Skiing
The competitive skiing season is only about three weeks along, but already Coach Walter Prager's team has established itself as the best in the East. The Big Green skiers have done this by winning the Dartmouth, Williams and Norwich Winter Carnival crowns, by capturing most of the places in the Gibson Trophy Race and by turning in brilliant individual performances in every event they have entered.
The Dartmouth Carnival Meet
The Big Green skiers got away to a good but shaky start by successfully defending their Winter Carnival crown on the weekend of Feb. 5-6. Perfect weather and almost ideal snow conditions helped, although the Saturday morning downhill race had to be shifted from Moose Mountain to the Suicide Six Hill in Woodstock because of inadequate snow cover at Moose. The Indians got away to an early lead when Tom Corcoran and Bill Tibbits finished onetwo in the Friday morning slalom race at Suicide Six. Les Streeter of Middlebury, the winner of the Carnival Skimeister title, finished third, while a seventh place by Egil Stigum and Pete Caldwell's tenth place helped Dartmouth in team points. The cross-country race that same afternoon proved disastrous for the Indians. Claud Richor of St. Lawrence won the 8-mile test with John Osgood of New Hampshire second and Jon Riisnaes of New Hampshire third. First man across the line for Dartmouth was co-captain Skip Cary who finished 14th, with John Bassette in 16th place. In both Saturday events - the downhill and jump - Dartmouth had to place well if they were going to stop victory bids by New Hampshire and St. Lawrence. Les Streeter of Middlebury captured the controlled downhill race with Dartmouth's Bill Tibbits third and Tom Corcoran fifth. Egil Stigum came in eighth to add points, but the meet, as usual, would be decided at the jump. In the Alpine combined ratings Dartmouth had gained points with Corcoran and Tibbits finishing 2-3 behind Streeter.
In the Saturday afternoon jump at Dartmouth's 40-meter hill, it was Jon Riisnaes, Norwegian exchange student at the University of New Hampshire, who won with two perfect leaps of 129 feet for a total of 816.7 points. But Riisnaes's points came on form, and it was Dartmouth's John Bassette, with the two longest leaps of the afternoon - 134 and 130 feet respectively - who won second place and this feat along with a third place win for Skip Cary gave the Dartmouth team just enough points to win the meet. Egil Stigum placed ninth in the jump, while Dartmouth's other Norwegian, Magne Johnsrud, wound up in 16th place. Final tabulations including all four events plus the Alpine and Nordic combined standings gave Dartmouth a total of 560.9 points to 558.5 for New Hampshire and 557-8 for St. Lawrence. Middlebury, Vermont, Williams, McGill and Syracuse trailed in that order.
On the following weekend, to prove the Carnival victory was no fluke, Coach Walter Prager split his squad, sending one team to the Williams Carnival and another to the Norwich Carnival. Dartmouth won both meets, with John Bassette, Pete Caldwell, Skip Cary, Tom Corcoran, Bill Tibbits, Egil Stigum and Leonard Johnson competing at Williams, while Phil Cooke, Steve Swenson, Tony Carleton, Paul Dalton, Bob Kenny, Magne Johnsrud and Dick Hallagan entered the Norwich Carnival. This weekend the Dartmouth team splits again, with the "A" team going to the Middlebury Carnival, while the "B" team seeks a victory at the McGill Carnival.
In the only other competition so far Dartmouth's 23-year-old Assistant Ski Coach Charley Furrer won the Gibson Trophy Race at North Conway by streaking through the 38-gate slalom course in 4:22.6. Tom Corcoran was second, Bill Tibbits fourth and Bob and Pete Caldwell sixth and seventh respectively to make it virtually an all-Dartmouth race.
CO-CAPTAIN SKIP CARY '54, who led Dartmouth's entries in cross-country and took third in the jump, to play a leading part in the Green's Winter Carnival victory in Hanover last month.
TOP PERFORMERS in Dartmouth's Carnival win included John Bessette '55 (top), whose second place in the jump was all-important; Tom Corcoran '54 (center), who was first in the slalom, fifth in downhill and second in the combined; and Co-Captain Bill Tibbits '54, second in the slalom, third in downhill, and third in the combined.
TOP PERFORMERS in Dartmouth's Carnival win included John Bessette '55 (top), whose second place in the jump was all-important; Tom Corcoran '54 (center), who was first in the slalom, fifth in downhill and second in the combined; and Co-Captain Bill Tibbits '54, second in the slalom, third in downhill, and third in the combined.
TOP PERFORMERS in Dartmouth's Carnival win included John Bessette '55 (top), whose second place in the jump was all-important; Tom Corcoran '54 (center), who was first in the slalom, fifth in downhill and second in the combined; and Co-Captain Bill Tibbits '54, second in the slalom, third in downhill, and third in the combined.
