Craig Marshall was excited about making his second trip to the NCAA Division I skiing championships, but then the Colby College senior was reminded skiing can be a contact sport.
Marshall, who is from Carrabassett Valley, hooked his left hand on the base of a gate during a training run at Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid, N.Y. on Monday, suffering a significant injury. X-rays were negative, but the hand was so swollen — about the size of a grapefruit, according to Marshall — trainers were surprised it wasn’t broken.
Additional Images
WHAT: NCAA Division 1 skiing championships
WHEN: Thursday and Saturday
WHERE: Whiteface Mountain, Lake Placid, N.Y.
“It’s not my strong hand, luckily, but it’s made every task more difficult,” Marshall said via phone from the Adirondacks. “It’s definitely going to make things really interesting this week.”
Marshall is one of five Colby skiers who qualified for nationals, which take place Thursday and Saturday at Whiteface. The Colby women’s team of Mardi Haskell, Jeanne Barthold, Sierra Leavitt and Paige Whistler qualified for the second year in a row. NCAA rules limit three participants from a school in each discipline, so Haskell, Barthold and Leavitt will compete for the women.
Coach Danny Noyes, who helped guide the Mules to a sixth-place finish, the best among Division III schools, at last year’s championships, has now had 22 skiers qualify for nationals in eight years at Colby. He is advising this year’s group to have a little tunnel vision and a lot of confidence.
“Being able to focus on yourself and what it takes to be successful on the individual level is the most important thing for a championship performance,” Noyes wrote via e-mail. “Experience at the NCAA Division I championship event is part of that.
First-time qualifiers tend to get too caught up in things they can’t control, such as how the competition performs. Since four of the five to qualify this year have been to nationals before, he’s hoping they won’t be nearly as wide-eyed.
Haskell, a sophomore, leads the women’s team with her second NCAA appearance. Noyes had a strong core of women when Haskell arrived last year as a freshman, but the Holdnerness, N.H. native took the Mules to another level.
“It immediately put our team in position to go from 5-7 (place) each week to 3-5,” Noyes said. “That’s the type of impact one person can have.”
Haskell impressed in her first NCAA championships, finishing 12th in the slalom and 20th in the giant slalom. She followed that up with a strong sophomore season, winning the Middlebury Carnival slalom and consistently finishing in the top four in the event in the discipline all season while regularly placing in the top six in the giant slalom. She has been named to the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association All-East First Team for the second consecutive year.
Haskell led the women’s team to its second straight second-place finish in the slalom at the Eastern Championships at Whiteface two weeks ago. She, Leavitt and Whistler gave the Mules three skiers in the top 11 in the event.
Leavitt, a Casco native and Carrabassett Valley Academy product, is skiing in her first NCAA championship as a junior. Whistler, another junior, qualified for Nationals for the second time, as did Barthold, a senior from Lyme, N.H., who is hoping to improve upon last year’s 21st in giant slalom and 23rd in slalom.
Marshall qualified for nationals as a sophomore when the event was held in Middlebury, Vt. Earning the spot was a bit unexpected, as a bout with mono forced him to miss two weekends during the season. He finished 20th in the slalom and 31st in giant slalom.
He seemed to be peaking at the right time this year, finishing 11th in the slalom and 12th in the giant slalom, his best GS of the year, at the Eastern meet.
“Whiteface is notorious for difficult conditions and being steep and challenging,” he said. “It was good to get a little bit of confidence on the hill and know that I can ski fast on it.”
The hand injury has improved since Monday, but Noyes worried about how it would affect Marshall’s mindset.
“While the legs are obviously more important in skiing, any part of the body can interfere with comfort and confidence,” he said. “Craig is going to need to overcome those things mentally to ski to his potential. Slalom is his better event, and we still have a few days (until that race).”
Competition starts with the giant slalom Thursday. Noyes is confident the women can improve upon last year’s giant slalom finishes (20, 21 and 26). The slalom, generally their strongest discipline, takes place Saturday.
“It’s hard to gauge what a good finish would be at this event because we never see the quality or capabilities of the western region until this point,” he said. “With that said, all of our skiers have goal, and I feel aiming for the top 20, top 15, and even top 10 (all-American) are appropriate.”
Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638
rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @RAWmaterial33
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Comments are no longer available on this story