Team Illinois ended the fall season with a great weekend of skiing in Arvin, California for the NCWSA D1 Nationals. 14 members of our team flew out last Wednesday to compete against some of the best skiers in the world. Both women and men slalomed on Thursday: Kathleen Nolan and Kara Builta skied their personal bests...while the men probably earned their personal worsts. Men's trick and women's jump kept the team in 11th place for the remainder of Friday, but the men redeemed themselves by jumping exceptionally well during the last event of the tournament with the help of some spirit from a very enthusiastic Team Midwest. Jason Stelzer jumped his personal best and Mark Cassidy jumped near his personal best and broke the Men's team Jump record after being given what may have been the record for the most cheeks involved in one mooning (To view team records, please visit the records page). At the awards banquet on Saturday night, the University of Illinois was awarded with a trophy for 10th place out of all the collegiate teams in the country. We partied even better than we skied and even enjoyed our time in the airport before our flight the following morning. We look forward to a winter full of team bonding with upcoming social events such as the apartment scramble and team barcrawl! 

      For a full listing of results from the 2009 NCWSA Nationals visit www.ncwsa.com 

      If you have pictures from this tournament that could be put on the website, please send an email to illiniexec@gmail.com with a subject of "Tournament Pictures"