Knights Win Giant Slalom at USCSA Nationals, Yoviene Takes Second Overall

Lake Placid, NY – Some great individual performances by Clarkson University Alpine Skiers allowed the Golden Knights to earn their first-ever victory in the giant slalom at the USCSA Nationals Wednesday afternoon at Whiteface Mountain.

The Golden Knights won by an incredibly slim margin over the two teams usually positioned at the top of the USCSA standings. Clarkson's combined time of 6:50.56 was just eight-hundredths of a second faster than Sierra Nevada and less than a second quicker than third-place Rocky Mountain College. To show how tight the top three were in comparison to the rest of the field of 20 teams, the fourth-place squad was more than eight seconds behind Rocky Mountain College.

Early on it appeared as if the race would be an incredibly tight one, although the Knights were a little bit behind at the conclusion of the first run. Two great second runs from freshman Thomas Daigle and sophomore Andrew Yoviene pushed the Knights ahead, while the steady performance of senior Greg Murray clinched the win.

Yoviene finished second overall, among 106 participants, thanks to both of his runs being in the top five, concluding the giant slalom in 2:14.86. Daigle's first race saw him in 10th, but he improved to third in the second and took seventh overall with a time of 2:16.19. Murray ended up in 14th with two steady runs in the top 16, as his two-run time was 2:19.51. Junior Colden Mrak finished 16th overall with a total time of 2:20.28 and Ryan Riley jumped up 10 spots from his first run to end up in 23rd overall in 2:23.28.

Clarkson was the only team to have all five of its skiers in the top 25. The closest Clarkson had ever come to winning in the giant slalom at USCSA Nationals prior to Wednesday came back in 2014 when the Knights placed second, although they were 10 seconds behind the first place team.

The Green and Gold men will be back in action on Friday when they compete in the slalom. Clarkson junior Caroline Bonin will compete in the women's slalom on Thursday.

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Players Mentioned

Greg Murray: Sophomore

Caroline Bonin: Freshman

Colden Mrak: Freshman

Ryan Riley: Freshman

Andrew Yoviene: Sophomore

Thomas Daigle: Freshman

Players Mentioned

Greg Murray
: Sophomore

Caroline Bonin
: Freshman

Colden Mrak
: Freshman

Ryan Riley
: Freshman

Andrew Yoviene
: Sophomore

Thomas Daigle
: Freshman