Green Skiers Keep Carnival Title
While every other Dartmouth team was being defeated during Winter Carnival weekend, Feb. 3-4, Coach Walter Prager's skiers were fashioning a smashing victory against the challenges of nine other Eastern college entries.
On a team basis the Big Green won every competition but one, while individually Dartmouth skiers were first in four of the six events. Compiling a grand total of 588.6 points, the Indians were more than 17 points ahead of their nearest rival, Middlebury, which had a score of 571.8. New Hampshire, St. Lawrence, Vermont, Syracuse, Maine, McGill, Harvard, and M.I.T. trailed in that order.
Strong in the Nordic events, Dartmouth easily won the cross-country race Friday morning on a Vale of Tempe-Balch Hill course when the trio of Wes Blake, John Caldwell and Captain Tor Arneberg finished first, second and sixth respectively. With only five inches of snow in Hanover, the slalom race was held Friday afternoon at Suicide Six in Woodstock, Vt., instead of Oak Hill and it proved to be Dartmouth's one disappointment of the meet. On a 35-gate course skillfully laid out by Paul Valaer, a member of the 1948 Swiss Olympic team, Colin Stewart in fourth place was the only Dartmouth skier among the first ten. The race was won by Tom Jacobs of Middlebury, and the Panthers also topped the Green in slalom team standings 97.5 to 93.2.
The deciding factor now became the downhill race Saturday morning at Moose Mountain. If Middlebury had won this event, Dartmouth's strength in the jumping might not have been enough to keep the Dartmouth Carnival title in Hanover. But the Indians made up for their disappointment in the slalom as Arneberg, Stewart and Caldwell finished first, second and fifth to put the competition beyond any rival's reach. Ray Mclntyre of St. Lawrence was the individual winner in the jump Saturday afternoon, but Charlie Tremblay, Granville Austin, Arneberg and Caldwell finished second, third, fourth and sixth to sew up team honors.
Dartmouth easily won the Nordic combined with Caldwell, Arneberg and Tremblay finishing first, second and sixth, and the Indians also edged Middlebury in the Alpine combined with Stewart, Arneberg, and Caldwell taking first, fourth and eighth respectively.
The contest for skimeister laurels was hotly contested between Middlebury's Jacobs and Dartmouth's Arneberg and Caldwell. Jacobs won, however, on the basis of a first in the slalom, ninth in the downhill, third in the downhill-slalom combined, seventh in the cross country, fifth in the jumping, and fourth in the jumpcross country combined.
With the cancellation of the St. Lawrence Winter Carnival the following weekend because of lack of snow, Dartmouth entered a strong team in the State of Maine cross-country and jumping championships at Rumford. Individual star was Tremblay, who'won the Class "B" cross-country race, the Class "A" jump, and the com bined.
WINNER OF ALPINE COMBINED FOR DARTMOUTH: Colin Stewart, member of the last U. S. Olympic Ski Team, shown taking fourth in the Carnival slalom at Woodstock. With a second in the downhill, he took combined honors.
