Unbelievable conditions, foreign skiers, and varsity programs led to a disappointing finish last week for the men's ski team at the national championships.

The team finished 15th out of 17 teams in the giant slalom on Wednesday and 12th out of 15 teams in the slalom on Friday for a combined total of 14th overall for the week.

Brigham Young won the national championship, placing first in both the giant slalom and slalom. Western State from Colorado finished second and Central Oregon Community College finished third. All three teams are varsity sports and are able to give scholarships.

On the first day the giant slalom, unbearable conditions characterized the day. "At the top of the giant slalom it was snowing heavily and the winds were about 30 mph," captain Yaz Grotnik said. "At the middle of the course it was raining very heavily and the visibility was low."

Coach Bob Christensen said the visibility was only about 10 meters, or one gate. The men's top two skiers, Rich Cellich and Tom Kennington, both crashed on their runs.

"The giant slalom was tough because it was snowing at the top of the hill and raining at the bottom," Cellich said. "I fell on a tough gate that most of the people were having trouble with."

"Our strategy was to have Rich and Tom just go all out and try to place as high as they could but when they both fell it threw our plans off," Grotnik said.

The top men finishers in the giant slalom were Chris Joyce (53rd), Scott Peterson (57th) and Yaz Grotnik (58th).

On Friday the team fared only slightly better even though the sunny conditions made for better skiing.

Cellich was seeded third and looked forward to skiing on the good conditions. But his excitement turned into disappointment as he made a mistake on the steep hill.

"I hit a gate on the top and the next thing I knew I was five gates down the hill," he said.

Chris Joyce and Grotnik finished 26th (fifth best in the East) and 44th, respectively, in the slalom.

"It was not the fastest race of my life but because the conditions were a little rutty I thought it was my best finish ever,"Joyce said.

"With only two finishers we finished 12th," Christensen said. "If we only had one more finisher we could have placed in the top 10."

Christensen said that he could not be to disappointed with the finish because most of the schools there are full varsity sports that give skiers scholarships. Other than Penn State, the University of Penn was the only other club team participating in the nationals.

"When you have to compete against varsity programs that can lure talent away from other schools with scholarships, it is tough," Grotnik said.

Penn State also had to compete against foreign skiers brought in by the top schools. Brigham Young University's top three skiers are all imports from Norway.

"Competing against international talent makes the task almost impossible," Joyce said.

The poor finish did not put a damper on the successful season of the team.

"We were happy to go to the nationals," Cellich said. "And now we look forward to good things next year."