LUDLOW, Vt.—The Babson College men's and women's alpine ski teams got its season off to a fast start with a number of strong performances at the University of Connecticut Carnival held at Okemo Mountain on Thursday and Friday. The men came in second overall in both the giant slalom and slalom, while the women posted a pair of top-20 finishes in the GS and came in seventh as a team in the slalom.
In the first giant slalom race of the season on Thursday, the Beaver men placed four skiers in the top eight after the first run and finished just over a second behind Clarkson University after the second run was called off because of inclement weather. Junior Sam Barber (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) came in fourth with a time of 1:18.51 and was followed by senior Kevin Dachos (Northampton, Mass.) in fifth and junior Graham Quisenberry (Farmington, Conn.) in sixth. Sophomore Max Barber (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) posted the best finish of his career coming in eighth, while first-years Jackson Vanzon-Borwick (South Egremont, Mass.) and T.J. Pope (Bountiful, Utah) each had strong debuts placing 14th and 20th, respectively.
In Friday's slalom, Vanzon-Borwick used the fastest second run of any skier to edge junior Carter Dowd (Salt Lake City, Utah) by 0.01 to claim his first career victory. Vanzon-Borwick posted a time of 1:20.91, and Dowd finished with a total time of 1:20.92 for the Green and White, which once again finished second just over a second behind the Golden Knights.
Dachos had another strong day coming in 16th overall, Pope finished 20th for the second consecutive race, and Quisenberry came in 26th overall.
Bolstered by five new faces, the Babson women's squad had a number of skiers get the winter off to a good start. Sophomore Megan Jones (Essex, Mass.) came in 15th with a time of 1:24.12 in her collegiate debut in the GS on Thursday and was followed by first-year Tatum Alkier (Collingwood, Ontario), who came in 17th in her first career race. Classmate Alexis Kane (North Syracuse, N.Y.) finished 32nd, sophomore Molly Danzig (Allendale, N.J.) was 41st, and first-year Kathleen Sheppard (Woodstock, Vt.) and junior Caroline Boffa (Easton, Mass.) came in 58th and 59th, respectively.
Alkier put together a pair of terrific runs in the slalom on Friday to finish seventh overall with a total time of 1:35.57. Danzig had the third-best finish of her career coming in 27th, Kane came in 37th, Shepard was 47th, and first-year Michelle Martin (Belmont, Mass.) recovered from a tough first run to post the sixth-fastest time out of 63 competitors on her second run on her way to finishing 52nd overall.
Babson will return to the slopes on Friday when it hosts the Babson Carnival at Mount Sunapee in Newbury, N.H.
