18th straight Carnival victory for UVM Catamounts

JEFFERSONVILLE/HUNTINGTON, Vt. – The Vermont ski team moved to 3-0 on the season and earned its 18th straight EISA Carnival victory with a first-place finish at the Saint Michael’s Carnival on Saturday.

The Catamounts finished 1-2 in both the men’s and women’s slalom races, and Vermont’s top three skiers placed in the top five in each race.

The Nordic relay team added a second-place finish in the only event of the day at Sleepy Hollow Inn to help UVM pick up 883 points, 167 more than second-place Dartmouth (716). New Hampshire rounded out the top three teams in the standings with 666 points.

At Smugglers’ Notch Resort, William St. Germain bested his own teammate Taylor Wunsch to earn his first collegiate victory in the men’s slalom race. St. Germain posted a time of 1:40.78 and was the only skier to finish with a time under 49 seconds in the first run of the day (48.83). Wunsch finished second with a time of 1:41.12.

Middlebury’s Rob Cone, who won his third straight EISA GS on Friday, rounded out the podium in third. Vermont’s final scorer was Griffin Brown in fifth.

In the women’s slalom race visiting guest Eve Routhier, former Canadian World Cup skier who now competes for Universite Laval, claimed the overall victory but Vermont’s Kristina Riis-Johannessen, the defending NCAA slalom champion, was the best of the EISA bunch on the day. Riis-Johannessen just edged out her teammate Elli Terwiel who finished second among EISA scorers. Terwiel, a 2014 Olympian for Team Canada, was 0.13 seconds behind her fellow Catamount.

The Nordic athletes had just one event on the schedule on Saturday, the mixed 4×3 freestyle relay, which would have proved far less entertaining if not for a tight transition zone that challenged racers to stay on their feet. The Catamount team of Marion Woods, Rogan Brown, MK Cirelli, and Jack Hegman combined to post a time of 38:48.5 and finish second to Middlebury (Stella Holt, Adam Luban, Heather Mooney, and Patrick McElravey). Dartmouth’s squad of Mary O’Connell, Jan Ketterson, Cara Piske, and Fabian Stocek finished third.

The EISA Carnival moves to Dartmouth next weekend (Feb. 6-7). The alpine races will be held at the Dartmouth Skiway and the Nordic events will take place at Craftsbury Common in Vermont.

Release and photo courtesy of UVM Athletics 

Final Team Scores at St. Michael’s College Carnival

1. Vermont – 883
2. Dartmouth – 716
3. New Hampshire – 666
4. Middlebury – 653
5. Colby – 563
6. Williams – 503
7. Bates – 391
7. St. Lawrence – 391
9. St. Michael’s – 281
10. Harvard – 272
11. Colby-Sawyer – 176
12. Bowdoin – 159
13. Boston College – 138
14. Plymouth State – 133
15. Universite Laval – 67