Panthers win third straight, end Vermont's 31-year home winning streak

Panthers win third straight, end Vermont’s 31-year home winning streak{mosimage}The Middlebury College ski team overcame a three-point deficit after the first day to defeat the University of Vermont and win the UVM Winter Carnival.

Saturday’s win by the Panthers, who had not won an Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association carnival until this season and have now won all three carnivals in 2004, ends a 31-year winning streak for Vermont. The Catamounts had won their own winter carnival since 1973. Middlebury finished with 708 points, while Vermont had 687 points. Dartmouth was third with 667 points.

“Middlebury is the team to beat this season,” said Vermont head coach Bill Reichelt, after the final results were confirmed. “All four parts of their team area very strong and very consistent.”

“We won the first one (the Colby Carnnival) and it was kind of shocking. We won the second one (the St. Lawrence Carnival) and it was like, ‘Wow, perhaps we are this good,’ ” said Forrest Carey, a Middlebury graduate in his first season as head alpine coach. “But to win this one. … Well, we’re going to really appreciate this one.”

UVM entered the day three points ahead of Middlebury and with a 32-point lead on Dartmouth. By the time the cross-country freestyle relays concluded at Trapp Family Lodge, the Panthers were 11 points in front.

“It’s very exciting,” said Middlebury sophomore Claire Anderson, the anchor leg of the winning women’s 3x5km team. “It’s only my second year, but from everything I hear, I don’t think the alpine and the nordic have ever been this close before. We’re so into it as a team.”

New Hampshire, behind Kate Underwood’s rocket-fueled effort, was second; Dartmouth, third; and UVM, fourth.

The Catamounts men responded with a victory, though even it was hard-won. Garrott Kuzzy carved 30 seconds off their lead on the anchor leg, chasing Cats’ All-American Ethan Foster to the finish.

“He’s going off to the U-23 (World Championships) this week,” Kuzzy said of Foster. “I thought I’d maybe give him a run before he takes off.”

“We won; that’s all I care about,” said Foster, who is intent on returning the Catamounts to the circuit’s top spot. “It’s very important. It’s what makes UVM skiing separate from every other program. We have a sense of tradition. It’s special and we don’t want to stop it.”

No amount of determination could help the Cats men’s alpine team conquer its home hill. Stowe Mountain Resort’s “Hayride” bit four of UVM’s six slalom contestants, forcing the Cats to swallow Tyler Hughes’ 35th-place finish. Colby’s Warner Nickerson won the race — his second win of the weekend and fourth of the season — and Dartmouth nipped Middlebury for team points. UVM was fifth.

“It’s getting more and more competitive,” said UVM coach Bill Reichelt. “The guys have to go for it every time and take the risk, otherwise they’re not going to score.”

That left the Catamounts in a 29-point hole, and not even their unbeaten women’s alpine team could fill it. Middlebury stumbled some — Aldrich is no fool — but Laura Scripture’s clutch runner-up finish behind UNH’s Sydney Mikkelson helped ensure UVM gained back only eight points.

“We’re just going to enjoy this one and keep going,” said Carey, whose club can end another long UVM winning streak when the Eastern Championships convene in three weeks at the Middlebury Snow Bowl. The Cats have won 28 in a row.

“We won’t make any predictions or promise anything,” Carey said, “but I’ll tell you, we’re still hungry and we’ll keep working.”