Skiing

It's three down and two to go for the Dartmouth varsity ski team on the winter carnival circuit. Dartmouth's "A" team won both the Dartmouth and Williams Winter Carnival four-event ski meets, while the "B" team placed fourth at the Norwich Carnival. The Middlebury and St. Lawrence carnival meets remain before the Indian skiers move out to Winter Park, Colorado, for the N.C.A.A. championships in late March.

The skiers won their own 35th annual Carnival meet and successfully defended the Carnival Cup for the fifth straight year, but it was the closest meet in history as they edged Middlebury by one-tenth of a point, 579.69 to 579.59. New Hampshire finished third with 562.53 points, with Vermont, St. Lawrence, Norwich, Williams, McGill and Harvard trailing in that order.

Coach Walter Prager's strong Alpine team and unexpected showings in the Nordic events won the meet. Poor snow conditions in Hanover caused a shift of location in three of the four events as the downhill race was held at Pico, the slalom at Sunapee and the cross-country race at Kimball Union Academy in Meriden.

Veteran Egil Stigum and sophomore Dave Harwood teamed up to take first and second places in the slalom with Tony Carleton sixth and Captain Pete Kirby 2 ist for the Big Green. In the downhill race Captain Kirby bounced back with a first place, with Dave Harwood second and Stigum third for a clean sweep. Tony Carleton came in 14th. Combined Alpine ratings put Stigum in first place, Harwood second, Carleton sixth and Kirby eighth as Dartmouth added other points.

In the cross-country race Dartmouth sophomore John Ceely surprised everyone as he plowed over the difficult nine-mile course in 54 minutes, 56 seconds to finish first. Bill Smith, another promising sophomore, came in seventh with Dusty Johnstone ninth and Bob Burton 16th. In the final event, the jump, the Indians did not fare so well, as Egil Stigum finished seventh, Bill Smith tenth, Bob Burton twelfth and Dave Harwood 19th. Jon Riisnaes of New Hampshire displayed his usual topnotch form to place first with jumps of 137 and 138 feet and a combined point score of 222.4.

Wes Beattie of Middlebury won the Skimeister award for the best combined showing in all four events. Because of the closeness of the final score, John Rand, ex- ecutive director of the D.O.C., and Coach Walt Prager offered to share Carnival Cup honors with Middlebury, but the offer was declined.

One week later the Indian skiers confirmed their Eastern skiing supremacy by winning the Williams Carnival meet, this time by a comfortable 589.29 points to Middlebury's 567.13. Sophomore Bill Smith came into his own in this meet as he won third place in both slalom and downhill, fourth place in cross country, and eleventh in the jump to win the coveted Skimeister trophy.

Pete Kirby, Egil Stigum and Bill Smith swept the first three places in the downhill, while Stigum, Harwood and Smith did the same in the slalom. In the crosscountry race Dartmouth's John Ceely came in behind New Hampshire's Dick Osgood by only 28 seconds for a second place in that event, with Smith fourth and Dusty Johnstone tenth for Dartmouth. Stigum moved up in the jumping competition as he gained third place, with Harwood seventh and Smith eleventh.

The return of Dartmouth downhill and slalom ace, Chick Igaya, from Olympic competition where he won a silver medal (second place in the slalom) for Japan, should add strength to the Big Green ski team as they move towards the end of their schedule and aim for the national championships.

The setting is wintry but the crew is hard at work on "spring" training.