Saint Michael's College

In its first season of varsity competition, and following just one year as a club outfit, women’s skiing – a combined Alpine and Nordic squad – won the 1983 Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association Division II Championship, becoming the first postseason league championship team in College history. Anne-Birgit Stange captured the individual cross-country race at the EISA Division II Championship by a sizeable one minute and 21 seconds while combining with Mary Clare Cooper and Lynda Dunn to win the 3x5K relay by one minute and 15 seconds. Dunn placed seventh in the individual event, while Cooper took ninth, with both joining Stange as EISA Division II All-East honorees. In Alpine events, Mandy Donaldson was fifth in the giant slalom and sixth in the slalom, as she and Lisa Luedeke both landed All-East accolades. For his efforts, men’s and women’s coach Ben McDivitt was named EISA Division II Coach of the Year for the second straight season. By winning the EISA Division II Championship, the Purple Knights qualified for the EISA Division I Championship, earning an opportunity to compete alongside such national heavyweights as Dartmouth, Middlebury and Vermont. Saint Michael’s was also successful at that championship, taking ninth out of 16 schools. Thanks to her performance at that meet, Stange became the first individual athlete in College history to qualify for an NCAA Championship. She was the lone Alpine or Nordic woman from EISA Division II to compete in the 1983 NCAA Championship, which itself was historically noteworthy as the NCAA’s first combined men’s and women’s skiing championship.  
Ben McDivitt, Head Coach