Continuing its successful run in its second carnival, the Dartmouth ski team placed second at the Vermont Carnival on Jan. 23-24. Held at the Stowe Mountain Resort for alpine and the Trapp Family Lodge for nordic, the Carnival featured tough competition from many Northeastern colleges. After a close race, the Big Green finished the two-day carnival only 56 points behind the University of Vermont — who dominated both slalom races — and 102 points ahead of the University of New Hampshire, which placed third. for a total of 884 team points.
The team performed well across all four disciplines, women’s alpine head coach Chip Knight said.
“We scored more total points than the previous weekend,” Knight said. “It was a step in the right direction to win a carnival.”
The women’s alpine had a powerful start on the first day in the giant slalom race with a 1-2 podium finish by Foreste Peterson ’18 and Libby Gibson ’18. Peterson had the second-fastest first run (1:05.51) and the fastest second run (1:05.90) for a combined time of 2:11.41 to earn first place.
Gibson clocked an equally impressive combined time of 2:11.58 with the fastest first run (1:05.43) and the second-fastest second run (1:06.15) to finish right behind Peterson in the standings. Both competitors completed the slalom more than two seconds before the third-place finisher Lisa Wedsjoe of the UNH.
Also representing the Big Green in the giant slalom was Kelly Moore ’18 who placed sixth with a combined time of 2:15.17. Overall, the women finished first in the giant slalom with 134 points while the UNH earned second with 109 points.
A relaxed state of mind, Peterson said, contributed to her ability to execute her game plan and make it on the podium.
“I was happy to finish first and share the podium with Libby,” Peterson said. “We are very motivated to keep the momentum going.”
Men’s nordic also had a successful first day, winning the 10K free with 114 points. Patrick Caldwell ’17 placed first with a time of 24:30.7, more than a minute faster than the second-place finisher Rogan Brown (25:38.8) of the University of Vermont. Fabian Stocek ’17 placed seventh with a time of 25:53.9, and Silas Talbot ’15 placed eleventh (26:13.1) in the field of 92 competitors.
Men’s alpine and women’s nordic struggled to make it to the podium the first day, placing fourth in their respective races. In the men’s giant slalom, men’s alpine finished with 101 (link 1)points off of a fifth-place finish by Kevyn Read ’18(dnd) (2:09.30), a seventh-place finish by Dylan Brooks ’17 (2:09.69) and a 14th place finish by Brian McLaughlin ’18 (2:10.63). UVM earned 128 points in the event, and Middlebury College claimed second with 105 points.
In the women’s 5K free, Corey Stock ’16 placed sixth with a time of 14:46.8 while Emily Hannah ’16 finished in 12th place (15:09.03) and Carly Wynn ’15 placed 16th (15:14.0) to earn a combined score of 91 points.
Overall, the Big Green scored 440 points total, putting the team in second-place behind the Catamounts by a slim margin of 17 points heading into the second day of competition.
The men and women’s alpine squads placed second in the slalom races with 107 and 115 points, respectively. On the men’s side, the University of Vermont continued its domination in slalom, winning the event by earning all three spots atop the podium. Read placed sixth with a time of 1:52.23, while Ben Morse ’14 and Brooks placed ninth and tenth with times of 1:53.13 and 1:53.17, respectively.
Lizzie Kistler ’16 won the women’s slalom with the fastest times in both runs and a combined time of 1:54.94, which was more than one second faster than second-place finisher Kristina Riis-Johannessen (1:56.06) of Vermont. Maisie Ide ’16 finished eighth with a time of 1:58.97, and Moore placed 11th in 2:01.28.
The positive momentum from the first day’s alpine results, Kistler said, gave her energy to perform at her best.
“It feels great to place first in the slalom,” Kistler said. “I hope to carry this confidence into the rest of my season.”
In the women’s 10K Classic, the Big Green placed fifth with 86 points thanks to a podium finish by Stock, who finished third with a time of 33:21.9. Wynn added 24 points with a 16th-place finish (34:32.6), and Jessa Fogel ’17 earned 19 points with a 27th-place finish (35:13.2). Vermont placed first with 104 points, and New Hampshire finished with 102 points for second-place thanks.
In the men’s 15K Classic, Caldwell and Talbot completed another impressive top-two podium finish for the Big Green. The duo, along with Stocek, dominated the field of 82 competitors for most of the race. After the first lap, Caldwell found himself in third place while Stocek and Talbot trailed close behind. However, by the final lap, Caldwell easily took the lead and won the race in 41:37.0 by a span of 11.7 seconds. Talbot clocked in at 41:48.7 to finish in second place while Stocek placed fifth with a time of 42:06.7. The men’s nordic placed first in the event with 136 points, and the Catamounts placed second with 111 points.
This upcoming week, men’s nordic head coach Ruff Patterson said, the cross country men will have to adjust to the absence of Caldwell and Talbot who will be competing at the U23 Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan and the national level Super Tour races, respectively.
The ski team will travel to Smuggler’s Notch and Sleepy Hollow in Vermont for the St. Michael’s Carnival on Jan. 30.
