The Biele Breakthrough Continues With Run To NCAA Championships

Parker Biele never joined the Boston College ski team to achieve a bar set for her in the past. She didn't look at a school and enroll to become the proverbial "next one" in a long line of traditional, blue blood powerhouses in her sport. She always wanted something different, where the "next one" really meant "the first one."

Earlier this season, Biele rewrote the Eagle record book with a fourth place finish at the Colby Carnival at Sugarloaf Mountain. This week, she will travel to Bridger Bowl in Montana as the first ever Boston College female skier to compete at the NCAA Championships.

"It's really a super elite level of skier that makes it to the NCAA Championships," head coach Chuck Carmone said. "Most races have over 200 racers, but there's only going to be 45 racers (for each gender). It's really the best of the best, and it combines east coast skiers against west coast skiers. Those are some really elite athletes, and many are skiing for the United States program or another international program. This is the kind of race where anyone can win it because it's that intense of a skill level."

Biele's season story began with the Colby Carnival breakout, but it never slowed down through February. One week after Sugarloaf, she found herself in the starting gate at Sunday River for the Bates Carnival with a course caked in slick, icy conditions after a storm hit the mountain with rain, frozen rain, sleet and a wetter, heavy snow.

"I knew there was a lot of pressure after Sugarloaf," Biele said. "The rule of college skiing is to have two top-10 finishes in order to make it to the NCAAs, but this year was competitive enough to require finishes in the top-7 of every race. These competitions are really deep, and none of the schools have become too dominant."

The conditions forced carnival organizers to switch starting events from giant slalom to slalom, and she earned 14 NCAA points by running a time of 1:57.58. It added pressure to the second day's giant slalom, though Biele attacked the mountain with a first run of 1:06.43, good enough for sixth position."

"I needed that second run at Bates," she said. "Part of me knew I could do it because I had done (a fast run) before. I knew the hill, and it allowed me to go through the visualization and preparation. Plus I was sixth after that first run."

It sounds obvious, but giant slalom is a different technical event because of its size. Skiers hurdle down a mountain through gates spaced further apart, and there's a velocity factor when they hit the slopes. It's not quite on par with speed events like Super G, but it's still a fast-paced way to descend over 1,000 feet.

Biele had raced giant slalom enough times to know potential racing pitfalls, but she never could have prepared for what happened. She hit a gate with less than 10 remaining, and though there's no penalty, her goggles broke, exposing her eyes to the elements of a mountain caked by winter.

"They snapped right in the front," she said. "It was the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me in a race. Four gates (after they broke), they flew off my head, so I went through the finish line with my eyes watering and burning. Everyone had a good laugh, but I had no goggles."

"She hit a gate at around 45 miles per hour," Carmone said. "Some kids would have pulled out because they couldn't see, or they would've thrown a ski sideways to regroup. But she just kept charging."

She finished the second run with a time of 1:14.18, comparable to almost everyone around her. It kept her in sixth place, earning her 40 NCAA points. It all but clinched a spot in the NCAA Championships with two carnivals left on the schedule, realizing the dream in dramatic fashion.

"In the end, it was exciting," Biele said. "I accomplished the goal I worked on for my entire life. That weekend was pretty epic, but the funny part was that I had to keep it to myself because I had to let it become a certainty. My coach and my parents knew, and the rest of the team had a feeling. But I needed to make sure that I performed well in the last races so nobody could take that spot away. I didn't want to play it totally safe, but I didn't want to take too many risks."

The next week, Biele finished 10th at the Williams Carnival to finish the regular season. A week after that, she placed 21st at the EISA Regional Championships hosted by Middlebury College. That made it official, and this week, Biele becomes the first female skier in Boston College history to race at the NCAA Championships.

"She started (this journey) in the fall," Carmone said. "Most athletes go to football games or enjoy their weekends, but Parker drove to Vermont to get a couple of days of skiing. She came into our Thanksgiving camp with 10 or 12 days of mileage. She started preparing for this the first time the thermometer dropped. Right then and there, I knew this kid was on a mission."

"I just kept skiing," Biele said. "I took a week off to get off my skis to get into the gym (before the EISA Regionals). I wanted to get my movements crisp and gain some explosiveness back. It felt great just to get back with training staff to feel like I did at the beginning of the season because I wanted to go into championship season refreshed. But I kept getting better in my explosive training, and that really psyched everyone up in the gym. I was improving in-season, but it let me know that I was building power, even if I wasn't in the gym. It was great because I could clear my head and saw I just kept getting stronger."

Biele now heads to Bozeman, Montana to compete at Bridger Bowl, an 8,000-foot mountain in the southwest portion of the state. It's a unique mountain unlike what skiers experience in the eastern portion of the country, and it highlights the scientific, analytic challenges of a skier like Biele. Though she understands the snow changes, she'll head to the mountain a few days early in order to acclimate and formulate a plan for the ultra-competitive field.

"I did some research and tracked down video on the hill," Biele said. "So I know what to expect as soon as I get out there. But I want to plan my run when I get out there and not just think about the hill when I get in the starting gate. It should be pretty great because it's steep up top for giant slalom before becoming more rolling with terrain. So I can attack the steep and carry momentum into the flats.

"It's a different snow out west," she explained. "But I practiced on that type of snow in the U.S. Junior Nationals competition before Montana. It's dry and soft, which is different from here. If we get soft snow, it's also wet and heavy, but most of the time, we don't even get soft snow. We have a tendency to get ice, so the mountain is an advantage for western skiers. I'm still confident, though, because I practiced in it and know what to expect. I can plan accordingly. I should have a good starting position when it seeds out, so the snow will be in good shape to let me get a good jump."

"It's going to be a lot different from what she's raced out here," Carmone said. "But she's already raced at the U.S. Junior National Championships in Utah, and Snowbasin is very similar to (Montana). It has a similar texture, and it's even a similar, steep course. The courses here are steeper with harder snow, so we're going to get out there just to prepare for the altitude and the snow. Once she gets into that starting gate, she'll be ready to go."

The competition will be intense, but Biele is hardened by the logo on her chest. The Boston College ski team is always a little bit different from other programs, especially the more traditional powers from Dartmouth or Middlebury. The Eagles have had some success - Biele is the first female but not the first overall skier to qualify - but this is hopefully going to usher in a new period for the program, which harbors team goals and team accomplishments as much as it celebrates the individual success.

"We are ready to become a very good team," Biele said. "I'm hoping that this momentum will continue to put BC skiing on the map. This has definitely lit a fire for the entire team. They know the sacrifice that comes with it, but it motivates everyone. I'm looking forward to the end of this season and to move into next season with the consistency of Chuck and our fire. We want to make BC somewhere that's part of this fight."

"We have a real special group of kids coming to BC, but we have a great team that we're also getting to the finish line here," Carmone said. "There's a lot of stuff to wrap up this year, and we're looking forward. It spins a lot of plates, but we also only graduate one skier. We have a really strong, young team, and we're going to bring in strong, young additions. They know it can be done at Boston College, and I think that's going to give everyone extra confidence."

The alpine events for the NCAA Skiing Championships kick off on Wednesday and continue on Friday at Bridger Bowl. Broadcast of the event will be webcast via NCAA.com.

The Biele Breakthrough Continues With Run To NCAA Championships

Players Mentioned

Parker Biele

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