Lake Placid, N.Y. - The EISA regular season ended on Saturday with the Slalom portion of the Saint Lawrence carnival as athletes scrambled to earn a birth to the NCAA Championships held on the same hill in two weeks.
The surface remained fantastic, helped by the decision not to groom the previous night. The Slalom hill at Whiteface features a long, flatter section where you must push as hard as possible. It can be argued that the race is won or lost on the top flats, so any skiers looking to factor in the results must ski with aggression. After the flat section comes the steep drop off of Draper's Drop. A steep and short pitch greets racers as they attempt to adjust their tactics. This challenging section, as the hill rolled over, took out many athletes in the field.
The men got the action underway, and the Mules were hungry after disappointing results a day earlier. They placed four men in flip 30, led by
Chauncey Morgan in his final regular season race as a Mule. Morgan sat in 18th, followed by
Tucker Strauch in 21st,
Brooks Reed in 22nd, and
Patrick Coughlin in 24th.
The women's first run got going short after with a course that was fully attackable.
Cassie Lieblein, in her final race as a Mule slotted in at 11,
Ella Spear checked in at 20th,
Lydia Riddell finished in 23rd, and
Charlotte Maurer finished in 27th.
As the day wore on, athletes grew increasingly tired from three days of intense racing. A long Slalom race with times close to a minute tested the racer's legs through the final turns. However, having three races on the same hill as the NCAA Championships will provide an advantage to the Eastern region.
The tempo picked up on the men's side for the second run.
Tucker Strauch held his ground to finish in 21st,
Chauncey Morgan finished in 22nd, and
Patrick Coughlin provided the third scorer right behind them in 23rd.
Topher Davenport and
Cam Owens added EISA points finishing in 28th and 30th.
It's been a thrilling and entertaining season on the EISA circuit. The Alpine team reached new historic highs this season, symbolized by the qualification of Morgan, Spear, and Riddell to NCAA Championships. The three will look to bring Colby its first All-American since 2017 and finish as the top team in Division 3. However, the season is certainly not over for the rest of the Mules as they will look to lower their world rank at US Nationals and on the Nor-Am circuit.
WOMEN'S RESULTS (PDF)
MEN'S RESULTS (PDF)
