Student ski team grabs national spotlight

Seven members of the university Men’s Alpine Ski Team will compete in the 2001 United States Collegiate Snowsport Association National Championships.

The national meet will be held at Bogus Basin Ski Area, Idaho, about 20 miles north of Boise, March 5-10.

The skiers qualified for nationals at the regional competition two weeks ago at Marquette, Mich. The seven will compete in the slalom and giant slalom events at nationals, says Emily Bosio, publicity coordinator for the Hoofer Ski Club.

“The UW Alpine Team is one of three competitive teams that are part of the Hoofers Ski and Snowboard Club,” Bosio says. “The Alpine Team had its early beginnings in the mid-1930s as a ski-jumping club with the involvement of Porter Butts, who was the first director of the Wisconsin Union.”

Bosio says the Hoofer men’s and women’s squads are clubs, while many of their competitors are on varsity ski teams. “We do not receive any university funding like many of the private and other Division I schools that we compete against,” says Bosio, who is a member of the UW Women’s Alpine Team and last year’s captain. “We are partially funded through Hoofers and we do most of our fundraising at our annual Ski Resale every December at the Memorial Union which benefits the Nordic, Freestyle and Alpine ski teams.”

Members of the Alpine ski team who qualified for nationals include: Bill Schmitt, freshman, 18, Hudson, Wis., pre-med; Eric Charpentier, junior, 20, Brainerd, Minn., industrial engineering; Dakota Dux, sophomore, 19, co-captain, Hartford, Wis., computer engineering; Greg Sutcliffe, senior, 22, co-captain, Hudson, N.H., atmospheric science and meteorology; Ryan Webster, sophomore, 19, Milwaukee, Wis., engineering; Andy Taschler, freshman, 18, Wausau, Wis., business; Sean Tilton, junior, 21, Minnetonka, Minn., economics and English.