Skiers Escape Cambridge

The Harvard men's and women's ski team ignored threats of arrest by a Somerville policeman early Friday morning and drove up to Hanover, New Hampshire, to participate in the Dartmouth Winter Carnival Ski Competitions held over the weekend.

The severely depleted Crimson teams managed to hold up the rest of the competition by placing tenth out of ten teams in the men's events and ninth out of ten in the women's competition.

The University of Vermont won the men's competition and Middlebury College finished first in the women's events.

Harvard's weak showing stemmed from the team's inability to dig two of the ski team's automobiles from icy snowbanks. Only three of the original five cars finally made the trip north, limiting the Crimson to only one entrant in each of the cross-country races.

Dave Rand produced Harvard's top of the weekend, copping a third place in the Nordic combined competition. RAnd's 16th place in the jumping combined with his cross-country output resulted in the stellar performance.

Women's cross-country captain Judy Rubinowitz finished fourth in the women's cross-country race to lead the female contingent.

Kris Hodgkins led the women in both the giant slalom and slalom events. Alpine captain Vera Fajtova followed Hodgkins in the Slalom.

Eric Klaussen, the top downhiller for the men's team, led the Crimson in both of the men's slalom events.

Harvard's season began last week at the UVM Winter Carnival where the skiers hit the slopes for the first time since the beginning of exam period. Harvard skiers only practice on weekends, unlike their opponents, who ski every day.

"The competition has improved measurably this year because it isn't an Olympic year," said Leon Nawrocki yesterday, "The great skiers have returned to college again until they start preparing for the 1980 Olympics."