Skiers rack up more bronze medals

Author: Kellan Florio

The Middlebury ski teams held off a strong showing by Williams at the Ephs' home carnival to notch their fifth consecutive third place this season. For the second week in a row, the University of Vermont (UVM) edged out Dartmouth for the victory with 686.5 points, besting the Big Green by five. Middlebury finished with 603 points, while Williams took fourth with 555.5.

A year after proving themselves to be the top giant slalom (GS) squad in the east, the Panther men had struggled to live up to that reputation so far in 2005, until this weekend. Junior Dave Coriell broke out of a minor slump to post his best GS result of the season in third place, leading three Panthers into the top 10 and all six into the top 20, good enough for a shared first place for the day with host Williams.

Coriell's combined time of 1:55.73 landed him four-hundredths of a second behind second place finisher Chris Frank of Williams, and just over a second behind a rejuvenated Benjamin Drummond of UNH.

"The night before the race we were watching video and I noticed that I had been rotating a little bit over the past couple weeks, so I made the adjustment when I was warming up and focused on that during the race," commented Coriell on his break through result.

"During the first run the snow storms were rolling in and out which made the visibility pretty bad so it was a real battle to get down. I skied a little conservative on the second run, but it was good enough to hold my place."

Also scoring for the men were co-captain John Rusten '05 in seventh and Joey Swensson '08 in eighth. Sophomore Andrew Everett posted the second fasted afternoon time, moving him into 13th, while Clayton Reed '08 and Derek Shields '05 rounded out the Panther finishers in 16th and 19th, respectively. "As a team, we'd been struggling in GS this year," noted Rusten. "So to win on a tough hill is pretty exciting."

The Middlebury women once again rode the tails of first-year Megan Hughes who picked up her third top five GS result of the season, finishing 1.4 seconds behind winner Jilyne McDonald of UVM in fourth. Krissie Poehling '08 hurdled eight places in the afternoon run to finish 11th, while Lindsay Brush '07 was close behind in 13th.

Hughes paced the women again in Saturday's slalom coming in fifth place, finishing just over three second behind Courtney Calise of Dartmouth who blew away the field by over two seconds en route to her first slalom victory of the season.

Lindsay Brush was solid in seventh place, while Poehling scored again for the Panthers in 13th. Tara Martin '07 and Kelly Brush '08 also posted respectable results as they finished in a tie for 16th.

It was a tale of two days for the alpine men as Saturday's slalom was a far cry from their first place effort a day earlier, finishing in sixth despite some excellent skiing from Rusten. Wearing bib number one, Rusten laid down a beautiful first run and watched his time hold up as the fastest of the morning leg.

"My first run was the best I've skied all year and probably the most mistake-free run I've ever had," acknowledged Rusten.

With only one of five teammates safely through the finish in the second run, Rusten delivered under the pressure and secured his second podium of the season, finishing in third place overall, a half-second behind Williams first-year Charles Christianson.

"A lot of people were leaning in on the second run because the snow was so slick," commented Rusten. "I made sure I didn't, which maybe cost me some time, but the course was so back and forth that I had to be really precise with each turn."

Making his first carnival appearance of the season, senior Derek Shields moved up seven places in the afternoon run after battling through a broken pole in the first run to finish in 15th place. First-year Clayton Reed was ninth after the first run, but hiked in the second run to finish in 19th as the Panthers' third scorer.

"That'll happen in slalom from time to time," said Alpine Head Coach Forest Carey of the men's aberrant result. "But we're confident about our chances at the Bowl next week. We're always great on our GS hill, especially the men, and anything can happen on the Ross [slalom hill]. The UVM women are tough, but we have a home hill advantage. We are definitely capable of putting the hurt on."

Over at Prospect Mountain, the Middlebury nordic teams turned in their best effort of the season, finishing third overall behind UVM and Dartmouth who continue to trade places atop the nordic classification.

Leading the Panther men in Friday's 10 km freestyle was junior Garrott Kuzzy who crossed the line in 26:58.6, good enough for fourth place and just six seconds out of second place. UVM's Lowell Bailey claimed the victory in 26:17.3 with a comfortable margin over teammate Ethan Foster.

"Friday's 10 km skate was cold and the trail was uneven and icy," commented Kuzzy on the adverse racing conditions. "I was happy to finish where I did, just seconds out of the top three."

Beau Baldock '07 continued his surge toward the top five with a season-best eighth place finish, while co-captain Jake Whitcomb '06 rounded out the scorers in 20th.

Evelyn Dong '07 was impressive once again for the Panther women, skating to a career-best sixth place finish, just one second out of the top five and one minute behind winner Elizabeth Harrington of Dartmouth in Friday's 5 km freestyle.

"It was the first time I haven't really been nervous before a race," admitted Dong. "I went out hard because I knew it was a pretty fast course and just tried to keep that up."

Nordic Head Coach Terry Aldrich noted, "With another strong finish at Middlebury, Evelyn could be packing her bags for her first NCAA Championship." Behind Dong was Jenny Jorvig '06 in 11th, Claire Anderson '06 in 14th, Taylor Leach '06 in 21st and Tyne Pike-Sprenger '05 in 28th.

On Saturday, Baldock, Kuzzy, and Matt Johnson '08 teamed up to take fourth in the sprint relay, finishing just over a minute behind UVM's team of Bailey, Ryan Foster and Ethan Foster who completed the course in 28 minutes flat. The team of Whitcomb, Jimmy Ades '08 and Bryce Roche '05 finished 9th, two and a half minutes out of first. On the women's side, co-captain Leach was the Panthers' fastest skier on the day, leading her relay team of Erin Pittenger '07 and Pike-Sprenger into fifth place, while Anderson, Jorvig and Dong were 13 seconds behind in sixth.

Dartmouth continued their dominance over the women's nordic events beating out UVM by 38 seconds for the win. "I was very pleased with the team's effort and results this past weekend, especially Friday," said Aldrich. "Generally I think the team is feeling some momentum coming into the Middlebury Carnival. We'll be skiing on our home courses in front of our own fans which is definitely an advantage for our team."

Both the alpine and nordic teams are hoping that Middlebury students partake in the festivities on Friday and Saturday at both the Snow Bowl and the Rikert Ski Touring Center as the ski team looks to defend its Eastern title.