Bad weather continues to be the theme of this year's Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association (EISA) carnival circuit. After skiing in the rain on Friday, the Nordic freestyle relay was canceled Saturday morning due to ice and bad snow conditions. Dartmouth finished third in the team standings. The University of Vermont won its own carnival with 755 points, followed closely by Middlebury with 742 points.
The Dartmouth ski team pulled off a number of fantastic races on the first day of competition, winning three of the day's four races. The team won the men's and women's Nordic races as well as the men's alpine.
As rain pelted the snow in Stowe, Vt. the Dartmouth men's alpine team dominated the slalom on Mt. Mansfield.
"We were actually really lucky because we finished our first run before the worst of the rain," said Karl Johnson '06.
Johnson finished in fifth place, followed closely by his twin, Erik Johnson '06 in seventh. Nelson Riley '08 rounded out the team in ninth place. The men's team finished first in the slalom, just one point ahead of Middlebury and only two points ahead of Williams College. The women's alpine team had another rough day with unlucky mistakes afflicting most of the team. Alexandra Fucigna '07 finished in 14th place, while the rest of the team had to hike to missed or straddled gates in at least one run. The women finished eighth.
On Saturday the giant slalom was held on snow filled with huge ruts and ice. Both the men's and women's Dartmouth alpine teams finished fourth after tough runs in the rough conditions. In the men's race, Dave Chodounsky '08 pulled off his best race of the season to finish on the podium in third. Classmate Nelson Riley '08 finished in 10th. Vermont took the top two spots with Greg Hardy winning in a time of 2:09.39 followed by his teammate Paul Epstein in second.
In the women's race, Vermont skiers dominated again on their home course. Jamie Kingsbury won the race followed by Jilyne McDonald. Dartmouth's top skier was Michelanne Shields '08 who finished in fifth place. Sealy Livermore '08 and Hannah Tsai '08 rounded out the team, finishing in 15th and 18th, respectively.
In the Nordic five kilometer women's and 10 kilometer men's races, a pair of first place finishes by Ben True '06 and Susan Dunklee '08 led both the men's and women's teams to first place.
The men's team placed three in the top 10 despite the rain. True crushed the field, finishing in 32:32.6, a full 42 seconds ahead of Garrott Kuzzy of Middlebury. Seniors Sam Naney '06 and Zach Hall '06 followed True's performance, finishing fourth and 10th, respectively. Linden Mallory '07 completed his race in 14th. "We skied really well through the tough conditions," said Naney.
The women's race took place only a few minutes after the conditions changed from snow to rain, making kick waxing a challenge. Coaches Cami Thompson and Ruff Patterson managed to hit the wax, and all six women finished in the top 14. Following Dunklee were Kristina Trygstad-Saari '07 in third and Elsa Sargent '08 in fourth. Hannah Dreissigacker '09 finished 10th and Sara Studebaker '07 and Jean Polfus '06 were 11th and 14th, respectively.
Next week the Dartmouth ski teams come home for the Dartmouth Carnival, held on Feb. 10 and 11. The Nordic races will be held at Oak Hill in Hanover. Alpine races will be held at the Dartmouth Skiway.
