April 28, 2003

Amherst, Mass. - The University of Massachusetts ski team announced today that seven athletes have received USCSA All-American accolades.

Selected as first team All-Americans were junior captain Beau Gibson (Oakland, Md.), senior Carolyn Lewenberg (Newton, Mass.) and sophomore Nikki Smith (Okemos, Mich.). Second team honors were awarded to senior captain Molly Lyon (Pittsfield, Mass.) and freshman Caitlyn Doughty (Quincy, Mass.).

Freshman Pat Bachant (Hubbardston, Mass.) was named a second team Academic All-American, while graduate student Nick Kulkarni (Troy, Mich.) received Academic Honorable Mention.

"I am very happy for all of these athletes," said UMass Head Ski Coach Igor Vanovac. "They all worked really hard and earned these awards."

Coach Vanovac views the awards as another building block upon which the team can continue to improve.

"Looking toward next season, we will lose Lewenberg, Lyon and Kulkarni to graduation," said Vanovac. "We will still have four of them on the roster, though. We are already getting excited for next year's competitions. We have established that we are a good program that can compete at the highest level, and that we have some of the division's top athletes. Hopefully this will help us with recruiting as well."