Skiing

The big news in the skiing world is that Dartmouth men have won three of the five berths on the F.I.S. alpine (downhill and slalom) team that will compete for the World Championships in Sweden later this winter. Brooks Dodge '51, captain of last year's team, Ralph Miller '55, National and North American downhill and slalom champion, and Bill Beck '53, were the Dartmouth choices, while Verne Goodwin and Doug Burden of Middlebury are the other F.I.S. team members. The team, with Coach Pepi Gabl, has been working out at Alta, Utah and Stowe, Vermont, before leaving for Europe in late January. Coach Gabl claims his team is the strongest and best conditioned the United States has sent to Europe and he is particularly impressed with Ralph Miller, feeling that the 20-year old Dartmouth ace has a good chance to win first place in the downhill race for the F.I.S. crown.

Only two ski meets of note have been held to date. Dartmouth played host for the annual Hanover cross-country relay race over a six-mile circuit on the golf course and also for an invitational Class A and Class B jump on the Dartmouth 40-meter hill. There seems to be some doubt as to who won the cross-country relay race. The F.I.S. team composed of three team members and a Lebanon lad had the top point total, but the Finnish Ski Club which placed second protested because of the Lebanon addition and the hassle was then passed along to the Eastern Ski Association. At any rate the University of New Hampshire wound up third, Middlebury fourth and Dartmouth, the defending champions, fifth. Skip Cary, John Bassette, Magne Johnsrud and Egil Stigum ran for Dartmouth.

In the Sunday jumping event. Romeo Labonte of the Nansen Ski Club placed first with leaps of 114 and 117 feet in the Class A competition. The only Dartmouth entrant, Magne Johnsrud, took sixth place. In the Class B competition Skip Cary of Dartmouth took second place, Egil Stigum finished seventh and Bob Kenney 16th. The winner was Dave Michael, an 18-year old Kimball Union Academy student and son of Dartmouth swimming coach Karl Michael. Young Mike had leaps of 122 and 119 feet.

Up at Stowe, Vermont, the Vic Constant Trophy race focussed attention on a 22- year old Dartmouth freshman from Japan, Chiharu Igaya. Igaya captured first place in the slalom and sixth in the downhill for a third place combined rating to make him one of the top skiers in the East. Igaya, however, is no novice to the sport, having been a member of the Japanese 1952 Olympic Ski Team.

Dartmouth co-captain Bill Tibbits took fourth in the downhill and fifth in the slalom for a fourth in the combined ratings, followed by Tom Corcoran with a third in the slalom and seventh in the downhill.

The skiing season is just getting underway but from the results of the races at Stowe it appears as though Dartmouth would once again have probably the strongest college ski team in the nation. This year for the first time the National Collegiate Athletic Association will hold a national meet and Dartmouth looks forward to this event.