If his best skier stays on her feet, then his team has a chance to do do well at the national championships this week.

If she wipes out, well, there’s always next winter.

But the way Kelly O’Hear is racing for the Brown ski team, she can finish on the podium in the slalom and giant slalom at the U.S. Collegiate Ski Association Championships in Winter Park, Colo.

“Kelly is on fire right now,” Brown’s third-year coach Mike LeBlanc said.

O’Hear, a senior from the booming ski town of Niagara Falls, has won her last five races and last weekend led the Bears to a three-way tie for first place with Colby-Sawyer and Boston College at the USCSA Eastern Regionals at Waterville Valley, N.H. More about that tie in a minute.

O’Hear won the slalom with a combined time of 1:35.98, almost two seconds faster than the second-place finisher. She came back the next day and won the giant slalom in 2:14.12.

“No one is close to her. As long as she stands up, we’ll do well (at the nationals),” LeBlanc said.

O’Hear won the slalom and giant slalom at the Boston College Carnival at Mt. Ascutney, Vt., Feb. 10-11 and the giant slalom at the MIT Carnival at Loon Mountain Feb. 3.

“She is very solid, but she does have a tendency to ski on the edge,” LeBlanc said. “In the beginning of the year she was having trouble finishing.”

Now she is finishing, and finishing first.

“With her, it’s a confidence thing. She gets better the more she skis, the more she trains. Some girls can just jump in like it was mid-season last year. She can’t,” her coach said.

And training for this season became a huge challenge because of the balmy weather in November and December. There was little to no snow anywhere in New England.

“It was really tough. In December we didn’t get any training. Right after Christmas we went to Waterville Valley, and they didn’t have anything open. A lot of teams were up there vying for hill space. We were sharing with MIT,” LeBlanc said.

Brown is closed for most of January, so the ski team usually trains at Waterville Valley for three weeks. Not this winter.

“We were there for two weeks, and we trained for two days. For our first race we didn’t have any time in the gates at all,” LeBlanc said.

So it was no surprise that Brown finished fourth in the slalom and sixth in the giant slalom at the UConn Carnival at Mt. Cranmore, N.H.

For the last week of January, the Bears moved to Wildcat in Pinkham Notch and “got in four days of great training. It made all the difference in the world,” the coach said.

Brown finished second and fourth in two slaloms at the Plymouth State Carnival at Waterville Valley. The Bears finished third in the giant slalom at the Colby Sawyer Carnival at Mt. Sunapee, N.H., and fourth in the slalom at the St. Anselm’s Carnival at Pats Peak, N.H.

Returning to their home snow at Wachusett Mountain, the Bears finished fourth in the slalom at their own carnival and second at the MIT race at Loon, where O’Hear launched her streak.

O’Hear grew up in Niagara Falls but got her ski training at the Stratton Mountain School in Vermont.

Brown has other skiers capable of Top 15 finishes at Winter Park and All-America recognition. Freshman Elisa Handbury finished sixth in the slalom and 13th in the giant slalom at the Eastern Regionals. Junior Sophie Elgort was 12th in the SL and seventh in the GS. Sophomore Anna Bengston was 10th in the GS.

Hanbury is from Sydney, Australia, and developed her ski legs at Green Mountain Valley School in Vermont. Elgort comes from New York City, and when she became too good for the hills of Central Park she did her secondary school ski work at Green Mountain Valley. Bengston is from St. Johnsbury at the top of Vermont and received her secondary school race training at Burke Mountain Academy, which produced Olympians Diann Roffe Steinrotter and the Parisien sisters, Julie and Anna.

“Elisa had to make a big adjustment to skiing on a college team after coming from a ski academy. She has put down some really fast runs,” LeBlanc said.

“For Anna the difference between this year and last year is huge. She is consistently in the top 10. She can just hang in there. Sophie is very consistent, which we always need. She scores for us every single race.”

LeBlanc also praised the skiing of junior Mallory Taub, “a great giant slalom skier” from Waitsfield, Vt., which is Sugarbush and Mad River Glen country, and junior Meaghan Casey, a slalom specialist from Bristol, Conn.

The Bears will leave today and train for two days in the higher altitude of Winter Park. Races are scheduled for Wednesday and Friday.

LeBlanc said a top-five finish would be a solid result, but added, ``I think we can be on the podium.” That special place is reserved for first, second and third.

Now, back to the three-way tie at the Eastern Regional. Brown finished second in each race. Boston College won the slalom and was third in the giant slalom. Colby Sawyer won the giant slalom and was third in the slalom. The order of finish determined the points for each team: one point for first, two for second, etc. The lower the point total, the better.

Brown’s two second-place finishes equaled four points. First and a third for Colby-Sawyer and Boston College equaled four points. Thus, the tie.

LeBlanc and other coaches were disappointed that officials did not use a tie-breaking procedure.

“I’m confused as to why they didn’t calculate it. Any way you do it, we win,” the Brown coach said.

The easiest tie-breaker is adding the finish position of each individual on a team, also known as place points.

“We win on place points,” LeBlanc said. “I’m frustrated. I’m really bummed.”

But the good news is that the top five teams from the regionals qualified for nationals so there wasn’t really a need for a tie-breaker except for bragging rights.

mszostak@projo.com