Jan. 30, 2008

WATERVILLE VALLEY, N.H.- The UMass men's ski team got off to a rocky start Friday, but found its grove at the second day of the Plymouth State University Carnival. The first day started out with the Slalom event and saw some of the top men's skiers unable to finish their second runs. The top five finishers for UMass included Matthew Small, who placed tenth with a combined time of 1:40.87. Alex Zahoruiko took 12th with a total time of 1:41.67 and Travis Hopkins took 16th with a time of 1:42.10. Rounding out the top five for UMass were James Green placing 21st with a time of 1:46.35 and Paul Lewenberg taking 27th with a time of 1:48.67. After the first day of the PSU Ski Carnival, the Minutemen were third in conference.

Jason Small came back from a disappointing slalom performance to win the Giant Slalom event on Saturday, by two seconds, with a time of 2:13.55. Andrew Hawes and Ian Hohmeister also came off disappointing first days in the Slalom to take fifth place and eighth place respectively, with a combined time of 2:16.59 and 2:18.23. Matthew Small continued his consistent skiing weekend, placing 16th with a time of 2:20.43. Travis Hopkins placed 23rd with a time of 2:21.51 to finish out the top five. With great skiing on the second day, the Minutemen were able to jump to second in the conference.

The Minutemen are back in action on February 2nd, competing in the Slalom event at the MIT Carnival at Henniker, N.H. On February 3rd, the Minutemen will be at Lincoln, N.H. participating in the Giant Slalom event in conjunction with the MIT Carnival.

ECSC Men's Conference Standings
1. Plymouth State University
2. UMass
3. Boston College
4. Colby Sawyer College
5. Babson College
6. MIT
7. St. Anselm
8. UConn
9. Brown University