FOUR SKIERS RECEIVE EISA ALL-EAST TEAM HONORS

VERONIQUE ARCHAMBAULT-LEGER

PAUL ATKINSON

AILEEN FARRELL

DYLAN McGUFFIN

DURHAM, N.H. -- Veronique Archambault-Leger (Verdun, Quebec), Paul Atkinson (Toronto, Ontario), Aileen Farrell (Ottawa, Ontario) and Dylan McGuffin (Northfield, N.H.) of the University of New Hampshire ski team were named to the All-East Team by the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association on Tuesday. Archambault-Leger, Atkinson and McGuffin all garnered First Team accolades and Farrell was a Second Team honoree.

The skiers received this distinction for being ranked among the top 10 in the EISA Rankings, which takes the best two scores of the combined disciplines -- slalom and giant slalom for alpine, and classic and freestyle for Nordic -- in the six EISA carnivals of the 2010 season.

Archambault-Leger, who has been an All-East Team honoree all four years, recorded a best two combined score of 249 points to rank fifth overall. She completed the EISA season last weekend by winning the women's slalom and placing third in the giant slalom at the Eastern Championships. Archambault-Leger recorded five other top-10 finishes, including third place in the slalom at both the Dartmouth and Vermont winter carnivals, this season. Overall, she was UNH's top finisher in five races. She was particularly strong in the slalom, where she recorded the team’s fastest time four times and did not finish lower than seventh overall at any carnival.

Atkinson, a sophomore, tallied the fourth-highest best two combined score of 221 points to earn All-East Team accolades for the first time. He recorded seven top-10 finishes overall with two finishes on the podium; he was UNH's top 'Cat seven times this season, including both the slalom and giant slalom at the EISAs and Williams each of the past two weeks. Most recently at the EISA Championships, Atkinson was third in the slalom and seventh in the giant slalom. He skied to a season-best second place in the slalom at Williams and also finished fifth in the GS at that carnival.

Farrell, a senior, had the ninth-best top two combined score of 200 points to make the All-East Team for the second time in as many years. She had a total of nine top-10 finishes during the EISA carnival season. Farrell was the top UNH finisher four times, including a third-place finish in the giant slalom at Dartmouth as well as fourth-place finishes in the GS at St. Lawrence and the slalom at Williams. Last weekend at the EISA Championships, Farrell placed sixth in the giant slalom.

McGuffin had a breakout senior season in which he was UNH's top finisher in nine of 10 races. He recorded a best two combined score of 244 points, which ranked fifth overall. McGuffin opened the 2010 season at St. Lawrence by winning the 20k freestyle race; one day earlier, he finished third overall in the 10k classic. He followed that with a third-place effort in the 15k free at St. Michael's and one week later finished on the podium again with another third-place finish in the 15k free at Vermont. At the EISAs, McGuffin skied to sixth place in the 20k free to mark his fifth top-10 finish of the season.