Skiing
A strong Dartmouth varsity ski team, led by an Alpine squad which must rank with the best Dartmouth has ever had, won the annual Dartmouth Winter Carnival meet over seven competing college teams and retained the Dartmouth Carnival Cup for the fourth straight year. The Indians racked up a total of 579.8 points in the four events to lead Middlebury by 25.7 points. New Hampshire finished third with 548.7, followed in order by Vermont, Norwich, St. Lawrence, Harvard and McGill.
The Dartmouth Alpine squad of Bill Beck, Chick Igaya, Egil Stigum and Pete Kirby showed its strength early when they virtually swept the slalom on Friday morning. Igaya, the 135-pound Japanese Olympic ace, sliced through the 38-gate slalom course on Woodstock's Suicide Six Hill for two perfect runs to win first place with a combined clocking of 1:50.3. Bill Beck and Pete Kirby finished second and third, with Egil Stigum, who fell on his second run coming in seventh. That same after- noon, the Indians virtually clinched the meet when the Nordic squad, weakened by the loss of Captain John Bassette, who was ill, finished a strong third in cross country. Dusty Johnstone was first across for Dartmouth in sixth place followed by Len Johnson tenth and Magne Johnsrud eleventh. Egil Stigum, the only Dartmouth skier to compete in all events, finished 20th.
On Saturday, the Big Green Alpine team took over again and in the morning downhill race, held under perfect conditions at Mt. Sunapee, placed four men in that order of finish. Bill Beck, who graduated last month and hence was making his final appearance for Dartmouth, schussed the mile and one-quarter course in i minute and 52 seconds under perfect control. Two seconds behind him came Pete Kirby with Chick Igaya only six-tenths of a second behind Kirby and Egil Stigum in fourth place - just two seconds off Igaya's time. The downhill-slalom combined ratings placed Igaya first, Beck second, Kirby third and Stigum fourth.
Some 5,000 Carnival goers trampled the snows around the Vale of Tempe to watch the final jumping event on Dartmouth's 40-meter hill. Jon Riisnaes of New Hampshire, the only individual defending champion, displayed his usual brilliant form to win with leaps of 136 and 138 feet. Chick Igaya, a surprise entry for Dartmouth making only the second competitive jump of his career, leaped 129 and 128 feet with near perfect form to finish fourth, while Egil Stigum wound up in sixth place. Stigum's fine runs in the downhill and slalom coupled with his cross-country and jump performances won him the Skimeister title.
One day after his Carnival performance, Igaya put on one of the greatest exhibitions of slalom running seen in the East to win the Gibson Trophy Race at Cranmore Mountain. In fifth place after the first run through the 44-gate course, Igaya blasted out a 1-minute, 10 second run to win with a combined time of 2:25. Dartmouth's former ace, Ralph Miller, now skiing under U. S. Army colors, finished second, with another former Big Green skier, Tom Corcoran, in fourth place. Egil Stigum tied for number five spot.
The Norwich Winter Carnival meet on the following weekend was poor in many ways. Icy slopes made a downhill race impossible, so that event was called off and no combined Alpine standings were possible. Stigum and Igaya finished one-two in the slalom, with Pete Kirby fourth. Dusty Johnstone led the Dartmouth cross-country team by finishing third, while Len Johnson and Stigum finished 17th and 31st respectively in the protested race. Coach Walter Prager withdrew his team from the jump after Magne Johnsrud fell and suffered a concussion because the jump had not been previously packed. Unofficial standings for the meet, which is being protested by all the teams, showed Middlebury first, New Hampshire second, Norwich third and Dartmouth fourth.
Pete Kirby of Dartmouth running the Carnival slalom at Suicide Six. He helped sweetthat event and took second in the downhill next day. At the Eastern intercollegiates, atMiddlebury on February 18, he won the downhill event.
