Men place 11th at Nationals
The Castleton men’s ski team placed three spots ahead of last season’s finale, finishing in 11th out of 21 teams, on Saturday, March 12 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Sun Valley hosted this year’s United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association National Championships. The men made the trip this year without the women’s team, which did not qualify.The Spartans finished with 23 points.
Castleton junior Robert Burke had the best finish for the Spartans and placed 22nd overall, finishing 36th in the Giant Slalom and 29th in the Slalom. Junior Bobby Jones placed 29th out of the 113 skiers.
Burke had a two-run time of 1:29.48 in the Slalom and Jones was right behind him with 1:44.57.
Rocky Mountain College of Montana finished first with 4 points, while Plymouth State University came in second with 6 and Sierra Nevada College in third with 6.5.
Swede, Olle Friberg of Rocky Mountain placed first overall in the individual column with 9.31 points, while Canadians Mike Bisnaire (18.74) of the University of British Columbia and Christopher Beadon (19.51) of Plymouth finished second and third, respectively.
The Spartans have cracked the top-ten twice before in 2008 and 2009 with their best finish coming in 2008 when they placed eighth in the Nationals.