(Race
Results)
WATERVILLE VALLEY, N.H. - Plymouth State University
finished atop the team standings in both the men's and women's
giant slalom Sunday afternoon at the Eastern Collegiate Ski
Conference Championships at Waterville Valley Resort.
The Panther men complete the sweep of the two-day event, capturing
the combined alpine title out of the 12 schools competing after
also winning the slalom on Saturday. It is the second straight
overall alpine title for PSU, and the first time in sweeping the
slalom and GS since 2001. The PSU women's squad combined its GS
title on Sunday with a sixth place finish in Saturday's slalom,
giving the Panthers fourth place in the overall alpine standings.
Both Panther teams qualify for the United State Collegiate Ski
Association (USCSA) National Championships Mar. 3-6, at Sunday
River Resort in Newry, Maine.
A pair of Plymouth State freshmen continued their outstanding
rookie seasons Sunday, each winning the individual giant slalom
races and capturing first place in the combined alpine
standings. Chris Beadon (Ridgefield, Conn.)
won both runs of the men's GS to take first place by over a full
second, and Martina Ryberg (Stockholm, Sweden) did
the same in the women's race.
Beadon
was one of four Panther men to finish in the top seven among the 62
racers. Defending champion junior Peter
Ostroski (Intervale, N.H./Kennett) finished runner-up,
while freshman Parker Spear (Sodus Point, N.Y.)
and junior Travis Nevins (Henniker, N.H./John
Stark) were sixth and seventh, respectively. Junior
Willie Colt (Hanover, N.H.) wasn't far behind,
coming in 17th.
PSU had four of the top six men in the individual combined alpine
standings, as Beadon (left) and Ostroski (second
from left) were tied for first with Colby-Sawyer's Shawn
Dunstan, and Nevins (second from right) and Spear
(right) were tied for fifth.
Senior Alyssa Deane (Casper, Wyoming) turned in
another strong performance for the Panther women, coming in fourth
place among the 67 racers in the GS to give PSU two of the top four
finishers. Classmate Alex Albrecht
(Canterbury, N.H.) was the next Panther finisher in 18th
place, followed by sophomore Katherine Goller
(Williston, Vt.) in 25th. Sophomore Kait
Pawlak (No. Windham, Vt.) was in 12th place
after the first run but stumbled and missed a gate on her second
run.
Ryberg (left) swept the slalom and GS to capture the
women's individual crown, becoming PSU's first women's champion
since Melissa Caflisch shared the title in 2005
and the first to sweep the alpine since Anda
Curuta in 2001. Deane (right) used her
fourth place in the GS to finish eighth in the combined.
The top four schools in both the men's and women's combined team
standings came from the MacConnell Division, PSU's regular season
conference. PSU won the men's standings with Colby-Sawyer
second, Boston College third and UMass Amherst fourth, while
Colby-Sawyer finished first in the women's standings, with BC
second, UMass third and PSU fourth.
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