Collegians revel in Down Under semester

Collegians revel in Down Under semester{mosimage}At the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, second semester starts in July and ends in November – perfect timing for ambitious collegians wanting a jump on the season.

Last year, Colby’s Jenny Lathrop came back from New Zealand in such top form that she took second in the first NorAm slalom and made the C Team by season’s end. The year before, her college teammate Warner Nickerson jumped to the top of the Eastern collegiate standings after a semester at Otago.

Hoping to follow a similar trajectory, six Eastern collegiate skiers enrolled at Otago in July 2005: NCAA double gold medalist Jamie Kingsbury from UVM, Andrew Everett and Scott Coriell from Middlebury, Carter Casner and Jim Pelletier from Bates and Ian Poirier from Williams. But the climate is conspiring against them. ‘I have only skied about seven or eight days so far’ reported Kingsbury via e-mail. ‘There is really not very much snow here this year. The locals say that this has been their worst winter in 25 years.’

However, the group did enter the Southern Cup FIS races Aug. 16-19 at Coronet Peak, about a four-hour drive from Dunedin. Kingsbury took fourth in the first of two GS races but claims she didn’t ski very well. Everett and Casner both scored top 10s, while Poirier and Coriell each took a top 15 in one of the two slaloms.

‘It looks like those might be the only races that go off while we’re down here’ Coriell said.

Kingsbury isn’t worried about the lack of on-snow training. ‘For me, this trip is not about skiing and training a lot’ she said. ‘I wanted to come here so I could start training early in November when I get back. That way, I will get a jump on the season and be able to train and travel in November and December without thinking about school. I plan to be home on November 7 and then will drive out to Colorado and spend a month out there training and racing.’