Two wins by the women's Nordic team and strong results by the men's Nordic and alpine teams had Dartmouth tied for first place after the first day of competition, but the Catamounts came back on Saturday to dominate in the slalom and win the final team standings with 815 points. Middlebury was second with 788 and Dartmouth fell to third with 747.
Dartmouth has finished in third place behind Vermont and Middlebury in each of its last four EISA carnivals.
The Nordic races were relocated to Craftsbury, Vt., where good snow cover led to the first real winter conditions of the season. In the women's 15-kilometer mass start freestyle race, Dartmouth secured the top two positions. Kristina Trygstad-Saari '07 took her first victory of the year, winning in 41:06.1. Alison Crocker '06, back from the Under-23 Cross Country World Championships, finished less than two seconds behind Trygstad-Saari.
"It was a very tactical race," said Crocker, "Kristina and I skied together the whole race and were able to work together to dominate the lead."
Dartmouth finished five skiers in the top 11 spots with Elsa Sargent '08 in eighth and teammates Hannah Dreissigacker '09 and Susan Dunklee '08 in 10th and 11th, respectively.
Crocker continued her domination on Saturday to win the women's five kilometer classical race in 15:27.2. Sargent pulled off a fantastic race to finish on the podium in third. Trygstad-Saari and Dunklee finished seventh and ninth, respectively.
"The classic race skied really well," Crocker said. "There were parts of the course that tested the whole range of skiing techniques. I felt strong the whole way. The 5 k was a big change from the longer races I've been doing."
In the men's Nordic races Middlebury's Garrott Kuzzy set the pace, winning both the 20-kilometer freestyle and 10-kilometer classical races. On Friday in the mass start Kuzzy gained a huge lead to win in 54:48.8. Vermont teammates Ryan Foster and Anders Osthus finished second and third, respectively.
Ben True '08, Mike Sinnott '07 and Glenn Randall '09 were not able to overcome the Vermont team and finished sixth, seventh and ninth, respectively. Sam Naney '06 finished 12th.
On Saturday in the 10-kilometer classical, Kuzzy won his second race of the weekend in 27:30.1. Both Dartmouth and Vermont placed four racers in the men's top 10, but it was a two-three finish by Vermont's Juergen Uhl and Anders Osthus that put the Catamounts on top. Dartmouth's Randall and True placed fourth and fifth, respectively; Vermont's Ryan Foster was sixth; and Dartmouth's Naney and Sinnott were seventh and eighth, respectively.
At the Dartmouth Skiway, the Vermont women continued their domination of EISA alpine events. Vermont's Hilary McCloy was second and teammate Jilyne McDonald was third. In seventh place, Michelanne Shields '08 had Dartmouth's best finish. Teammates Alex Fucigna '07 and Hannah Tsai '08 finished 11th and 15th, respectively.
In the men's giant slalom Williams' Eric Mann turned in a blistering first run, leading the field by more than a second. Dartmouth's Karl Johnson '06 had a fantastic second run to finish in second place for the second time this season. Dave Chodounsky '08 was fifth and Travis Gaylord '06 was 10th.
On Saturday, Vermont's McCloy and Jamie Kingsbury took first and third in the women's slalom. Combined with another first-third in the men's slalom by Greg Hardy and Zachary Brown, Vermont sealed the team win.
Although the Dartmouth team was a favorite in the slalom, both the women and men suffered a tough day. The Big Green's best finish in the women's race was Shields in 13th place, followed by Sealy Livermore '08 in 14th and Lindsay Mann '07 in 19th.
The Dartmouth men placed no skiers in the top 15. Chodounsky finished 17th and Erik Johnson '06 finished 20th.
"The alpine men had a tough day in the slalom," Gaylord said. "We have shown that we have speed all year but have been struggling to show consistency finishing. We have the potential to have all six guys in the top 10, but the problem has been finishing the race."
Next weekend the EISA carnival circuit moves to Williams College, with alpine races at Jiminy Peak in Hancock, Mass. and cross country races at Prospect Mountain in Woodford, Vt.
