University of Maine at Farmington Interim President | University of Maine at Farmington
University of Maine at Farmington Interim President | University of Maine at Farmington
The University of Maine at Farmington men's and women's alpine team had one of the more challenging National Championship experiences out of all the snowsports teams that Farmington sent out to Mammoth Mountain for the USCSA National Championships. The alpine teams were originally scheduled to compete in three events each; slalom, giant slalom, and dual slalom. However, due to unprecedented amounts of snow that the mountain saw over the course of the week, all of the events got shuffled around and many of them eventually got canceled.
The men's alpine team qualified for the USCSA National Championships by placing 6th overall at Eastern Regionals back on February 18th and 19th at Sugarloaf. The women's alpine team placed 7th overall in the Eastern Regionals but qualified for the National Championships via a four-way invite that was tied to the performance of the nordic team.
The National Championship events were originally scheduled to get underway on Tuesday, March 7th. But due to the snow that Mammoth Mountain received, the USCSA gave schools additional time to arrive at the venue safely.
On Wednesday, March 8th, both men's and women's alpine teams were scheduled to compete in slalom with the women competing in the morning and the men competing in the afternoon. The teams went through their pre-race course inspections and their practice runs. However, prior to the beginning of the 1st run, the USCSA was forced to postpone the event and move it to Thursday due to the weather.
As events got pushed back, the dual slalom event that was originally scheduled to take place on Saturday, got canceled entirely and the USCSA became focused on getting in the slalom and the giant slalom events.
After Wednesday's postponements, the slalom event got pushed back to Thursday. What was originally scheduled to be a two run competition at the beginning of the week, was transitioned into a one run event to try to get additional events in throughout the week.
Lauren Kessen (Sussex, Wisc.), Grace Mahmood (Oxford, Conn.), Hokulani Caroselli (Temple, Maine), Tegan Andrew (Goffstown, N.H.) and Fallon Smith (Nelson, N.H.) all competed for the Beavers. There were a total of 132 skiers who competed in the women's slalom event. Kessen finished 57th overall with a time of 55.18. Mahmood placed 82nd with a time of 59.81. Caroselli finished narrowly behind Mahmood in 83rd place with a time of 59.96. Andrew and Smith finished in 103rd and 104th place respectively with times of 1:05.66 and 1:05.95.
On the men's side, Simon Spear (Boothbay, Maine), Sam Roy (Frenchville, Maine), Lance Dolan (Coplin Plantation, Maine), Colgan O'Keefe (Westchester, N.Y.), and Lake Lindelof (Belfast, Maine) were the five who competed for the Beavers. Spear finished inside the top-20 at 17th overall out of 152 total racers. Spear finished his impressive run in 46.44 seconds. Roy placed 26th overall, finishing in 47.31 seconds.Dolan was the 3rd Beaver across the finish line, finishing in 62nd place with a time of 52.20 seconds. O'Keefe finished his run in 57.36 seconds, good for 93rd place. Lindelof came in 109th place with a run of 1:01.69.
Friday and Saturday were scheduled to be the giant slalom National Championships but were canceled due to snow.
Original source can be found here
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