Kistler, Brooks Earn All-America Honors in Giant Slalom

Thursday, March 12

Lake Placid, N.Y.

9:00 AM

Dartmouth College

Giant Slalom

Kistler, Brooks Earn All-America Honors in Giant Slalom

3/12/2015 3:59:00 PM | Skiing

By: Dartmouth

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — The second day of competition at the NCAA Skiing Championships brought highs and lows for Dartmouth. On the high side, junior Lizzie Kistler and sophomore Dylan Brooks earned All-America honors for their performances in the giant slalom as the Big Green collected a combined 71 points in the giant slalom. The lows came in the form of two skiers falling on their first run, keeping Dartmouth from climbing higher in the team standings.

The women zipped down the slopes of Whiteface Mountain in the morning, and trouble popped up quickly as freshman Libby Gibson and Foreste Peterson — among the first seven skiers — both fell, leaving Kistler as the lone Dartmouth skier remaining in the competition. Kistler proceeded to finish the first run in 10th place, putting her on the cusp of All-America status. The second time down, she made sure she remained among the elite with the fifth-best time to place eighth overall in 2:25.30 to earn a spot on the All-America Second Team. Two years ago as a freshman, she was a first-team All-American in the slalom.

New Mexico's Mateja Robnik took individual honors by nearly a full second ahead of Denver's Monica Huebner with a time of 2:22.56. Huebner's teammate, Kristine Haugen, was nearly a full second behind her to place third and complete a Western sweep of the podium. Despite the third Pioneer not completing the first run, Denver was still able to finish atop the team standings with 71 points with Utah second (60) and New Mexico third (57).

In the afternoon, freshman Kevyn Read ripped off the Big Green's best run on the first trip through the course, and Brooks was right behind as the duo were 8-9 on the leaderboard, separated by 0.11 seconds. Read showed his disappointment after his second run, however, as he fell back to 13th at 2:20.05, while Brooks did just enough to sneak into the top 10 and earn his place on the All-America Second Team with a combined time of 2:19.38 to finish 10th, 0.11 seconds ahead of New Hampshire's Coley Oliver. Senior Ben Morse also scored points for Dartmouth by placing 22nd with a time of 2:23.41.

But it was Middlebury who broke the West's domination at this year championships with two Panthers finishing on the podium, led by champion Robert Cone in 2:16.79 and Christopher McKenna in third with Denver's Sebastian Brigovic sandwiched between the two in second. Cone and McKenna alone allowed Middlebury to win the team title in the giant slalom with 74 points with Denver and Vermont not far behind with 68 and 67, respectively. Dartmouth was fifth with 48 points, just behind Utah with 50.

The Nordic Classical races will take place on Friday morning at Mt. Van Hoevenberg beginning with the women's 15K at 10 a.m. and the men's 20K at noon. Utah (241) has a slim four-point lead over Colorado and is just nine ahead of Denver in third, while Dartmouth sits in sixth with 159 points.