The Plymouth State University Ski teams wrapped up the MacConnell Division regular season championships on Sunday, February 7 after a strong performance in a giant slalom race while competing in Boston College/Brown University Carnival held at Wildcat Mountain in Jackson, NH.
The men finished in first during both days of the competition while the women came in third at the slalom event on Saturday and second on Sunday. With these wins the men were able to tie Colby-Sawyer College for first place and the women have clinched the second seed in the MacConnell Division of the United States Collegiate Ski & Snowboard Association (USCSA). This win marks the seventh straight and eight total first place win out of the ten races this season for the men’s ski team.
“We felt strong all year going into every race,” said PSU’s Travis Nevins. “We know that we have to talent and individual ability to win all that we have to do is put it together on race day.”
On Saturday, Plymouth Junior Peter Ostroski came out on top for the Panthers finishing in fourth place while his teammates Willie Colt and Austin Nevins posted their top finished of the season at sixth and tenth. Junior Tyler Bailey and senior Chris Carlucci, a PSU captain, rounded out the top sixteen.
The following day, the men finished with five panthers in the top ten at the GS, which had a total of 73 racers. Freshman Chris Beadon was the top finisher for Plymouth State coming in at second. Once again, Ostroski finished in the top eight for an amazing 27th consecutive race with his sixth-place finish and Colt finished right behind him at seventh. Both of Plymouth’s Nevins, Juniors Travis and Austin, finished of the top ten at ninth and tenth.
Ostroski, last year’s individual regular seasontop finisher, had another great season by coming in second to Colby-Sawyer’s Shawn Dunstan, who won three races this winter. PSU had three other men finishing in the top ten with Beadon and Austin Nevins tying for fifth and freshman Parker Spear finished the season in ninth.
For the Plymouth State Women’s Ski Team, Senior Alyssa Deane and sophomore Kait Pawlak came out on top by placing fifth and seventh out of the sixty seven skiers. Sophomore Katherine Goller came in third for the Panthers by finishing fifteenth in Saturday’s race.
On Sunday, freshman Martina Ryberg of Stockholm, Sweden, and Deane improved on their prior standings by placing and third and fourth. Both Deane and Ryberg finished in the top ten in eight of their races this season while finishing third in fourth overall MacConnell Division regular season standings.
Pawlak dropped to fifteenth on Sunday, but was able to finish the season at thirteenth overall despite missing the first four races of the year.
The Panthers hope to perform as well as they did last year at Eastern Regional Championships at Waterville Valley where the men captured the title as Eastern Regional combined alpine championship and eventually placed fifth in Men’s GS and first in the Men’s SL at USCSA National Championships in Winter Park, Colorado.
“Regionals brings in talent from other division powerhouses such as Castleton State College and Northeastern University which takes the raw talent of the Maconnell Division and the confidence of the Thompson Divsion and combines it into the strongest division in the USCSA,” said Colt on his feelings about the upcoming tournaments. “Both Plymouth and Colby Sawyer could do exceptionally well in the NCAA D1 races as two of the best teams in the nation for all divisions.” The women finished their season at fourth in the Women’s GS and seventh in the Women’s SL in the National Championships. Hopefully Plymouth can rock the ECSC Regionals (Feb. 20-21) like they did last year.