Powder Rangers Triumph At Winter Games

OH SKI SKI MO’FUCKER, OH SKI SKI GODDAMN

Two Victoria University students were carving it up at the 2012 University Snow Games, while most were avoiding their study during the mid-semester break.

Victoria’s team, made up of Paul Jensen and Courtney Tate joined 100 other New Zealand University students who hit the slopes at Cardrona and Treble Cone in Wanaka last week.

Otago University’s eight-year hold on the Michael Forrestall Memorial Shield was broken this year when Auckland University

took home the overall win.

Victoria placed third overall behind AUT, gaining a number of medals in individual events.

Tate took home first place in the Giant Slalom Female Ski, second place in the Halfpipe and Big Air events, and third in the Skills Slalom Female Ski.

Jensen, a third year industrial design student, gained a comfortable first in the Male Cross Country and a third as a one-man show in the Biathlon team event.

The Biathlon proved to be one of the most popular events at the games, an unlikely combination of cross-country skiing and laser shooting.

Jensen was first introduced to Cross Country Skiing on a school exchange to Norway, and this was his second year competing in the games.

“The competition was really fun, I’m looking forward to entering next year,” he said.

However University Sport executive director Peter McDonald says the number of competitors has dropped significantly since previous years.

He said this was “reasonably indicative of what the voluntary student membership has done but added that unfavourable snow conditions and the large cost of the event for many students contributed to the loss.

The cost of attending the games averaged at $1000, but some students paid as little as $500 because of subsidies from their universities or student associations.

Victoria University’s team was not subsidised this year.