Yes… Concordia really does have a ski team!

With two races to go before the finals, Concordia’s ski team is gradually
working its way up the university circuit rankings with high spirits.
“The competition this year on the circuit is very strong, but we have good, solid rookies as well as veterans and our team spirit is very good,” said Pierre-Etienne Seguin, both team coach and a racer. “Everyone is motivated in racing together as a team.”
Although conditions were very icy, the 16 members of the team put out strong performances the past two races.
Their first race was at Mont-Adstock, where Michelle Yeates, a talented rookie, came close to winning gold in the women’s Giant Slalom, finishing 0.10 seconds behind Celine Savin of UQAM.
Last weekend, Concordia’s ski team raced their first slalom of the season at Mont-Joye. Michelle Yeates skied aggressively all weekend, but struggled through both her second runs and was unable to finish.
In the men’s division, Alexander Tyszkiewicz had the best performance of the weekend for the team, finishing eighth on Saturday.
Although the team has shown some good potential in their performance, some improvements need to be made.
“Our girls’ team is not strong enough, not competitive enough,” Seguin said.
Other than Yeates, who has skied competitively for several years on the FIS circuit, the other four women are just beginning to learn the strides of ski racing.
“We are not very consistent in our skiing,” added Seguin.
Through the past two races, Concordia’s skiers have shown strong performances early in the day, but have not been able to keep going, either getting disqualified on their second runs or finishing with poor times.
The team is currently ranked sixth in the university standings but they hope to finish fifth.
Their biggest competition this year is Sherbrooke and they hope to ride past them over the next two races.
“The last two races were very hard, but next weekend’s giant slalom will be interesting because it’s an easy course, so it will be a fair race,” Seguin said.
The giant slalom will take place at Mont-Sutton. On Mar. 6 and Mar. 7, the ski team will compete in its last slalom before the finals at Camp Fortune.