Dartmouth snaps UVM’s EISA Carnival streak at 22

Friday was a cold day on Narrow Gauge, possibly the most challenging GS hill of the year, to open the Colby Carnival, as many of the pre-races favorites weren’t able to make it through Sugarloaf’s famous Miles’ Mile section of the first run. Phillipe Rivet of UNH claimed his first career carnival win by only three-hundreds over UVM’s Dom Garand. Dartmouth’s Thomas Woolson followed just behind in third, only 0.40 out of the top spot. Home fans from Colby were also quite excited with first-year Jack Auty as he charged his way from bib 75 to finish 24th on the day.

In the women’s race, Dartmouth’s Foreste Peterson followed up her second-place finish in last weekend’s GS with a victory by 1.49 seconds. Colby’s Mardi Haskell had her first podium finish of the year in second as did UNH’s Lisa Wesjoe in third. Wesjoe led a flurry of teammates as UNH put four women in the top 15: Kelly Anne Dinapoli placed seventh, Sohvia Virkkula ninth, and Morgan Klein 14th. Libby Gibson’s fast first run landed her in fifth to add to the Big Green’s tally, while Brittany Lathrop led UVM in sixth. Alexa Dlouhy’s 10th place confirmed that the Dartmouth women stayed on top of the EISA GS team rankings.

The slalom on the second day of the Colby Carnival demonstrated one of the closest men’s fields in recent memory, and narrow margins by mere hundredths of a second separated quite a few of those in the top 10 of both races.

UVM’s William St. Germain won the second run to claim victory in the men’s slalom. Robert Cone of Middlebury rebounded from a tough day in the GS to finish second, only 0.03 seconds behind St. Germain, while Friday’s winner Rivet finished third.

In the women’s slalom, the leader was more clear cut than on the men’s side. First-year Alexa Dlouhy of Dartmouth won her second straight carnival slalom, this time by over a second and a half. Her teammate Maisie Ide claimed her first podium of the season in second, and Mardi Haskell collected back-to-back podium results at her home carnival by finishing third.

As the EISA circuit headed into the final day of the Colby Carnival with Nordic team races, Dartmouth led UNH by only three points in the overall team standings. The UVM Catamounts sat third, trailing Dartmouth by 31 points.

Vermont’s Jack Hegman and Jorgen Grav teamed up to win the men’s relay race on Sunday. The duo produced a time of 17:02.1 to beat out teammates Ian Moore and Cole Morgan. Moore and Morgan finished the event with a runner-up time of 17:03.8. UNH’s Peter Holmes and Tyler Smith rounded out the podium with a third place time of 17:08.6.

In the women’s relay, UNH’s Katrina Larusson and Lizzie Gill claimed victory with a time of 20:41.7 Vermont’s MK Cirelli and Stephanie Kirk placed second (20:48.3), while the Middlebury duo of Nicolette Amber and Kelsey Phinney earned third place.

Despite a valiant effort by the UVM Nordic team on the final day, the Catamounts ultimately finished second overall in the Colby Carnival with 917 points to the Big Green’s 921. Led by the strength of its women’s alpine team, the Dartmouth victory snapped UVM’s streak of 22 straight EISA Carnival wins.

The EISA Circuit moves to Vermont next week. The Catamounts will host the 43rd UVM Carnival at Stowe Mountain Resort on Jan. 29-30. The weekend will feature only the alpine races on the Main Street course at Stowe, as the Nordic races of the UVM Carnival are set for Feb. 6-7 at Trapp Family Lodge.

Release courtesy of EISA and UVM Skiing, photo by Lisa Ide (Facebook)