Skiing

Two major ski meets have occurred since the last report on these pages and in each case Dartmouth skiers acquitted themselves in fine fashion. On March 11-12 Franconia's Cannon Mountain was the site of the downhill and slalom National Races and Olympic tryouts. And as one sports writer phrased it, "The races had a distinct green tinge."

The downhill race featured the only tie in the history of the nationals with Dartmouth's sophomore ace, Chick Igaya, and Bill Beck, who graduated in February, winding up with identical times of 1:53-3. Dave Harwood, who finished seventh, and Bob Gebhardt in ninth place were the other top Dartmouth finishers. It was a very icy and treacherous run, and veterans like Tom Corcoran, Brooks Dodge and Ralph Miller, all former Dartmouth skiers, took falls.

In the regular slalom it was Dartmouth again, with Ralph Miller, Brooks Dodge and Chick Igaya placing one-two-three. Dave Lawrence finished fourth, Bill Beck seventh and Tom Corcoran 14th. The combined downhill-slalom results put Igaya first (he was defending champion), Bill Beck third and Dartmouth's former ace, Dave Lawrence, sixth.

Most of these same racers were slated to compete in the International Races at Stowe the weekend of March 17-19, and that just about wound up the season.

Despite individual brilliance, the Dartmouth varsity ski team was unable to capture the national collegiate title at the NCAA Championships held at Norwich University on the weekend of March 4-6. Dartmouth's old nemesis, Denver University, walked off with top honors with 567 points to 558.9 for the Big Green. Middlebury was third, followed by Colorado College, the University of New Hampshire and the University of Vermont.

The Dartmouth Alpine team did well, and at first it seemed that Dartmouth might win the meet. Chick Igaya and Egil Stigum placed one-two in the downhill race, and Igaya placed first in the slalom despite a bad spill. However, Dartmouth's Nordic squad could not hold the pace and did poorly in the cross country, while in the jumping Egil Stigum's 12th place and Captain John Bassette's 13th were the best the Indians could muster.