LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – The Castleton University women's alpine ski team continued its torrid start to the season on Friday, besting the field as a team while sweeping each of the top five spots on the leaderboard amongst MacConnell Division racers in giant slalom action at Whiteface.
 
Five Spartans finished consecutively from finish spots one through five, headlined by Birgit Kinneberg's first-place finish. Lena Soehnle, the first-run leader, finished second after Kinneberg leapfrogged her in the second run of the day. Petra Veljkovic was third, Karoline Rettenbacher fourth and Tatiana Tobolka fifth.
 
Kinneberg's time of 1:46.26 was just three one-hundredths of a second faster than Soehnle, enough to earn her the top spot on the podium. Her first run was timed at 54.81, with her second run coming in at 51.45. Soehnle was the first-run leader at 54.48 before clocking at 51.81 in the second run. Veljkovic clocked in at 55.27 in the first run and 51.91 in run No. 2 for a total of 1:47.45, while Rettenbacher posted times of 55.79 and 51.66 for a combined 1:47.45. Tobolka was just fractions of a second behind Rettenbacher at 1:47.56 after runs of 56.00 and 51.56. Deena Jacunski rounded out Castleton's entrants with a time of 1:52.46, good for 11th place.
 
The Spartans as a team bested the competition by more than 10 seconds, finishing in 5:19.73 while Babson followed in second place at 5:29.92. UConn was third at 5:40.86.
 
Castleton wraps up the weekend at Whiteface on Saturday morning with another round of giant slalom action.