‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ The Massachusetts men’s and women’s ski teams used strong performances in the giant slalom on Friday to secure a place in the MacConell Regionals, which start on Feb 21.
For the Minutemen, co-captain Andrew Hawes finished fourth in Friday’s race, with a time of 1 minute, 57.18 seconds, just .42 ahead of his fellow teammate Matthew Small, who placed in sixth. Junior Travis Hopkins had his best finish of the season, coming in eigth with a time of 1:58:22.
The men’s team finished in sixth place in the slalom, which was its lowest finish all season. In the end however, the performance did not affect the team’s overall standing. The Minutemen finished third in the MacConnell Division for the season.
For the men’s side this is just the first step toward reaching its ultimate goal.
‘Our goal is to go see if we can defend our title,’ said UMass coach Skip Fox.
The Minutewomen also maintained their top five position with a steady fourth-place finish in the giant slalom Friday.
‘The women really had a good day Friday coming in fourth, which is really where we’ve been all year,’ Fox said.
Leading the way was junior Emily Shilletto, who placed in the top five in the giant slalom for the second time in three weeks. Her time of 2:02.38 earned her fifth place. Sophomore Jamie Taloumis also finished in the top 10 for the second straight week, as she placed sixth.
Despite the absence of junior co-captain Ashley Hawes (torn ACL), the Minutewomen’s steady showing on Friday helped lock down a trip to
The top 18 teams will compete in the last two weekends of February, with the top six teams of the Northeast advancing to the Nationals.
Jeffrey Engmann can be reached at [email protected].
