SUN VALLEY, Idaho -- Some unfortunate spills cost the Clarkson University Alpine Ski team any chance of besting its top performance at the USCSA National Championships, but the Golden Knights downhill skiers produced some impressive results last week in Idaho.

Clarkson's men placed 9th of 20 teams overall and the women came in 15th out of 20 teams in the combined standings.

The Knights opened with a solid performance on Wednesday as Clarkson's women finished 11th out of 20 teams. Junior Jill Clevenger (LaGrangeville, NY) finished 29th in the giant slalom in 2:35.47 to lead Clarkson's downhill skiers. Freshman Emilie Garand (Yarmouth, ME) came in 41st, six seconds behind Clevenger, and senior Meghan Cleason (Canandaigua, NY) crossed the finish line five seconds later in 48th place. Clarkson had some tough luck as one of its top performers all season, Sophie LeBlanc (Cumberland, ME) could not qualify with a did not finish, and Sarah Shafer (Petoskey, MI) finished with the same fate.

On Thursday, JP Phaneuf (Montreal, QUE) fell short of solidifying himself as a USCSA All-American, placing 21st in the giant slalom in 2:22.50. Freshman Christian Perryman (West Lebanon, NH) took 31st and classmate Matt Bonner (Killington, VT) followed one spot behind. Junior Cedrik Proteau-Dubois (Ste. Adele, QUE) came in 39th and sophomore David Simon (Montvale, NJ) rounded out Clarkson's skiers with a 47th place showing out of 106 skiers.

Friday's slalom was a disappointment for the Clarkson women as only Shafer, who finished in 38th place, had two runs without an error. Clevenger came in 62nd after having to hike down the hill, though she was 31st following her first run. Unfortunately, Cleason, LeBlanc and Garand either disqualified or did not finish.

Clarkson's men made up for the women in Saturday in their run at the slalom. Bonner rushed down the mountain for an 18th place finish, and Perryman repeated his giant slalom finish by coming in 31st. Simon also did well by taking 37th. Only 63 skiers out of more than 100 finished both runs.

For the overall combined standings, Bonner came in18th and Perryman was 21st. David Simon took 25th, Phaneuf finished 49th and Proteau-Dubois came in 61st out of 113 skiers. For the women, among 109 participants, Clevenger was the top overall performer in 36th. Freshmen Shafer and Garand finished back to back in 66th and 67th place, respectively, while Cleason was 75th and LeBlanc came in 104th.