Nationals Redux: SL

(3/6) We had cold training for slalom on 3/5. Many of our gates broke and the three coaches spent most of the morning moving through the course screwing, unscrewing, rescrewing, and drilling gates. It was still good training for the team as we moved into the final event of the week.

For the slalom we had a similar lineup to the previous race, though we swapped GS-specialist Emily Simmons our for slalom-specialist Elisa Handbury. We had assistant coach and wax guru John Van Slyke manning the top as we got everyone into their skis first run (see left). The race began well with Kia Mosenthal laying down a solid top ten run that put her in a good place for the second run. Krista had taken the training day off and had great difficulty even mustering up the energy for the inspection run. Her time reflected her illness and she took a long nap between the two runs as she sought to get better as quickly as possible. (Ultimately she would not even be able to inspect for the second run due to fatigue.) Elisa has had a strong season in slalom with several strong results and a top ten finish. Unfortunately, she was unable to ski as strongly as she had hoped, but was able to finish for the team. Blaine Martin delivered a good first run, though probably not as fast as she is able to ski, having posted several top 20 results at the the slalom races this season. Anna Bengtson '12 had a straddle on the third gate and her momentum on the pitch kept her coming down the hill. She had to hike two full gates on the pitch and it put her into the empty zone pretty quickly. She was able to make a few more turns before the altitude and fatigue caught up to her and she had to ski out. It was perhaps a too soon ending to Anna's career which finished this year as she is a senior. (Best of luck to her as she contemplates her future in the skiing world!)

For second run we continued to have a bit of difficulty with the finishes. Kia was able to come down and finish with a fourth place. Our best finish at Nationals. Congratulations! Krista came to the start of second run having only inspected the course via a drawing from Kia. On her way down to the course she broke her pole freeskiing with a simple pole plant. In the frenzy that followed we were able to dig up an extra set and even with tonsillitis, Krista was able to land in 31st place. Blaine's final race for the season ended with difficulty as she fell and lost a ski on the pitch. A tough ending for an otherwise solid season. With two skiers down, Elisa stood up and finished, bringing the team to a healthy ninth place finish, all things considered. Overall for the two days, the team took home a tenth. Certainly not where we'd like to be, but a great stepping stone for the planned successes of next year.

Unfortunately, this was the end to our great season. While it was not as successful as we might have liked, everyone skied and worked as extremely hard this year. Much was made of the fact that we have a young team and that they intend to excel as they work to improve their consistency in finishing! Congratulations finally to Kia Mosenthal who earned a First Team All-American in the slalom and to Krista Consiglio who earned a pair of All-America honors, earning Second Team All-America in both the giant slalom and combined.

Hope to see you all next year for another season of hard work and fast times!