Fresh snow and blue skies welcomed Dartmouth’s only home carnival of the season last weekend. The Big Green came in second with 853 points to the University of Vermont, which stood ahead of the pack of 16 schools and scored 1,018 points across the eight alpine and Nordic events.
Co-captain and Alpine skier Mathieu Bertrand ’14 said that despite the second-place finish, he was happy with the team’s performance.
“We want to win our own carnival, that’s for sure,” he said. “There is quite a bit of hype around Dartmouth Carnival because there is obviously a lot of tradition behind it.”
For the third consecutive year, the Nordic races could not be held on campus, instead taking place at the Craftsbury Nordic Center in Craftsbury, VT. This year, the event was also combined with a US Supertour event that brought some of the top domestic skiers to Vermont to compete alongside the college athletes.
"The level of competition was higher,” said skier Annie Hart ’14. “It was actually helpful. If you ski with someone who’s at a higher level, your race will be better.”
The conditions were ideal, Hart said with sunny skies and perfect waxing conditions.
“It was the best skiing I’ve had in the East coast since I was a freshman,” she said.
Hart performed the best on Dartmouth’s women’s cross country ski team in both the 5-kilometer freestyle and 15-kilometer classic races. On Friday, she finished 11th overall in the 5-kilometer race with a time of 15:15.40, just 1:24.6 behind first-place Caitlin Gregg and fifth among collegiate athletes. In the 15-kilometer Saturday, Hart crossed the finish line in sixth place overall but second among college competitors with a time of 50:02.0. Carly Wynn ’15 and Corey Stock ’16 were the next Dartmouth finishers, coming in 13th and 16th overall, respectively.
Because the race was an interval start, Hart was raced the clock on the course, hearing only from her coaches that the race would be close based on her splits.
“I’m usually on the losing end of those,” Hart said. “I’ve been trying really hard to focus on not letting up unitl you’re past the finish line.”
The men’s team took home one of Dartmouth’s two event victories of the weekend, edging out UVM. In Friday’s 10-kilometer freestyle race, Patrick Caldwell ’17, David Sinclair ’14 and Silas Talbot ’15 took second, third and fourth, respectively, on the collegiate scorecard.
The team had a tougher time in the 20-kilometer, with Talbot leading the Big Green with an eighth place finish among college competitors. Cameron Woodworth ’14 finished just behind his teammate with a time of 58:07.8. Fabian Stocek ’17 rounded off Dartmouth’s scoring trio with an 11th place finish.
The team also had an opportunity to trade roles with the development team who raced on Sunday while the carnival team played a supporting role.
The women’s alpine team took Dartmouth’s other victory in the slalom on Saturday at the Skiway with a strong run from Meg Currie ’17 who took second place in 1:44.91. The result, Bertrand said, is indicative of Currie’s path to becoming a consistent point-scorer for the team.
Maisie Ide ’16 and Anne Strong ’16 were the other two scorers for Dartmouth, finishing ninth and 10th respectively.
Currie also took seventh among college competitors in the giant slalom, joined in the team score by Abigail Fucigna ’15 who came in third in the college scores. The team finished second behind UVM in the event. Fucigna finished with a 2:06.22, narrowly beating fourth place Colby College skier Jeanne Barthold by just .63 seconds.
In men’s giant slalom, Big Green skier Robert Overing ’16 came in second place among collegiate skiers with a total time of 2:02.99. Overing was joined by Dylan Brooks ’17 and Sam Macomber ’16 to earn Dartmouth 109 points and tie for second in the event with UVM.
Bertrand was the highest scoring Dartmouth skier in men’s slalom Saturday, taking ninth among collegiate competitors with a time of 1:43.40. UVM swept the top four places in the same event, earning 141 points for an easy event win.
UVM, Bertrand said, is consistently one of Dartmouth’s biggest competitors.
“We are entirely capable of beating UVM, but we have to step up to do it,” he said. “Regardless of how strong they are, our goal is to always win.”
Despite a 7-inch snowfallon Wednesday, conditions at the Dartmouth Skiway had improved by the time of the Alpine races, a combination of firm snow and cool temperatures.
“Both race days were beautiful, picture-perfect bluebird days,” Dylan Fisher McCarney ’15 said. “The snow was really grippy and firm, thanks to the Skiway doing a great job with all of the new snow.”
The team has two Carnivals remaining, the at Williams College next week and at Middlebury College the next weekend which will also be the EISA Championships and NCAA regional.
The team remains optimistic that it’s results will continue to improve as the season draws to a close.
“I’ve been second a lot of races, so I’m trying to get a win [at Williams],” Hart said. “As a team, if we all put it together, there’s no reason we can’t win a Carnival as a team. We’re just trying to build confidence going into NCAAs as a team and as individuals.”
