Dartmouth Regains Carnival Cup
ALL NIGHT long the battered and tarnished silver cup made the rounds. From the Ski Club Carcajou's party at the Hanover Grange Hall, where it was filled to the brim with Gleuwein, to the SAE House, where beer replaced the wine, and then down Fraternity Row for other added ingredients, the cup traveled—and every- where Dartmouth men lifted the cup and drank deep while the toasts rang out for the Big Green ski team, the individual members, and Coach Walter Prager. After a year's absence the Carnival Cup, sym- bolic of victory in the Dartmouth Winter Carnival ski meet, was back home.
It was a glorious victory for the Dartmouth team and a fitting climax to one of the brightest Carnivals in College history. Final results gave Dartmouth a total of 572.2 points for the four-event meet, while the Denver University "Pioneers," defending champions, placed second with 567.1 points and Middlebury took third with a 555.2 score. Following in order were Vermont, New Hampshire, Williams, St. Lawrence, Syracuse, Harvard and Maine.
In all the annals of Dartmouth Carnival competition, there never had been such a close meet. Going into the final eventthe jump—the Big Green skiers were trailing Denver by 1.3 points. Charlie Tremblay, Dartmouth co-captain and only defending titleholder, combined leaps of 128 and 124 feet with perfect form to take first place with 204.7 points, while Denver's Marvin Crawford with jumps of 124 and 130-feet was just two-tenths of a point behind with a 204.5 score. But the Big Green needed team points in the jumping and got them when Tom Agan finished third and Herb Drury fifth to give the Big Green a team score of 98.5 for the jump against Denver's 94.7.
The Carnival Skimeister award went to Denver's Marvin Crawford who took third in the cross-country, twelfth in the downhill, and second in both slalom and jump.
First event for the ten teams entered in the Carnival meet was the Friday morning cross-country race held over a seven-mile stretch of the Hanover golf course. The snow, depleted by the rains and thaws earlier in the week, was hard packed and slightly icy, but the forty langlaufers had no difficulties negotiating the course. Dick Snow of New Hampshire was home first in a time of 54 minutes and 48 seconds, while Tremblay piled across in second place for Dartmouth and Crawford of Denver finished third. The Big Green added other points when Wally Ashnault came in seventh and , Bill Tibbits followed Ashnault across the line.
Insufficient snow cover on Oak Hill forced the moving of the Friday afternoon slalom to Suicide Six at Woodstock, Vt. Thirty-nine competitors raced through a tight course set by Paul Valaer, French professional, and it was on this icy course that Dartmouth's hopes for an easy victory faded. In first place was Middlebury's Doug Burden with a time of 103.6, while Marvin Crawford of Denver finished second and Dartmouth's sophomore ace, Tom Corcoran, had to settle for third. Only two other Big Green entries finished among the top twenty with Fred Barstow taking thirteenth and Wally Ashnault fifteenth.
A four-inch snowfall on Friday night not only rejuvenated the entire Winter Carnival atmosphere, but made the Moose Mountain downhill trail a perfect one. Once again Doug Burden of Middlebury came out on top, but Dartmouth's Fred Barstow came in a close second to Burden and Bill Tibbits fourth place together with Tom Corcoran's fifth spot gave the Indians some much-needed points and the combined downhill-slalom results found Doug Burden first, Marvin Crawford of Denver second and Dartmouth's Tom Corcoran third.
With Dartmouth, Denver and Middlebury all bunched and pressing for the lead, it was obvious that the final results of the meet would hinge on the Saturday afternoon jumping at the forty-meter hill off Lyme Road. More than 6,000 spectators— the largest crowd ever to witness a jump at Dartmouth—turned out for the decisive event. Each contestant had three leaps with the best two counting. Gusty winds blowing head-on into the jumpers during the first round caused some difficulty, but the wind died down and the second and third rounds went off under ideal conditions.
Coach Walter Prager had expected that the jump would be troublesome for the Big Green, but Tremblay's. fine form and long jumps, coupled with the surprise performance of Tom Agan and Herb Drury, turned Prager's fears to jubilation and the combined cross-country and jump results had Charlie Tremblay in first place, Tom Agan third and Herb Drury sixth for the team points which gave the Big Green the meet and the Carnival Cup.
What made the Dartmouth triumph even more noteworthy was the fact that it was a team victory rather than a triumph by a few individuals. Tremblay was the only Big Green skier to win a first place, but the placing of all the team members well up in most events gave Dartmouth the final edge in the four-event meet.
Four other team meets remain for Dartmouth at this writing. The Middlebury Carnival on Feb. 21-23, the St. Lawrence Winter Carnival on the last weekend in February, the Hochebirge downhill and slalom on March 8-9, and the traditional Harvard-Dartmouth slalom on April 19. Regardless of the outcome of these meets, the Dartmouth ski team's season will be considered a success, for the Winter Carnival Cup is back home—a bit weary perhaps after the Carnival festivities—with the Dartmouth Outing Club in Robinson Hall.
A Carnival event which goes virtually unnoticed in the daily press but which attracts a large number of spectators and is always hotly contested is the North American Intercollegiate Speed Skating Championship races held on Occom Pond. Four colleges-Dartmouth, LeMoyne, Rutgers and Syracuse—were represented in this year's race held on Friday, February 8, while a number of other skaters entered the races as individuals. Ronald Oberle, a Dartmouth freshman from Maspeth, N.Y., was the standout performer during the morning races, capturing first place in the 220, 440 and 2-mile events and garnering second in the 880 and 1-mile races. Oberle was high scorer of the championships with 130 points, while Charlie Beam of Harpur with a second in the 220, a first in the 880 and the mile, and a second in the 2-mile collected a total of 100 points and gave Oberle some close competition. Team standings found LeMoyne in first place with a total of 139 points picked up by placing a lot of men in third and fourth spots in all races. The Big Green team collected another three points along the way which added to Oberle's 130 gave them second place in the team standings with a 133 score, while Syracuse finished third with 27 points.
DARTMOUTH'S BEST PERFORMER in the Alpine events in the Carnival meet was Tom Corcoran, sophomore from St. Jovite, Quebec, who took third in the slalom and fifth in the downhill for a combined third.
TOP TEAM IN CARNIVAL MEET: The Big Green skiers who retrieved the Dartmouth Winter Carnival Cup from Denver were (I to r) Herb Drury '52, Skip Cary '54, Co-Captain Fred Barstow '52, Wally Ashnault '53, Tom Agan '54, Bill Tibbits '54, Tom Corcoran '54, and Co-Captain Charlie Tremblay '52.
SKIMEISTER IN ACTION: Marvin Crawford, star of the Denver ski team, won the Skimeister award for four-event excellence in the Dartmouth Winter Carnival meet. His record included second in the slalom, second in the jump, third in the cross-country, and twelfth in the downhill.
