CARRABASSETT VALLEY, Maine – The Castleton University women's alpine ski team had three of the top six finishers on Saturday, claiming the USCSA Eastern Regional Slalom championship by a narrow margin over Babson College.
 
The Spartans posted a team time of 4:13.74, less than one full second ahead of second-place Babson's time of 4:14.48. UConn was third at 4:30.48. The Spartans had the first-place, third-place and sixth-place finishers in the race, while Babson had the second-place, fourth-place and fifth-place finishers as the two teams battled for the top spot.
 
Karoline Rettenbacher topped the field individually, clocking in with a time of 1:22.67. Rettenbacher was the leader after the first run with a time of 41.62, and held on after a 41.05 time in her second run. Birgit Kinneberg finished third with a time of 1:24.41, using the third-fastest runs in each heat to earn the third-place spot. Her times were 43.46 and 40.95. Petra Veljkovic finished sixth overall with a combined time of 1:26.66, rounding out Castleton's scoring times. She was in ninth place after a first-run 45.20, but posted the sixth-best second run (41.46) to move three spots up the leaderboard.
 
Lena Soehnle narrowly missed out on a top-10 finish, posting a time of 1:29.31 to finish 11th.
 
The Spartans race giant slalom at the USCSA Eastern Regional Championships Sunday morning.