SKIING

Dartmouth's ski team, rated the equal of last year's NCAA runnerup and maybe a bit stronger, came on like gangbusters in the giant slalom and jumping to overwhelm nine other teams and walk away with the 60th annual Dartmouth Winter Carnival Cup.

Three juniors - Sheldon Perry from Wayland, Mass., Scott Berry from Deadwood, S. D., and Dick Trafton from Auburn, Me. - were Coach Al Merrill's chief instruments in making a shambles of anyone else's hopes for success in the Carnival competition.

Dartmouth routed the field in the team standings with 392.2 points, well ahead of second-place Middlebury's 378.0. The field included, for the first time, freshman teams from Dartmouth, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Dartmouth's freshmen finished fifth in the team standings behind New Hampshire and Williams and Jason Densmore of the Indian frosh was runner-up to New Hampshire's John Kendall in skimeister balloting and also won the Nordic combined title.

Perry, taking over for teammate Chuck Bent, won both the slalom on Friday and the giant slalom on Saturday to pace the Dartmouth domination. Bent, who had won three Eastern cup races in January and is rated one of the top collegiate Alpine racers, had tough luck in the Carnival as he lost a ski in the slalom, finished fourth in the giant slalom. Berry and senior Bill Cantlin gave Dartmouth a one-two finish in the 40-meter jump. Berry had the best jumps of the Saturday competition, soaring 144 and 143 feet.

Middlebury looked to make a battle of the Dartmouth Carnival for awhile as the Panthers took the team lead after the slalom despite Perry's victory. Trafton took first place in the 15-kilometer cross-country race, however, and sophomore teammate Eric Evans finished third and the Indians had a five-point bulge at the end of the opening day's competition.

The Carnival success retrieved the Cup that had gone to the University of Denver a year ago and leaves Dartmouth firmly entrenched as the top team in the East. The combination of Bent, Perry, Gibson, Trafton, and Teyck Weed (who missed the Dartmouth Carnival while competing in Europe with the U. S. Nordic team), gives Coach Al Merrill a well-balanced force that may have much to say about the NCAA meet on March 5-7 at Cannon Mountain in Franconia, N. H.