Skiers finish third at Colby Carnival

Author: Martin Breu

Dartmouth College continued to prove its competitive edge this past weekend, winning the Colby Carnival to go six-for-six in college carnivals this winter. Though Middlebury held a slim lead over UVM going into the second day of races, the Panthers eventually slipped to finish third behind the Catamounts, repeating the results of the Middlebury Carnival two weeks ago.

The standout performances of the weekend came on Saturday, when Simi Hamilton '09 and Elise Moody-Roberts '12 took the individual wins in the men's and women's 20/15km Nordic races.

Friday, the first day of competition, saw rapidly warming temperatures and periods of rain that made the conditions difficult for waxing skis. While the alpine women and men raced a slalom course, due to high wind and harsh conditions, the normally two-run event was shortened to just one run. Dartmouth dominated the women's slalom with Courtney Hammond taking first, followed by her teammates Christine Roberts and Hayley Jones in second and fourth, respectively. Natasha Woodworth '11 had a great race to break up the Dartmouth women and lead the Panthers with a third place finish. Co-captain Tucker Burton '09 also raced well and skied into seventh place.

The men's race proved less successful for the Panthers. While Sean McNamara of UNH captured first, Middlebury suffered setbacks as both co-captain Andrew Wagner '09 and Bobby Poehling '11 crashed and as a result saw significantly slower times. Jonathan Hunter '10 had the best Middlebury finish for the men in 14th place. The women's team finished in second behind Dartmouth, while the men were ninth.

Over on the nordic trails, the warm and variable weather was playing havoc with the kick waxing of skis (the sticky, temperature-sensitive wax that grips the snow allows the skiers to ski up hills). Dartmouth, however, remained unfazed by the tough conditions, placing six skiers in the top 10 of the women's race and five in the top 10 of the men's race as skiers Rosie Brennan and Glenn Randall took individual wins for the Big Green.

Robyn Anderson '10 had another great race and in seventh place was the top Panther finisher in the women's race; Moody-Roberts was right behind Anderson in eighth place. Hamilton led the Panther men with a strong second-place finish, and was followed by Patrick Johnson '11 in sixth and Chase Marston '12 in an impressive seventh. The Nordic women's efforts were rewarded with a third -place team score, while the men were even better in second.

The weather changed overnight so that when the skiers woke up for the second day of racing on Saturday the trails were covered with ice. The conditions at Sugarloaf were too dangerous to hold the alpine races, which were ultimately postponed to Sunday. The nordic racers forged ahead with the 15/20km mass-start skate races held on super fast, icy trails. While Dartmouth again dominated the races, Moody-Roberts and Hamilton skied strongly to take the individual wins over the Big Green skiers.

Nordic coach Andrew Gardner attributed Moody-Roberts's victory to "heart," noting that "few people have more [heart] than Elise does."

Following Moody-Roberts for the Panthers was Kate Barton '09 in 11th place, putting her just out of reach of a spot at the NCAA championships this March. Patrick Johnson '11 was the first Middlebury finisher behind Hamilton in tenth, with Tim Reynolds '09 in 18th, who also just barely missed making NCAAs. These impressive performances by the nordic teams placed the Panthers in second for both men's and women's team scores.

The alpine team was back in action on Saturday after a day's pause to allow for more grooming. Courtney Hammond of Dartmouth picked up where she left off two days prior, taking first in the Giant Slalom race. David Donaldson of UVM won the men's race in his third GS win of the year. The Panther women were remarkably similar in their placings, but were all off the winning places with Nicole Dvorak '11 in 13th, Woodworth in 14th, Leah McLaughry '10 in 16th and Mattie Ford '09 in 17th. Besides the ever-consistent Billy Wagner '09 in seventh place, the Panther men also struggled.

"The girls and guys were racing to preserve NCAA spots and did not produce respectable team scores," said alpine coach Stever Bartlett. The Middlebury women finished fourth in the GS, while the men were seventh. The Panthers racing in the NCAAs will be Ford, Dvorak and Woodworth for women, and Wagner and Poehling for the men.

Up next for the Panthers are the NCAA Championships, hosted by Bates College on March 11-14. The four days of competition are likely to be intense, and will hopefully produce impressive performances from the Panthers.