Dartmouth is King of the Hill ... Again

With so many older, international students competing for Western schools, it's hard for the Dartmouth ski team to challenge for the national team championship. Individually, however, the Big Green has quite a streak going and it continued last night at Steamboat as this story from Ski Racing News reports:

Dartmouth College should be allowed to retire the NCAA slalom trophy. Karl Johnson gave the Big Green its fifth straight men’s slalom title under the lights on Howelsen Hill Friday.

The ECACHL co-champion Dartmouth men's ice hockey team dispatched Yale last night 5-1 before another crowd of 4,000-plus at Thompson Arena. With a win tonight the Big Green will punch its ticket to Albany. ... The Ivy League tri-champion women's basketball team, meanwhile, is a game away from another trip to the NCAA Tournament after defeating Brown last night, 73-62 in the first round of the Ivy League tiebreaker. Dartmouth plays Princeton tomorrow afternoon for the league's automatic bid. (My family and I were at the game in New Haven last night and we'll head down against tomorrow. Having covered the team for almost 20 years, I enjoy watching them play, know the kids and consider coach Chris Wielgus a friend.) ... The Mobile Register writes about Dartmouth alum Mike Slive's '62 ascendancy in 2002 to SEC commissioner and notes he'll be in Indianapolis this weekend as a member of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Selection Committee. The Register story notes:

The commissioner of Conference USA, with his Ivy League pedigree (Dartmouth) and his cerebral approach to problem solving, was not given much of a chance of taking over the most prestigious commissioner's post in collegiate athletics.

I try to limit how much I "bug" Dartmouth's pro athletes during their season. Hence, I touched base with Casey Cramer after the playoffs and Jay Fiedler before the season. Shortly before the Arena League kicked off this year I left a message with Brian Mann, always a good one at getting back to me. When I didn't hear from BMann, I figured he had a lot on his plate in the run up to his first season as the Los Angeles Avengers' starter. Well, I got a quick note from Brian last night apologizing for not responding (not to worry, Brian ;-). Brian reports that the "slight" ankle issue I reported he's been battling since the opening game is more than slight. He actually tore a ligament. Still, he sounded good and a little feisty about winning back the starting position. Brian didn't share this next nugget; I got it elsewhere. You know when he got hurt? The final play of the opening game, the Avengers' only win. The Arena League won't allow quarterbacks to drop back and kneel on the final plays, like every other league in existence. So with the game in hand and seconds remaining, Brian had to run the play in which he was hurt.