Hancock, MA - With plenty of fresh snow from a northeast winter snowstorm, the Clarkson University Alpine Ski team started off the UConn Invitational with a strong showing on Thursday afternoon at St. Jiminy Peak.

The Golden Knights' men's team came in first among eight groups by a narrow margin, topping the second-place team by just six-tenths of a second overall, while the women finished tied for fourth among 10 teams on the first day of competition.

Senior JP Phaneauf (Montreal, QUE) was the top skier in both runs and finished first overall among the 58 skiers with a composite time of 1:35.93. Classmates Cedrik Proteau-Dubois (Ste. Adele, QUE) and Bill O'Connor (Mahopac, NY) followed Phaneauf in the first run, taking second and third, respectively, but the pair couldn't quite match the performance on the second time down the mountain, with Proteau-Dubois placing third overall (1:37.47) and O'Connor taking fourth (1:37.54). Senior John Bennett (Queensbury, NY) and freshman Alex Slemp (Clifton Park, NY) rounded out Clarkson's top five by coming in 17th and 33rd, respectively. Connor O'Toole (Owasco, NY) took 41st.

On the women's side, Clarkson improved on last week's overall performance with a steadier showing across the board. Sophie LeBlanc (Cumberland, ME) was the top woman for the Knights, coming in 11th overall in a time of 1:49.96 among the 72 female skiers. Jill Clevenger (LaGrangeville, NY) took 17th overall in 1:53.36 and freshman Hailey Gilmore (Woodbury, CT) rounded out the scoring for the Knights in 27th place in 1:57.21. Sophomore Sarah Shafer (Petoskey, MI) came in 36th and Rachel Barat (New Rochelle, NY) was 54th overall.

Friday afternoon in the giant slalom, the Knights' women again finished fourth amoung 10 teams, but this time were considerably closer to the top three, less than six seconds off the pace set by the first-place team. LeBlanc came in third place among the 74 skiers as the event was limited to a single run, finishing in 59.71 seconds. Clevenger took 13th overall in 1:01.95, and Gilmore again finished off the top three for Clarkson with a 27th place finish in 1:04.74. Shafer came in 46th and Mycala Stebbins (Canandaigua, NY) was 47th.

For the second straight week, Clarkson finished second to Castleton State on the men's side. JP Phaneauf was second overall out of 74 racers in 58.01 seconds while Cedrik-Proteau Dubois finished third overall in 58.43. John Bennett was 16th in 1:01.27 to finish the Knights' top three. O'Toole and Slemp rounded out the scoring for Clakson, coming in 19th and 31st, respectively. Bill O'Connor came in 33rd and Chris Gero (St. Albans, VT) was 35th overall, while Erik Obey (Brooklyn, NY) didn't get a chance to finish his run.