TAYLORS FALLS, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's and women's alpine skiing teams swept the team titles in U.S. Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association (USCSA) competition at Wild Mountain on Saturday.
Led by a sweep of the first-place finishes by senior
Graham Barwick, the St. Olaf men were first in the seven-team standings after winning the giant slalom and finishing third in the slalom, edging UW-Madison on total place points over the two races. The St. Olaf women won both of the disciplines to finish atop the five-team standings and had eight top-10 performances over the two races.
St. Olaf won the women's giant slalom by over two seconds with four individuals in the top eight. Senior
Kate Young was atop the podium with a time of 49.40 seconds over the two runs after posting the fastest second run (25.14) and the second-fastest first run (24.26). Junior
Jessica Stanton joined Young on the podium in third (50.33) with two top-five runs, which junior
Winter Johnson (50.71) and senior
Lexi Jorgensen (51.23) both posted two top-eight runs to place fifth and seventh, respectively.
Barwick, junior
Wyatt Shultz, and first year
Austin Mjanger all posted top-five performance in the men's giant slalom to lead the Oles to a first-place finish. Barwick posted the fastest runs of the day in both runs to take first (46.15). Shultz (47.11) and Mjanger (47.19) were separated by just eight one-hundredths of a second in fourth and fifth, respectively, after recording two top-six runs. Junior
Kerem Haymana was also in the top eight in seventh (47.60).
St. Olaf also won the women's slalom by getting podium finishes from Stanton and Young and top-10 results from Johnson and junior
Emma Gannon. Stanton held the lead after the first run (35.20) and held off Young in the second to take first (1:07.70), just one tenth of a second ahead of Young, who had the fastest second run (31.86). Johnson logged two top-four runs to finish fourth (1:08.50), while Gannon placed ninth (1:13.91).
Barwick completed a sweep of the first-place finishes in the men's slalom (57.97) after posting the fastest first run (27.36) and the second-fastest second run (30.61). Haymana was the runner-up to Barwick in 1:01.70, shooting all the way up to second after sitting 22nd after the first run (33.49) with the fastest second run (28.21) by over two seconds. Mjanger and Shultz were both in the top five after the initial run before not finishing the second run.
St. Olaf will be back in action in International Ski Federation (FIS) competition at Spirit Mountain in Duluth Friday through Sunday, Jan. 10-12.
