SKIING

The Dartmouth ski team, potentially one of the finest in the country, had been beaten twice by the Middlebury Panthers going into the Eastern Championships at Williams College. For the third year in a row, however, the Indians proved their superiority as they defeated Middlebury by 14 points.

The Panthers as usual dominated the Alpine events, but the Green managed to break through in the downhill as Jim Jacobson registered a third. In the cross country Ed Williams was first, with two other Dartmouth skiers in second and fourth. This gave the Green an eleven- point lead going into the second day of competition. The Panthers took four out of the top five places in the slalom, but Pat Terenzini, Jacobson, and Dick Durrance were in the next three positions. In the jumping it was Middlebury's Pete Swallow first, but here again Durrance and Brian Beattie were right behind him.

The following weekend the Indians challenged a strong Denver University team for the national title. As described elsewhere in this column the NCAA championships scheduled for Hanover and the Dartmouth Skiway were plagued by bad luck: a spring thaw, rain, and even a flood.

The Westerners dominated the Nordic events, which were both held on the same day. Brian Beattie was ninth in the jumping at the Vale of Tempe while Williams was third in the cross country.

The Alpine events, a giant slalom and slalom, were both held at Cannon Mountain on the same day. In third place going into these events, the Green fought back to come within 1.4 points of the national title. Skip Bryan placed sixth for the Indians in the giant slalom, while teammate Walter Lobitz was ninth. In the regular slalom Jacobson was eighth and Bryan ninth. In the Alpine combined standings Bryan was third, Jacobson seventh, and Lobitz was tenth.