After a three-year losing streak to the University of Vermont over Winter Carnival weekend, the Dartmouth ski team hopes to regain dominance in the division with a win. The annual races will be held at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center and the Dartmouth Skiway from Feb. 8-9.
Dartmouth will host most of the schools in the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association, including Boston College, Bates College, Bowdoin College, Colby College, the University of New Hampshire, Harvard University, Middlebury College, Williams College, St. Lawrence University and UVM.
Team members said they are excited to have the home field advantage for the Carnival races.
"It's a blast," cross-country ski team member Sam Tarling '13 said. "It's the best race of the year when we do it on home snow."
Sara Kikut '16 said the team will benefit from competing in slalom at the Dartmouth Skiway.
Younger members of the team said they were looking forward to their first Carnival.
"I think we have better skiing to look forward to," Lizzie Kistler '16 said. "It sounds like a really fun event."
Women's alpine coach Chip Knight said the weekend is traditionally a good experience for the team.
"Dartmouth Carnival is the oldest on the circuit," Knight said. "It makes it very exciting when there's a lot of people there to cheer us on."
After placing second overall at the UVM Winter Carnival in Stowe, Vt., and finishing second overall at St. Lawrence's Winter Carnival, the team expects to continue the momentum through Dartmouth's Winter Carnival competition.
"It'll be the first carnival this year that we'll be at full strength," Knight said. "We'll try and win the darn thing of course."
Members of the Class of 2016 have greatly contributed to the strength of the women's alpine team, he said.
Alpine skier Ben Morse '14 said that the new members of the team are doing "exceptionally" well.
Dartmouth earned 189 points in total at UVM, with the women's team receiving 111 points and the men's team posting 78 points.
The younger members of the women's team ranked within the top ten in their heats at UVM. Kistler led the team with a fourth-place, two-run time of 2:08.69. Aylin Woodward '15 finished in fifth place with a time of 2:08.80. Abby Fucigna '15 finished with a time of 2:09.11 in ninth place.
At UVM, the men's alpine team placed within the top 20 of their division.
Hunter Black '15 finished in 11th place with a time of 2:04.67. Morse finished with a time of 2:05.85 in 21st place, and Robert Overing '16 was the rookie leader with a 19th-place finish and a time of 2:05.44.
Despite finishing second at St. Lawrence, the women's slalom team ranked within the top 10 in their heats. Kistler led the women's team with a sixth-place finish in giant slalom and a third-place finish in slalom. Kikut secured a seventh-place finish with a time of 1:31.02.
The men on the alpine ski team were well represented at St. Lawrence by Black, who placed fourth in his heat and Morse, who placed 12th.
The men and women's Nordic ski team also competed at St. Lawrence. Carly Wynn '15 secured a third place finish in the women's three-kilometer prologue, while Megan Killigrew '13 and Haley Piske '16 finished 17th and 28th, respectively. Six members of the men's Nordic ski team finished within the top 12 in the three-kilometer prologue. Thomas Rabon '16 led the team with a fifth-place finish and was followed by teammate Scott Lacy '13, who finished sixth.
Both the Nordic and alpine ski teams found the extended winter break helpful for pre-season training, and the Nordic team trained for an additional two weeks in Utah, Nordic ski team coach Cami Thompson said.
"It was nice to have race preparation, not just two weeks of training," she said.
The men's alpine ski team also gained valuable experience from the Colorado training trip, men's alpine ski team coach Peter Dodge said.
"It gave us an opportunity for more training and everyone had fun," he said. "It was a good way to see the team come together."
