Men ski to their best finish of the season
By Justin Sharaf, Contributing Writer
The Amherst ski team overcame difficult conditions at Berkshire East this weekend. The women's team finished eighth Saturday on the slalom course and sixth Sunday on the giant slalom course, while the men's team had their best finish of the year on Saturday, a fourth place showing, and skied to fifth place on Sunday.

On Saturday, a challenging slalom course and ice sheets plagued the women's team. Sarah Sklar-Heyn '05, Amherst's best skier this season, fell during her first slalom run. "The conditions were tough, but we did pretty well as a team," Sklar-Heyn said. "It was great to see Megan Kahn ['04] come and support the team though." Kahn, who is suffering from a torn ACL, watched along with injured men's skier, A.J. Korytoski '04, who attended the meet on crutches. 

Kelly Smith '04 finished first for the Lord Jeffs, placing 21st overall.

Sklar-Heyn and Smith, who placed ninth and 20th, led the team on Sunday. "Today was much better," said Sklar-Heyn. "The course was much smoother and people had more control."

Captain Seth Fitzsimmons '02 led the men's team on both days with a 15th place finish on Saturday and a 16th place finish on Sunday. Senior James Harris also skied well on Saturday, posting a 19th place finish.

"We skied really well on Saturday.  Seth and I were competing against each other, which made us both ski more aggressively," Harris remarked.

On Sunday, the men's team did not fare as well. "We just didn't ski as aggressively as we did on Saturday and a few guys fell," said Harris.

Both teams travel to Haystack next weekend with the giant slalom on Saturday and the slalom on Sunday. 

Issue 16, Submitted 2002-02-12 23:40:42