The Dartmouth men's and women's ski teams surprised perennial power UVM to capture the team title in this weekend's Saint Lawrence Winter Carnival.
Dartmouth took first place with 528 points, while UVM finished with 498 points. Middlebury took third with 419 points. The Big Green finished no lower than fourth place in points in every event and placed first in three of the eight events.
"After the SLU Carnival the outlook for the season appears very good," Captain Eric Reinhardt '02 said. "Apparently UVM has lost only one carnival in the last 13 years, that is something like 77 out 78 possible victories. So this season could be a possible end to a dynasty."
The women's team had a strong performance in the 10-km classic cross-country race, capturing three of the top five places. Erin Quinn-Hurst '02 took first with a time of 31:52.3, while teammates Anna Harrington '02 and Sara Donahue '02 took third and fifth respectively.
The women also dominated the sprint race with three top10 finishes, including a third place finish by Kate Pearson '02, who was immediately followed by teammate Quinn-Hurst in fourth.
On the downhill side, Jeannie Eisberg '01 added another first place finish for Dartmouth in the slalom.
Brad Wall '02 led the men's team with wins in both the slalom and the giant slalom.
In fact, Dartmouth destroyed the rest of the nine-school field in both the slalom and the giant slalom. The slalom saw Dartmouth capture five of the top seven spots, with Roger Brown '04 taking third and Dawson Brown '02 fourth. These two skiers each added another top 10 finish in the giant slalom.
Wall saw the victory as a sign of good things to come for Dartmouth skiing.
"I felt that we were looking pretty good coming into the season," Wall said. "And we proved that this weekend, I am confident that we will perform consistently throughout the remainder of the season."
Next weekend, the teams will be traveling to Maine for the Colby College carnival.
