With a season full of unexpected turns, the Whitman Alpine Ski Team’s rise to nationals this week after dominating conference regionals in February came as a surprise.

After transitioning from varsity to club status, the men and women of both the Alpine and Nordic Ski Teams also switched to different leagues, facing off against a whole new set of schools.

“We’ve never competed in this league, so we have no idea how we stack up against the rest,” said sophomore Torey Anderson of the women’s team.

The Alpine team took on the Northwest Collegiate Skiing Conference regional competition at the Snow Basin Resort in Utah days after the tragic loss of first-year  teammate Richard O’Brien. Although their confidence was shaken, it did not stop the team from defying the odds.

Standing in seventh place out of 14 after the first day, the women’s team felt that they were already out of the running. However, unexpected mistakes made by leading competitors helped Anderson and her teammates zip past the rest and qualify for the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association nationals in fourth place.  The men also qualified for nationals on the strength of their third place finish.

“Our mindset going into regionals was with Richie,” said sophomore Lexie Dreschel, also of the women’s team. “At this point, putting pressure on ourselves would have been too much. The most important part of skiing for Richie was that he was having fun.”

The Whitman Alpine men also reigned supreme in the league and the sudden boost to the team’s morale took both the men and women teams through regionals.

Other feats include individual top 10 overall finishes by Dreschel and sophomore Alpine skier Polly Evans. Sophomores Chris Machesney, Tim Bak, Brad West and Nathan Ord all finished among the top 10 in the conference.

“It’s quite the accomplishment,” said Dreschel, who also mentioned that the men’s team has not competed on a national level in this league for years. According to College Snow Sports Magazine, the men’s Alpine Team is predicted to finish sixth  at nationals.

Last year’s decision to cut varsity skiing gave the current Whitman skiers motivation to prove that they could succeed on their own as a club.

“We first had the motivation to make it on our own, but we now motivation to do it for Richie,” said Dreschel.

Anderson agreed.

“We would like to focus on being in the in the moment of the race and doing our best: just being happy doing what we love is important,” said Anderson.

The team received a Facebook message from O’Brien’s family expressing their well wishes and cheers for the seven nationals-bound competitors.

Both the men and the women plan to wear bright purple bandanas in honor of O’Brien, who always wore vivid colors on the slopes.

“We’re going to focus on supporting one another as a team. Growing up, skiing was always an individual thing, but now it’s a team sport. We’ll be cheering each other on,” said Dreschel.

The team is currently at the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association national competition, held  March 1-6 in Sunday River, Maine.