Skiing Opens Season on Thursday at Okemo
1/11/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Skiing
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Brown ski team will open the 2017 season under first-year head coach Alex Norden at Okemo Mountain in Ludlow, Vt. on Thursday (giant slalom) and Friday (slalom). Harvard will also be competing as a guest team at Okemo in addition to the MacConnell Division teams.
The Bears will be led by a trio of seniors in Ali Gunesch (Sandy, Ore.), Natalie Pearl (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) and Sylvie Bertrand (Hanover, N.H.).
Gunesch, the 2016 ECSC MacConnell Division Skier of the Year, won the USCSA Eastern Regional Slalom Championship last year and reached the podium in nine of the 10 regular season races, posting three victories and three runner-up performances.
Pearl was also victories at the USCSA Eastern Regional Championship, winning the giant slalom. The two-time ECSC MacConnell Division Skier of the Year (2014, 2015) won four races last season and claimed second twice.
Along with Gunesch and Pearl on the ECSC All-MacConnell Division Team last year, Bertrand recorded five podium finishes that included three victories.
Following the opening races at Okemo, the squad will head to West Mountain in Queensbury, N.Y. on Saturday, Jan. 21 (giant slalom) and Sunday, Jan. 22 (slalom).
