The men’s alpine team, meanwhile, struggled with the same issue that has plagued it all season—putting together clean races. The group finished 10th in both the giant slalom and the slalom.

“They’re skiing extremely fast,” Mitchell said. “The encouraging part is that instead of the guys having a bunch of mistakes, it’s just a few mistakes. They’re getting much closer to a clean run.”

But the skiers were given one last day to prove themselves against the collegiate field, where Sheils and sophomore Kevin McNamara had their best finishes of the weekend.

Yesterday was an exhibition day as the races don’t officially count for Carnival scores. But the individual placement impacts athletes’ starting position in Carnival Races. Thus, the entire collegiate field stays the extra day to try to secure a strong starting position, which will allow them to ski when the conditions are fastest. The day is also an opportunity for reserves to see competitive action, which makes the field bigger and deeper than it is in the official season races.

And for Sheils, yesterday’s exhibition was an opportunity to make a statement. The freshman had crashed in the official slalom race, but on Sunday she stayed on her skis and finished third overall in the collegiate field.

McNamara also improved greatly over his Carnival performance, earning a combined score of 22nd following a 38th-place finish in the giant slalom and a slalom race in which he did not finish the day before.

“It’s good to do these [extra] races,” Mitchell said. “Both [Sheils] and Kevin see, ‘This is how well I can compete against the field.’ Everyone’s really looking forward to racing at Dartmouth next weekend.”

There we’ll find out if history repeats itself.

—Staff writer Christina C. McClintock can be reached at ccmcclin@fas.harvard.edu.