IE skier competes with country's best

Eric Charpentier at the national competition (32K JPG)

IE junior Eric Charpentier was among seven members of the UW-Madison Men's Alpine Ski Team to compete in the 2001 U.S. Collegiate Snowsport Association National Championships. The competition took place at Bogus Basin Ski Area, Idaho, near Boise, from March 5-10. The seven competed in the slalom and giant slalom events at the meet.

A Brainerd, Minnesota, native, Charpentier hit a stretch of bad luck when one of his skis fell off during his second run. Overall, the UW-Madison team didn't fare much better, finishing with a tie for a second-from-the-bottom 17th place. "Our biggest accomplishment was just getting there," says teammate Ryan Webster, an MS&E sophomore. "The competition out there was the best in the country."

The team's appearance at the national competition marked its first trip there since 1998, says Charpentier. Team members qualified for nationals in late February by taking second place out of some 30 teams at the Midwest regional competition in Marquette, Michigan, he says.

The UW-Madison Alpine Team is one of three competitive teams that are part of the Hoofers Ski and Snowboard Club, says Emily Bosio, a member of the Women's Alpine Team and last year's captain. "The Alpine Team had its early beginnings in the mid-1930s as a ski-jumping club with the involvement of Porter Butts, who was the first director of the Wisconsin Union," she says.

She says the UW-Madison men's and women's squads are clubs, while many of their competitors are on varsity ski teams. "We are partially funded through Hoofers, and we do most of our fund raising at our annual ski resale every December at the Memorial Union."

Other UW-Madison men's national qualifiers include Bill Schmitt, a pre-med freshman; Webster; computer engineering sophomore Dakota Dux; Greg Sutcliffe, a senior in atmospheric science and meteorology; Andy Taschler, a freshman in business; and economics and English junior Sean Tilton.