Dartmouth all but secures win at UVM Carnival

Dartmouth College all but locked up the overall win at the UVM Carnival today (Feb. 4) with a plethora of top-10 results across all disciplines at both Stowe Mountain Resort and the Trapp Family Lodge. The Big Green leads with 675 points, UNH is second with 558.5 and Middlebury sits third with 538. Vermont, competing with a shortened alpine roster, is fourth with 493 points, but team position changes beyond the win are expected tomorrow when the carnival concludes with the freestyle nordic races.

In the women’s 5k classic at the Trapp Family Lodge, Dartmouth’s Sophie Caldwell took the win and her teammate Annie Hart was third. Caitlin Patterson of UVM squeezed between them for second. The third scoring skier for Dartmouth was Erika flowers in seventh who ensured the team win. Middlebury Panther Patrick Johnson secured his second victory of the season today in the men’s 10k classic. Dartmouth’s Sam Tarling was second and UVM’s Franz Bernstein finished third. Big Green skiers Eric Packer and Gordon Vermeer added critical team points in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Freshly fallen snow on a bulletproof surface proved challenging on the Main Street trail at Stowe Mountain Resort for the alpine competitors in the first run. The Williams women, who have found pace in training and were able to bring it to race day, blew the field away when Geordie Lonza and Laurel Carter finished first and second, in that order. Lonza remarked on sealing the top two podium spots with her teammate Carter, “We’ve both been skiing really fast in training and pushing each other, and I think we did that [today].” Bates’ Avril Dunleavy was third and her teammate Emily Hayes finished fourth. Dartmouth had two skiers in the top 10 as well.
 
Middlebury’s Hig Roberts has been chomping at the bit all winter long in giant slalom, but his win in slalom was slightly unexpected. He noted, “I went with the mentality that if I could ski fast like I have in training, I could make it down. But I gave it a little near the end because I knew I was having a good run. I tried to risk it all, and it paid off.” Yesterday, Dartmouth’s Ben Morse had his first top-5 result with the win, and today he once again found the podium in second. He attributed his recent breakthrough to a disciplined training and racing schedule, “Having the regular race schedule on the weekends and training during the week has been a nice pace and a good pattern of repetition.” UNH’s Paul Atkinson finished third.

Alpine bibbo awards went to Marley Pawlak of Plymouth State (for the second day in a row) who started bib 68 and finished in the top 30, and both Devon Brown of Bates and Tom Sampson of Plymouth State who each moved up 45 spots to finish in the top 35.

The UVM Carnival concludes tomorrow (Feb. 5) with the men’s and women’s 10k skate at the Trapp Family Lodge.

Team scores at the conclusion of Day 2 of the UVM Carnival:
Dartmouth College – 675
University of New Hampshire – 558.5
Middlebury College – 538
University of Vermont – 493
Williams College – 393
Bates College – 392
Colby College – 359
St. Lawrence University – 334
St. Michael’s College – 258
Harvard University – 255
Plymouth State University – 213
Boston College – 111.5
Colby-Sawyer College – 106
Universite’ Laval – 82
Bowdoin College – 65
University of Maine Presque Isle – 48

Photo of Dartmouth’s double podium skier Ben Morse by C.J. Feehan