For immediate release:

Sunday Jan. 17 1999

The MTU Alpine Ski Team Placed 4th For the Men and 4th for the Women at the LaCrosse Cup held this past weekend at Mount LaCrosse Ski Area. 15 male teams Competed and 8 female.

In the Slalom on Saturday Gabe stark was the fast skier for Tech placing 8^th close behind him was AJ Hegg in 10th. Placing third for Tech was Matt Davis in 38^th. This placed them 5^th for the Slalom.

The Women’s team was 5th in the slalom. Top skier last weekend, Jessica Stolze did not finish the slalom this weekend. Jessica Erber was 19^th and Jessica Wood was 26^th.

On Sunday the team’s competed in the Giant Slalom. This Time Jessica Wood was 10^th Jessica Erber placed the 13^th and Jessica Stolze 24^th. This resulted in a 4^th place finish for them in the Giant Slalom.

The Men’s team had difficulty in the GS. Many skiers had problems on the tricky course. Jason Hegg was 1^st for Tech with a 15^th place finish. Gabe Stark and AJ Hegg were the next highest finishers finishing 20th and 27^th respectively. This placed them 4^th in the GS.

Four male racers from Tech were at the FIS Mid-America Series race in Marquette over the weekend which consisted of 2 slalom races. This type of race is the highest level race held in the Midwest. Junior skiers competing in these races are vying for Junior Olympic positions. Junior racer Dominic Longhini, a veteran of 3 Junior Olympics, fell in the first race but came back the next day to finish 22^nd from a 27^th ranking in the race. George Peet, a freshman at Tech and also a junior racer placed 47^th the first day and 43^rd the next from a 52^nd ranking position. Greg Goodman a sophomore at Tech who last year, in his last year of junior eligibility, qualified for the Junior Olympics also competed. He placed 24^th the first day from a 50^th ranking and fell the second day.

Also competing at this race were Ben Brown and Andrea Grasseschi, both students at Houghton High School. Ben finished 15^th the first day and 12^th the second from a 44^th ranking. Andrea had trouble the first day but finished 25^th in the second race from a 57^th ranking. This was her first opportunity at these type of races as she just passed the minimum age requirement of 15.

Top Skiers in this race included US Skiteamer Brad Hogan, and Canadian Team members, Martin Tichey, Michael Tichey and Sister Katrina Tichey.

Next weekend the Tech team travels to Searchmont in Canada for an out of division-Michigan Division race.

Men Slalom Individual.

8. Gabe Stark-MTU

10. AJ Hegg-MTU

38 Matt Davis-MTU

52. Travis Hill-MTU

Men GS Individual

15. Jason Hegg-MTU

20. Gabe Stark-MTU

27 AJ Hegg-MTU

30. Troy Casteel-MTU

40. Matt Davis-MTU

42. Adam Conn-MTU

50. Travis Hill-MTU

Women Slalom Ind.

19. Jessica Erber-MTU

26. Jessica Wood-MTU

33. Renee Mallory-MTU

35. Julie Tipner-MTU

Women GS ind.

10. Jessica Wood-MTU

13. Jessica Erber-MTU

22. Jessica Stolze-MTU

24. Renee Mallory-MTU

33. Julie Tipner-MTU

Submitted by Peter Beaupre-Head Coach