CARRABASSETT VALLEY, Maine -- The Bates men's alpine ski team completed a successful Colby Carnival Saturday at Sugarloaf Mountain, placing all of its top three among the top 21 in the men's slalom.
Senior captain Michael Cooper (Alta, Calif.) placed 12th among 88 skiers, posting a 50.78-second first run and going 55.27 seconds in the second run for a combined time of 1:46.05. Sophomore Arie van Vuuren (Boulder, Colo.) was one place and just 0.02 seconds behind Cooper at 1:46.07. Senior captain Ryan Clermont (Lincoln, N.H.) finished 21st at 1:49.57, with junior Joe Gillis (Branford, Conn.) next in 26th place (1:50.72) but out of the team scoring.
The Bates men scored the fifth-most carnival points among 14 squads in the slalom.
Junior Hannah West (Bend, Ore.) came back from a week away due to injury to lead the Bates women in the slalom, placing 19th out of 68 competitors with a two-run combined time of 1:54.07.
Sophomore Tess Coutu (Foster, R.I.) took 28th place in 1:55.71 and sophomore Daphne James (Sausalito, Calif.) rounded out team scoring in 31st place (1:58.65).
Bates' Nordic and alpine ski teams combined to score 437 team carnival points, seventh-most among 15 teams at the Colby Carnival.
Bates hosts the Bates Carnival next weekend, Feb. 7-8, with alpine racing taking place at Sunday River in Newry, Maine. Nordic races take place at Black Mountain in Rumford, Maine.
