, Dartmouth’s strongest female skier, whose results did not end up on the scoresheet.
“I’m really disappointed, especially because our team is so strong right now. I really wanted to contribute,” she added. “Especially today. This is the stronger of my two events.”
Lucky for the Big Green skiers, they’ve still got three days of competition to go.
Dartmouth has emerged from the regular season as the East’s strongest, deepest team with a balance of Alpine and Nordic racers that the Big Green coaching staff hopes can give two-time defending champion Denver a run for its money. Dartmouth won the EISA regional carnival for the first time in five years and won five of six EISA carnivals in the regular season, including a victory earlier this year at Mittersill.
But the Big Green’s strong season has created expectations.
“I think it was after our first carnival, which we won the whole carnival (at Lake Placid on Jan. 20) that we kind of walked away thinking, ‘All right, we’re good this year. We can have a really good year,’ ” Peterson said.
Added Dwyer: “At the end of the season, we tried to just keep peaking and trying to get ready for this and come into it with a lot of momentum. I think we did that. … We had a really successful season. I think the expectations are certainly high. The great thing is we have a great team, between the Alpine and the Nordic men and women. Even though the women’s Alpine had a tough day today, I think the three other teams and us going into the women’s slalom will be a good thing. We could still be in it.”
Ketterer edged Utah’s Sam DuPratt by a combined time of 0.09 seconds to earn the men’s GS individual title. Dartmouth’s Woolson shook off his broken pole to take 11th.
Montana State took first and second on the women’s side with Benedicte Lyche (first, 2:17.58) and Stephanie Gartner (2:17.71). Kelly Moore was 12th and Alexa Dlouhy 13th to lead Dartmouth.
But no one was happier than John DeVivo, general manager of Cannon Mountain and Franconia State Park, who spent much of the day on skis making sure everything ran smoothly. This year’s NCAA Championship was the culmination of years of planning and careful coordination that, over the years, has transformed Mittersill into a destination for large Alpine events. Wednesday was the mountain’s first event on a national scale.
“It kind of started as a dream 10 years ago; we hadn’t even claimed Mittersill as a skiing area yet,” DeVivo said. “To come this far in 10 years, it’s pretty cool.”
Mittersill Ski Area was closed in 1984 and its lands were transferred to the state. After sitting dormant for years, it finally joined in 2009 with neighboring Cannon Mountain, which invested $3.5 million into improvements. In 2012, the Franconia Ski Club proposed a $4 million Mittersill Improvement Project to widen several trails — including Baron’s Run — with the intent of creating a world-class giant slalom trail, slalom trail and training facility.
In 2014, the University of New Hampshire approached DeVivo about potentially hosting the NCAA Championships at a facility that, at that time, had not been built yet. DeVivo said on Wednesday it was neat to see everything come together.
“This is just the start,” DeVivo said. “This is a great kickoff.”
Many were impressed with the snow conditions on Wednesday, despite warm weather and occasional rainfall. Race officials coated the course with salt in between the first and second runs, creating a faster surface for almost all skiers on their second try, but those from Dartmouth said the salt did not change the way they approached the course.
“We came in with high hopes and a lot of confidence,” Dartmouth men’s Alpine coach Peter Dodge said. “Overall, almost every individual won a race or could win a race. We have depth, a lot of good results to look back on for the year. We came in, we’re skiing well. We’re in good shape.
“We’re used to some of these wet, rainy conditions,” Dodge added. “Some of the Western schools were kind of put off by it.”
The NCAA Championships continue today with Nordic competition at Jackson Ski Touring Center. Slalom competition hits Mittersill on Friday before concluding at the Jackson trails with Nordic freestyle races on Saturday.
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.