The ten regular season races of 2015 are behind us. Here is a table showing the results of all of the Women's teams in the Mideast conference, or the New York region, as it is also known. 9 points were given for each 1st place finish, 8 points for each 2nd place finish on down to one point for each 9th place. Since two different sites within the state host races each weekend, this table also shows how many times UB has faced each of these regional foes.

What does this tell us? First of all, of these 16 teams, only 6 had more podium points than UB. Secondly, UB was easily the most inconsistent team, finishing within a range of 7 places. Two teams tied for the second most inconsistent spot, finishing within only 5 places. In fact, Buffalo only had three racers, required for an overall team time, finish four times. When that happened, they showed that they could complete. They finished in 2nd place once, 3rd place twice and in 4th place once.

Finally, it is stunningly clear who the top 3 teams are. None of them ever finished outside of the podium positions. Why is it important to know who the top three teams are? The single best individual from each region, who is not already part of a qualifying team is also invited to Nationals. The following table shows the participants from last year's national championships. It provides a glimpse into the alignment of the 11 Conferences to the 6 Regions, and the typical allotment of teams that each Region gets to send to Nationals.

Well then, how do the individuals rank at the end of this year's regular season? Of the 120 women who competed in the Region, here are the 17 racers who got to experience the podium at least one time during the year.

Buffalo's own Erika Bradley raced her way to the podium in 8 of the 10 events held this year! Only one other woman in New York placed more consistently. And, Erika's accomplishments came while racing against experienced competition. The individuals and teams shown in bold represent competitors who participated in last year's national championships. In fact, if you extent past these 17, seven of the top 20 women in the region went to Nationals last year. Kenzi Dignes, from Cornell, even finished as a 2nd team All American last year. In contrast to Buffalo's lean team, it is worth noting that Syracuse had 8 women who finished at least 1 conference race in the top ten this season.

The UB Ski Team might be 'just a little known club', but it is also one that consistently competes against some of the better clubs in the nation. If you are searching for a moral to this story, it might be that Dummy Times really hurt. Within a school of thirty thousand students, finding just five racers in order to fill out a full team shouldn't be that difficult. Even building a team around three racers, supplemented by two average skiers would likely eliminate the need to use dummy times. This would end the team's inconsistency and narrow it's range of finishes. It would enable the team to compete for a trip to Nationals, each and every year.

Why hasn't this article mentioned the men's team? To be honest, they have a very similar situation - lack of depth. Like Monique Mitchell, Nick Kreuter and Preston Palmer have shown flashes of brilliance, but none of them has been as consistent as Erika.

What is the next step? Everything about the regular season is only useful for projecting into the future. Regional races will be held this weekend. Instead of two sets of separate Mideast conference races, all sixteen teams within the New York region will race together at the same event. When it comes to being invited to the National Championship, only the Regional results matter, and not the regular season standings.

Good luck to all of UB's racers!