UVM Takes Home Alpine Win

The University of Vermont Catamounts took advantage of their home hill and adverse conditions this weekend to win their first alpine victory of the season. The Catamounts accumulated 502 points, besting Dartmouth who finished with 477 points. The University of New Hampshire finished in third place with 365 points.

Paula Moltzan, a sophomore at UVM, led her team through the weekend, winning both events. Moltzan has now won the past four Carnival events and she is currently undefeated in slalom, with all three victories.

Moltzan won the GS with an overall time of 2:07.34. Forest Peterson, from Dartmouth finished second, 2.67 seconds back and Claire Thomas, from Dartmouth, finished third 2.80 seconds behind.

Moltzan was not able to make her home carnival last season, during her freshman year, so winning both events this season felt good. “It was nice for my first carnival here, to sweep it,” Moltzan said.

“This is what it looks like everyday at Stowe… it get’s less scary every time you do it,” Moltzan said about the weather.

Bill Reichelt, head coach at the University of Vermont has seen a positive progression in Moltzan’s skiing as she has seen more time on show.

“She’s hitting her stride, she didn’t have a lot of volume coming into the season. She doesn’t need a lot of volume to be fast but it helps with consistency and we’re seeing that now,” Reichelt said.

The men’s GS had another familiar winner, Max Roeisland from the University of Vermont. Roeisland finished with an overall time of 2:03.21. Patrick Kenney, from the University of New Hampshire finished in second place 0.70 seconds behind and Sandy Vietze, from UVM, finished in third place 0.90 seconds back.

Moltzan took the next day’s slalom win with an overall time of 1:49.68. Peterson followed in second place again, 1.37 seconds back and Alexa Dlouhy from Dartmouth finished in third place 1.47 seconds behind.

Middlebury’s Erik Arvidsson finished third in the men’s slalom. Image Credit: Chris Keating

Tanguy Nef, from Dartmouth took the men’s slalom win for his third victory of the season and his fifth time finding his way onto the podium. Roeisland finished in second place, 2.08 seconds behind and Erik Arvidsson, a freshman from Middlebury finished in third place 2.18 seconds back for his first collegiate podium.

“Nef skied really well today and I saw some really good things in his second run but he’s still, I don’t think he’s 100 percent really settled into a consistent feel and rhythm,” Peter Dodge, Dartmouth’s head men’s coach said of Nef this season.

Dodge believes that Nef can still be faster with more confidence in his own skiing and his abilities.

Arvidsson was happy with his first podium of the year. “It felt good to put together two runs for my whole team and bring a podium home to Middlebury,” Arvidsson.

Arvidsson said that being a part of a team has been one of the best experiences of his life

“It has totally put a different perspective on skiing and really lit my love for skiing again. I always loved being in team sports as a kid and although being on the national team and being a part of a team in that sense, it’s just a little bit different, you’re still not being scored on your whole teams effort… I really, really, really care about how my teammates do and I want to help them ski their best,” Arvidsson said.