Dartmouth Widens Lead At NCAA Skiing Championships

True, Sinnott, Dunklee named All America

JACKSON, NH — The Big Green of Dartmouth expanded their lead in the
team standings at the 2007 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Skiing
Championships here, taking Thursday’s one point lead over Denver and
blowing the race open on the strength of another solid day by its
men’s and women’s cross country teams.

After three days of competition at the Championships, Dartmouth holds
a 38 point lead over Denver in the team standings. With only the
men’s and women’s slalom to be contested, Dartmouth has 511 points to
Denver’s 473. The University of Colorado, last year’s team champion,
is third with 429.

In the men’s 20-kilometer classical technique race, Dartmouth junior
Ben True repeated as an All American, taking fourth place behind
winner Snorri Einarsson of Utah. Einarsson won the race in a sprint
at the finish, edging 2005 champion Rene Reisshauer of Denver.
Einarsson’s time was 55:06.0; Reisshauer finished 2.1 seconds back.
Alaska-Fairbanks’ Marius Korthauer was third.

The fourth place finish was a career best for True, who finished
fifth in last year’s 10-k classical. “It feels good,” said True. “It
would have been nice to be able to get on the podium, but those three
guys are very strong skiers and so it was nice to be able to ski up
with them.”

Big Green senior Mike Sinnott finished eighth in the race, also
earning All America honors. Sophomore Glenn Randall was 17th.

True led the race at the 15-kilometer mark, but Einarsson and
Reisshauer made their move in the final lap. “They took off and I
tried to stay as close to them as I could. I worked the whole
downhill real hard to try to pull away from [Korthauer] because I
knew my sprint wasn’t going to be as fast as his. I just didn’t have
enough at the end.”

In the women’s 15-k classical, Northern Michigan University made
history with their second 1-2-3 sweep of the Championships. It was
the first time one women's team had taken all three podium spots in
both classical and freestyle races. Northern's Lindsay Weier, who
finished third in Wednesday's freestyle race, took today's event in
47:21.0. She was followed across the finish line by teammates Lindsey
Williams and Morgan Smyth.

Dartmouth junior Susan Dunklee also claimed her second All America
honor of the week with her seventh place finish, also a career best.
“It felt great. I felt fast and relaxed,” said Dunklee. “It’s hard to
describe. It’s all falling into place, and you can’t really ask for a
better season. We’re just crossing our fingers for rest of the week.”

Dartmouth senior Sara Studebaker and junior Elsa Sargent narrowly
missed the All America list, taking 11th and 12th places respectively.

“Mikey had lot of guts to get in there, Ben skied well, and Glenn
really came on. The girls were all solid,” said women’s cross country
coach and Director of Skiing Cami Thompson. “I’m so proud of all of
them.”

With one day remaining and the men’s and women’s slalom at Attitash-
Bear Peak on Saturday, the Green now sets their sights firmly on the
team title. But Thompson knows it won’t be easy. “It means I’m not
going to sleep very well tonight.”

For complete race results, see http://www.eisaskiing.org/BART/Results07/ncaa07.htm

Source: Dartmouth Skiing press release