ATHLETES’ CORNER
The MIT Alpine Ski Team had its last two regular-season races at Wildcat Mountain last weekend, wrapping up its inaugural season as a club sport.
The team of six had just three finishers in Saturday’s slalom and four finishers in Sunday’s GS, but the final results brought a lot of encouragement to the team. MIT’s front two men both finished in the top 25 — Jason D. Pier ’13 was 21st and Michael J. Yurkerwich ’11 was 24th on Saturday; Pier finished 24th on Sunday. Compared to the top two men on all nine competing teams, the MIT pair would have been 6th.
While only the best five men’s and women’s teams qualify for the regional championships, Saturday’s top finish by Yurkerwich kept him in the running for the Individual qualification (he finished the season as the second best individual not on one of the five qualifying teams).
Kevin A. Rustagi ’11 had a spectacular race on Sunday, improving by nine seconds between his first and second runs, while most of the field averaged about three seconds slower. He finished 66th for the day.
To recap the rest of the weekend’s results: The men’s and women’s teams finished the season in 9th and 10th respectively in the McConnell Division. Women’s Captain Jillian R. Reddy ’11 was 55th on Sunday, and Sarah J. Laderman ’12 finished 59th and 60th in the two races.