HANCOCK, Vt. — The Vermont State University Castleton men's and women's alpine skiing teams stepped up to stiff competition in the NCAA Eastern Regional Championships over the weekend at the Middlebury Snow Bowl.

MEN
Friday's slalom race began with all six VTSU Castleton skiers logging clean opening runs. Elliot Perretta completed the event in 50th with a time of 1:41.49 as Lorenzo Mencaccini was 35th after the first run, but failed to complete the second. Filippo Collini (64th), Aksel Stroem-Hansen (69th), Raphael Fischer (73rd), and Juan Alba Praska (75th) did not qualify for a second run.

In Saturday's giant slalom, Fischer registered a two-run time of 1:59.88 to bag 37th place – 3.67 seconds off the winner. After narrowly making the 60-skier cut, Stroem-Hansen rose to 42nd with his 2:00.45 combined time. Mencaccini was on track for a top-30 first run, but his ski came off five gates from the finish line to cause a DNF. Perretta missed the cut for a second run by just 0.02 seconds and Alba Praska was less than two seconds off the last qualifier.

WOMEN
Emilie Stene posted the 64th-best time in the first run of the slalom Friday, coming less than a second away from qualification as Ginevra Trevisan was close behind in 66th.

Seniors Petra Veljkovic (70th) and Camille Jackson (80th) began Saturday's GS race with strong initial runs, but did not make the cut for a second dash.

The Spartans wrap up the 2024 campaign with the USCSA National Championships from March 5-9 in Lake Placid, N.Y.