Juniors JP Phaneuf (Montreal, QUE) and Sophie LeBlanc (Cumberland, ME) opened the 2011 season by pacing the Clarkson Univeristy Alpine Ski team to a pair of wide-margin victories Saturday afternoon at the Colgate Invitational held at Toggenburg Mountain.

Both the Golden Knights men's and women's teams took first among seven teams in the slalom event at Toggenburg. Clarkson's men combined to take first by more than 33 seconds total, while the women held a 27-second lead over the second-place squad.

JP Phaneuf was the combined slalom winner with a time of 1:24.37 in two runs down Toggenburg, while classmate Cedrik Proteau-Dubois (Ste. Adele, QUE) was second in 1:25.26. Another junior, John Bennett (Queensbury, NY), took third in 1:27.78. Freshman Christian Perryman (West Lebanon, NH) marked his collegiate debut with a sixth-place finish, while last season's first-year sensation David Simon (Montvale, NJ) came in 13th. Simon's first run wasn't his best, but his second run of 43.85 was the best performance of any skier on the course.

The Clarkson men took the first three spots in the overall standings on Saturday, and the Golden Knight women did them one better by taking the top four spots. LeBlanc paced the field with a time of 1:31.44, while freshman Sarah Shafer (Petoskey, MI) took second in 1:33.54. The next two Clarkson skiers finished one-tenth of a second or closer to Shafer, with junior Jill Clevenger (LaGrangeville, NY) taking third in 1:33.60 and senior Meghan Cleason (Canandaigua, NY) finishing fourth in 1:33.64. Shafer's classmate Emilie Garand (Yarmouth, ME) placed sixth in 1:38.39.

The Golden Knights will try to repeat the performance on Sunday when all of the teams compete in the giant slalom.