ST. ADELE, QUE --
Cole Rosenberg of Toronto registered a silver medal finish to highlight the McGill alpine ski team's results at Ski Chantecler, an hour north of Montreal in the Laurentians, in the last slalom race weekend of the season. It was the first podium finish for the Redmen in 23 races, dating back to March 22, 2014, when
David Apap won silver in a giant slalom race at Mt. Stoneham.
Rosenberg, a 5-foot-9, 150-pound management junior, posted his second-place showing on Sunday, after finishing eighth in Saturday's race. With two giant slaloms remaining on the schedule, he currently ranks third in the RSEQ conference standings with 679 points, behind Laval skiers
Adam Lamhamedi (875) and
William Mercier-Robin (700).
Last week's warm and unpredictable weather opened the possibility for many surprises and difficult terrain, but the team's strong performance proved its preparation for any kind of conditions.
On Saturday, extremely stormy and humid conditions, led race organizers to adopt a particular schedule, with back-to-back runs and chemicals being spread in the run to keep the course stable. Luckily for McGill, the rain started right at the end of the second men's run. The next best finish after Rosenberg was freshman
Alexandre Trudeau of Montreal, who ranked 12th. On the women's side, freshman
Nora Fripp of Ottawa, and Martlets captain
Hannah Kapur, a senior from Vancouver, came in fourth and 11th, respectively,
On Sunday, the sun and wind came out for the first time over the weekend and racers were finally able to see more than five gates ahead, which made a complete difference in their approach, a lot more aggressive and technical. Aside from Rosenberg's silver medal performance, Redmen captain
William Stone, a civil engineering junior from Toronto, was only five spots behind in seventh place overall.
In the women's race,
Genevieve Soden, a management junior from Vail, Col., and the aforementioned Fripp led the pack, securing the 11th and 12th positions, respectively. Soden is the top scorer for the Martlets this season and sits ninth in the league scoring race.
In the women's team standings, the Martlets sit in second place with 2,501 points, well behind the division-leading Montreal Carabins (5,240), Carleton is third (1,189), followed by Laval (1,174).
On the men's side, McGill is third with 2,711 points They trail division-leading Laval (3,990) and second-place Montreal (3,810).
The season wraps up with the RSEQ championship meet, two Giant Slalom races at Stoneham in Quebec City, March 23-24.
