January 21, 2007

Castleton remains unbeaten in McBrine competition

Brownsville, VT-Women: On Sunday, the Castleton women's ski team finished first in a field of seven teams in ECSC McBrine Division action at Ascutney Mountain Resort. The Castleton women finished first with a total team time of 346.44 (seconds) in front of runner-up Yale University (421.83) in the seven team competition. Castleton's Nicole Kondziela (Bath, PA/Northampton) captured the gold with her second victory of the season with a total two run time of 1:20.24. Kondziela's teammate, Heather Patterson (Stockton, CA/Lincoln) finished tied for second place with 1:24.94. Gordon College's Katie Knaus shared the runner-up spot with Patterson. The Spartan's Emma Harvey (Kattskill Bay, NY/Lake George Central) and Lindsey Wiken (Hampden, ME/Hampden Academy) finished fourth and fifth out of a field of 65 women. Colleen Pruss (Basking Ridge, NJ/Ridge), Brenna Nolan (Pittsford, VT/Otter Valley), Amy Taylor (Barre, VT/Spaulding) and Kat Cournoyer (Winooski, VT/Burlington) also finished strong in 8th, 11th, 12th and 14th, respectively.

After three ECSC McBrine Division races, the Spartans lead the team standings with a perfect 30 points ahead of Yale (26) and Marist College (25). With the slalom victory, Kondziela leads in the overall individual standings with 42 points, while teammates Patterson (41.5) and Harvey (34) are close behind in second and third.

Men: On Sunday, the Castleton men's ski team were back in action at Ascutney Mountain Resort, where they finished with a total team time of 315.43 ahead of Brandeis University, who tallied a score of 355.25. Leading the charge for Castleton was sophomore Jeff Giegler (Danbury, CT/Danbury), who claimed the silver medal with a time of 1:14.34. The University of Rhode Island's Nick Young won the race at 1:12.08. The top-ten was full of Castleton skiers as Greg Towle (Coventry, RI/Bishop Hendricken), Evan Vomacka (Belmont, NH/Bishop Brady), Corey Gray (North Conway, NH/Kennett), Tom D'Errico (Shrewsbury, MA/Shrewsbury), Tim Rogers (Wilbraham, MA/Minnechaug Regional) and Ryan Dunleavy (Goshen, CT/Wamogo) finished fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth, respectively. The Spartans also had strong performances from Bobby Dreissig (12th) and Teddy Panasci (13th) in the 65 racer event.

After three races, Castleton leads in the team standings with 30 points, while Yale (26) and Brandeis (25) following in second and third. Giegler sits one point behind URI's Young in the overall individual standings with 30 points. Catleton's Rogers, is just off the podium in fourth out of nearly 100 male athletes in ECSC McBrine Division.

The Spartans are off to the Milldlebury College Snowbowl on Saturday, January 27th for an ECSC McBrine Division slalom.

###Spartans###