Winter winners

While Dartmouth skiers swept downhill to honors on many fronts, other winter sports teams climbed to their highest finishes in several years. Collectively, the Big Green winter teams missed the .500 mark by the slimmest of margins in 1985-86, tallying a .497 record with a combined total of 85 wins and 86 losses. That compares to a 75-96 mark a year ago and a 73-101 record in 1983-84. And on the way to reaching .497, seven of the 11 winter teams set individual records of .500 or better this season.

The winter sport leading the pack was women's basketball, which ended the season with a share of the Ivy crown. Co-champions with Harvard, the team regained its place at the top of the Ivies in coach Jacqueline Hullah's second year at the helm. It was the fifth time the Dartmouth women had taken or shared the League title, but the first year the team had reached the top since 1983.

Paced by senior Jayne Daigle of Lebanon, N.H., and freshman Liz Walter of Sheridan, Wyo., the team turned last year's overall record of 11-15 into a 15-11 mark this season. The 6'2" Daigle, the team's leading scorer and rebounder, with 17.4 and 8.8 averages this season, will be sorely missed next year. Another senior, Sue Stoddard, topped the team in assists and steals, with tallies of 76 and 49 this year. But despite the loss of key seniors, the team's prospects for the next few years look bright. Hullah is counting on three more years from Walter, who closely follows Daigle in scoring and rebounding, with 14.8 and 8.6 averages, and several other talented freshmen, including guard Marie Polakowski of Maple City, Mich., and forward Nancy Fitz of Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

Honors for most improved performance during the winter, season probably belong to second-year coach Paul Cormier's men's basketball team. Sparked by the play of a handful of key freshmen, sophomores Bryan Randall of Buffalo, N.Y., John Mackay of Orem, Utah, and Len Bazelak of Zenia, Ohio, and senior Joe Kilroy of Philadelphia, Pa., the team finished 11-5, more than doubling last year's win total. A late- season weekend sweep of Columbia and Ivy champion Cornell and a victory over highly-touted Penn marked a 6-8 Ivy season and promised an even better record next year.

Also in his second season in Hanover, men's hockey coach Brian Mason has taken a team that won only three games in 1983- 84 to seven victories this year. The highlight of the season was a stirring 5-3 win over the defending national champions, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Thompson Arena. A road win over a solid Colgate team in Hamilton, N.Y., was another indication that the Dartmouth hockey program is on the rise.

Freshman Tom Finks of Winnetka, III., was the resurgent Green's top scorer this year, while freshman Tim Osby of Ottawa, Ontario, has been steady in the goal.

The men's and women's track teams, no strangers to success, continued their mastery of the indoor circuit, both finishing the season undefeated. The women's team has now strung together 22 consecutive victories, while the men's team has fashioned a 27-1 mark over the past three years.

Both squash teams have shown improvement this year, with the women claiming a 7-4 record, a victory at the Can-Am Championship, and a ranking of sixth in the nation, while the men's team finished 7-7 with six straight wins in the final weeks of the season.

Keith Van Winkle's men's gymnastics team jumped on the winner's bandwagon this year, too, hitting the .500 mark after 2- 5 and 3-7 seasons the past two winters.

The women's hockey team also finished at .500 in coach Amy Crafts's first season. The team narrowly missed last year's 10-9- 1 mark and was a challenger for an Ivy League tournament berth until the final game of the year.