Shannon wins national GS championship; Ostroski earns All America

Former Kennett High and MWVST standouts Danielle Shannon and Peter Ostroski left their marks on the U.S. Collegiate Ski Association National Championship last week in Winter Park, Colo. The sophomores from Colby Sawyer College and Plymouth State University garnered All America honors in both GS, slalom and combined with Top 6 finishes. Shannon even won the GS title to take the individual national championship by a staggering 3.59 seconds!Shannon, who lives in Conway, won both runs Wednesday on the challenging Norwegian run and took the GS national championship. Shannon, who won nine of 11 MacConell Division races here in the East this season making her the overall MacConnell Champion, faced stiff competition from around the nation and the field included several strong European ladies who ski for Sierra Nevada College.The Colby Sawyer women's team placed third overall after the top three individual times were taken to calculate the standings. Very strong teams in Westminster and Sierra Nevada placed first and second overall, respectively. However, Shannon stole the show with a combined time of 2:05 flat with the nearest competitor finishing at 2:08.59.Shannon followed up her win by placing fifth on Friday in the slalom, posting a two-run time of 1:26.13. Sierra-Nevada College's Hedvig Spangs won the race in 1:22.24. Western Michigan College's Kendall Brown, who finished second in both the GS and the slalom, just edged Shannon for the overall combined trophy, 27.90 points to 28.38.Ostroski, who lives in Intervale, earned his fourth career All-America honor Thursday to lead Plymouth State Universitys performance in the mens alpine giant slalom at the Championships. Ostrowski placed sixth overall in the combined time of two GS runs (1:58.95), duplicating his place at last years national championships when he earned his first All-America honor. He was in sixth place after one run and held his spot in the afternoon session. Ostroski was the second finisher among Eastern skiers, behind Travis Plass of Colby-Sawyer College, who placed third.The Panther men placed fifth as a team among the 20 competing schools, with two PSU skiers finishing in the top 15 among the 109 competitors. Perennial power Sierra Nevada College won the team championship with the fastest combined time of its top three finishers, less than a second faster the runner-up Westminster College and third-place team and PSUs regular season rival Colby-Sawyer College. Rocky Mountain College was fourth, just ahead of the Panthers.Ostroski was even better on Saturday, finishing fourth in the slalom in 1:38.59 (Lorentz Gedde-Dahl, of Western Michigan, won the race in 1:35.16) to again earn All America honors.Ostroski finished third overall for the combined trophy with 40.17 points, trailing only Gedde-Dahl, who won both the slalom and GS titles to earn zero points; and Sierra-Nevada College's Mickey Ross, who was second with 37 points. Ostroski was the top American skier at the championships, which earns him a trip to US Ski Association's National Championships at Alyeska, Alaska.Plymouth State placed its first three mens skiers among the top 13 finishers on Saturday in the slalom event, and their combined time over two runs was fast enough to capture the slalom team national championship. The Panthers had a wide victory in the two-run event, with their top-three combined time more than 10 seconds faster than runner-up Colby-Sawyer College. Westminster College and Sierra Nevada College took the next two places and Babson College finished fifth among the 20 schools in the event. The Panthers are led by first-year coach Topher Harlow, of Intervale. PSU mens skiing has a history of winning national championships, claiming the overall alpine titles in 1981 and 1985. The U.S. Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association hosted the 31st Annual Collegiate NationalChampionship at Winter Park Ski Resort March 2-9. Athletes across all four disciplines of AlpineSkiing, Cross-Country Skiing, Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding will convene for competitions that willdetermine the top collegiate teams across the nation. Collegiate athletes representing 68 universities across 6 regions will compete in 26 events within a five-day period. This championship represents the best collegiate athletes from around the country. USCSA has member schools in every geographic region of the United States.