Whitman’s alpine ski team has been hard pressed to find themselves sufficient snow this season.   The first snowfall during finals week last semester astounded many Whitties, but for our Missionary skiers it came a little too late.

Ironically, the snow prevented the team from getting to snow upon returning in January. As a result, the team had to scramble to get enough practice in.

“We just need more on-snow time,” said sophomore Tim Bak on February 2nd. “This week has been our first week practicing with gates on a course.   We just need more time at Bluewood.”

Confined to the Baker Ferguson Fitness Center for the entirety of the fall and early winter, the team had to do their best to train without ever even getting out onto the slopes.   With the added difficulty of being the only NCAA Division III school to compete in the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA), they have been fighting an uphill battle from the start.

“It means that we’re behind the other RMISA schools in terms of on-snow training,” said head coach Tom Olson. “We’re definitely fit –– just not snow fit. At least our skiers worked tremendously hard this fall with their dryland training. They made great strides with their overall fitness, strength, quickness, balance and agility.”

Being the only school in the conference that does not give out athletic scholarships, combined with Whitman’s rigorous educational standards, it makes it difficult for the team to stay competitive with such schools as the Universities of Colorado, Utah and Denver.

Despite these hurdles, however, the team has been coming together under coach Olson.

“Individually we have all been improving, and just trying to get back to where we were skiing at the end of last year. I think we’ll have the chance to do much better at regionals in a few weeks as a team,” said sophomore Liza Allen.

Olson believes that with a team composed of three sophomores and six freshmen out of eleven skiers, they definitely have plenty of potential for the years to come.

“We don’t have much in the way of collegiate experience, but we’re thankful that we’ve got Tim and Liza back with a year under their belts,” said Olson. “They both had top-30 finishes last season and they know what it takes to compete at this level. With the talent we have with our first-year skiers, there’s a good chance we can have more than two skiers in the top 30 this season, which is one of our team goals.”

These first years have immediately made their presence known on the team.   Almost all have posted finishes in the top 30 and a significant amount have earned the fastest Whitman time in their perspective races.

To cap off their relatively short season, the team has one more event before the RMISA regional and national competitions begin.   Just this weekend they will be travelling to the University of Denver Invitational to compete in the giant slalom.

It is during this competition that the team hopes to make a stand and send some of their individuals to the regional competition.

“The Division I schools have a lot of World Cup skiers from around the world, so our goal is to stay positive and attack the courses when we can,” said Olson. “Again, all of our skiers come from good ski backgrounds, so they’ve seen elite competition before. All of them are very coachable, and from what I see, they are ready to go.”