As it did a year ago on the final day of competition, the Whitman men's cross country team took center stage by winning the 3 x 7.5-kilometer relay race.
In other events Saturday, the Whitman women's cross country team placed fifth in its relay, while the men's alpine squad also finished fifth in its final event, the slalom.
In final scoring for the all-around national titles, which is based on two alpine and two cross country events, the Whitman men were runaway winners with just 28 points. Cornell University a distant second with 127 points, followed by the University of Wisconsin- Madison with 146 points. Colby-Sawyer College was fourth with 188 points and Alfred University was fifth with 193.
The Whitman women won their all-around title with 52 points. Cornell was second with 120 points and Colby-Sawyer third with 135. Alfred was fourth with 175 points.
Keeping Whitman's string of all-around titles intact at four for the men and women was "definitely a nerve-wracking experience," Whitman alpine coach Tom Olson said. "People expect us to win now, which it makes it more difficult. Our association also is getting more and more competitive every year."
By winning their relay event Saturday at Bretton Woods, the Whitman men also captured their second straight national championship in the cross country combined scoring. The Missionaries also won the men's classic race on Wednesday and then placed second as a team in Friday's 10-kilometer freestyle event.
Saturday's relay victory came courtesy of Peter French, Cory Root and Calon Russell,
who joined forces to win the race in one hour, 19 minutes and 27 seconds. Clarkson College
of Potsdam, N.Y, was second in 1:20:33, while the Air Force Academy was third in 1:21:25.
Cornell University placed fourth.
French, who skied the opening leg of the relay, placed third in Friday's freestyle race after winning the earlier classic race. Based on his performance in the week's first two races, French captured a national title as the top individual competitor in men's cross country.
Root placed fourth in Friday's freestyle race and finished third overall in the individual cross country combined scoring. Russell was 12th in the freestyle and fifth in the combined scoring.
The Missionary men's alpine team, after placing third in Thursday's giant slalom, had hoped for a second-place showing in Saturday's slalom at Loon Mountain. But those hopes dissipated quickly when senior Andy Olssen, Whitman's top skier, hooked a tip and lost a ski on his first run. One of his teammates, freshman Matt Rarity, also failed to finish his first run, which meant that Whitman's three remaining skiers had to finish to their second runs for the Missionaries to post any team score at all.
"It was a rough day right from the start, after losing Andy right off the bat," Olson said. "But the three guys who were left skied great, even though the pressure on them became much greater at that point. They knew they had to finish their second runs, and that we had no backup left. They handled the situation with a lot of maturity and poise."
Whitman's Mike Craven finished 16th in 85.07 seconds. Charlie Woodruff was right
behind in 17th place in 85.29 seconds, and Brett Macfarlane was 23rd in 86.03 seconds.
Michel Bortis led perennial alpine champion Sierra Nevada College to a sweep of the top three slalom spots in a field of over 90 skiers. Bortis won the event in 77.17 seconds for his two runs.
Sierra Nevada won the men's slalom team scoring with a time of 236.65 seconds for its top finishers. Plymouth State College was second with 249.59 seconds. Next in line were the University of British Columbia (UBC) 254.40, St. Olaf's Colklege 255.46, and Whitman 256.39.
"It was really unfortunate that Andy had his ski pop off when he hooked the tip," Olson said. "We normally rely on him to finish a second or two ahead of anyone else on our team. He's also one of the few Americans who can really challenge some of the top (European) skiers in the field. Andy has been such a great skier for us that it was a shame to see his last race go like that."
In final team scoring for the two men's alpine events, Sierra Nevada was a clear-cut winner with two points. Plymouth State was second with four points, followed by UBC in third with seven points and Whitman in fourth with eight points. Boston College and St. Olaf's tied for fifth with 11 points.
In the combined individual scoring for men's alpine events, Craven finished eighth, Woodruff was 11th and Macfarlane 14th.
In final team scoring for women's alpine events, Sierra Nevada reclaimed the title it lost to Whitman a year ago. The Missionaries placed second with five points and Boston College was third with six points. Rounding out the top five were Plymouth State with 11 points and UBC with 12.
In the individual combined scoring for women's alpine, Aylward placed eighth and Nelson was 14th. Backstrom placed 18th.
In the women's cross country relay Saturday, the Air Force Academy took first in one
hour, 9 minutes and 7.4 seconds. Clarkson finished in second, about 41 seconds behind. The
Whitman women -- Alicia Fine-Morrison, Jamey Allsop and Taylor Dale -- were fifth in one
hour, 16 minutes, 54.3 seconds, about 90 seconds out of third place.
In the women's individual cross country combined scoring, Dale finished fourth, Dale was 13th and Allsop 14th. In the team scoring for cross country combined, Whitman finished in a fifth-place tie with Cornell.
As they have in recent years, Whitman skiers will return to campus with numerous All-American awards. That honor went to all athletes who placed in the top 15 in alpine events and all cross country skiers who placed in the top 10.