National powerhouse the University of Vermont was humbled, sort of, as the Big Green men finished 2nd and the women finished 4th at the Colby College Winter Carnival in Maine last weekend.
The Catamounts eventually emerged victorious, but not before several Big Green skiers made things very interesting and certainly not by the margin which some had thought.
In the combined team results, Dartmouth finished 97 points behind champion UVM, but outdistanced third place Middlebury by just 12 points.
The men's cross-country team edged UVM to win the men's 10K freestyle team event at Colby while David Viele '98 highlighted the weekend for the men's alpine team by winning the men's slalom event and then placing second in the giant slalom.
Meanwhile on the women's side, phenom Gusty Swift '01 took advantage of her first carnival race by finishing third in the women's giant slalom and fourth in the women's slalom.
Three Dartmouth racers finished in the top-10 of the men's 10K freestyle race, helping Dartmouth to win the event as a team. Stephen Donahue '99, Scott McArt '01 and Patrick Cote '98 placed fourth, sixth and tenth, respectively. The team members and their coach, Ruff Patterson, all expressed satisfaction with the results, but realized that there is more work to be done.
"We are beginning to ski to our potential," said Donahue.
The skiers had to deal with about eight inches of new snow which fell, making the race significantly more difficult. Despite the extra snow, UVM star Thorodd Bakken had the fastest time in the men's event for the second week in a row.
In the 4x5 mixed classic relay, Dartmouth skied to fourth and sixth place finishes. The fourth place team of McArt, Chris Shaner '99, Donahue and Abi Holt '99 crossed the finish line under a minute behind the winning UVM team.
Individually, Holt finished fourth in the women's 5K freestyle event, improving on her sixth place finish at last weekend's St. Lawrence carnival. Teammate Shaner finished tenth.
Viele's first place finish in the men's slalom was by a mere 0.13 seconds. He finished 0.4 seconds behind Thomas Vonn, the winner in the Giant Slalom discipline. Viele cannot be too dissappointed, as Vonn may qualify to ski the GS in Nagano.
Men's alpine coach Peter Dodge felt that the team's overall results "were good, but not great," and Viele concurred.
The alpine women racers were poised to contend for a team victory in the GS discipline after the first run had been made, but two mishaps prevented the feat. Dartmouth skiers sat in second, third, and fifth place after the first run; however, Jen Collins and Laura Turner did not finish the second run. Swift did hold on for third place.
"We've got to get [Collins] to the finish line," remarked Coach Bruce Lingelbach. Two years ago, Collins won all but one carnival race and proceeded to claim the NCAA GS title.
The UVM women were closely followed by Middlebury College and the University of New Hampshire. Meanwhile, the Middlebury men and the Saints of St. Lawrence finished third and fourth behind the Catamounts and the Big Green.
UVM hosts the next carnival this upcoming weekend, January 30-31 at the Stowe ski area.
