Twenty-seven years can be a long, long time.

That's how long is been since the Harvard men's ski team last finished first in a regular-season inter collegiate carnival.

The drought finally ended over the weekend as the Crimson travelled to Sunday River, Me., and captured the Bowdoin Carnival, the first of four regular-season carnivals i which it will participate.

"It's the first top finish we've had since they began keeping records in 1957," said men's Captain Bill Kealey "As far as I know, the streak could have gone on even longer"

Harvard finished with 254 points for the weekend, three ahead of second place Bowdoin and 13 ahead of third-place finisher Johnson State College of Johnson, Vt.

"It moves us back up to the big time," said Kealey. "We've been on a one-trick pony for a few years."

A ski team is divided into two groups, one competing in Alpine events, the other in Nordic. One event in each category is held on each of the two days of a carnival.

Harvard took both Alpine events behind the brilliant performances of Freshmen Per-Arne Weiner and Dave Wood. Weiner won both the giant slalomlom of Friday and the slalom on Saturday, while Wood placed fourth and third, respectively, in the two events.

Weiner, who hails from Uppsala, Sweden, has been the brightest star of the four freshmen on the six-man squad. He, like Kealey, is optimistic about the squad's future.

"It's great to be part of a progressing program," he said. "Our success came as a surprise to me, because we hadn't trained more than 10 days prior to the competition.

"The fact that four of his out of six are freshmen tells us a lot about the future."

"We've had some bright individuals to the past, but we've never been able to put it together," added Kealey.

"The big difference this year was getting those freshmen," he continued. "It's always tough for a freshman on a varsity team, but these guys have really come through for us."

Kealey, a senior, skis Nordic, where he is joined by the team's two other Yearlings, Dan Carey and John Seybold.

In the 15-kilometer individual event on Friday, Kealey placed third out of more than 50 skiers, while Seybold and Carey finished 13th and 15th respectively.