EISA athletes skied new slopes at Cannon Mountain for the University of New Hampshire’s Carnival on Jan. 27-28. Dartmouth College skiers certainly enjoyed the new terrain as Foreste Peterson, Tanguy Nef and Brian McLaughlin won three out of the four races. With their help, Dartmouth won the alpine portion of the event with an even 500 points, followed by the University of Vermont with 437. The University of New Hampshire took third in their home event with 361 points. 

After the first run of the women’s giant slalom on Friday, it looked as if Caroline Bartlett of Middlebury College was going to take home another win. Bartlett led the the rest of the field by 0.76 seconds, but halfway into the second run, she hooked her tip on a gate and failed to finish.

Peterson was in second after the first run and was able to complete both runs to win the race with a combined time of 2:18.66. Peterson came out of the St. Lawrence Carnival empty handed a week earlier. She had been in second and fourth after each first run at Whiteface, but was unable to put two runs together.

“I was pretty bummed about going out second run last weekend especially since I am missing next weekend at Stowe, so it feels good to have a solid finish,” Peterson said. She will be traveling to Colorado for a NorAm series next week, as will many other top EISA athletes.

Paula Moltzan won the second run by enough to make her way onto the podium. She finished in second place, 0.51 seconds back. In third was another Dartmouth skier Stephanie Currie, 1.86 seconds behind the pace.

The depth of Dartmouth’s women’s team is significant. The Big Green finished Friday with four women in the top ten, a feat they also accomplished at the St. Lawrence GS. Peterson said that the Dartmouth team is skiing well enough that any of the girls could win on any given day.

The Dartmouth women could only be outdone by one group: the Dartmouth men. Although the overall results were affected by numerous U.S. Ski Team athletes, two Dartmouth skiers sat atop the collegiate podium. Freshman Tanguy Nef is only two carnivals into his career, and he has two GS podiums to his name. Although he claims to be a better slalom skier, he said he has had many more days of good GS training.

“Everything just worked out as I wanted it. I was not drifting the entries. I was actually arcing every turn, so I could carry all my speed onto the flat,” Nef said of his first run and he said it worked out even better second run.

Nef also said that although it may just be another race when he leaves the start, it is nice to come down in first not just for himself, but also to contribute to Dartmouth’s team score.

Nef won both runs on Friday, ending with a time of 2:14.33, 1.09 seconds ahead of the field, and 1.64 seconds ahead of the next college athlete, Dartmouth’s Brian McLaughlin. Max Roeisland finished third, 2.52 seconds back.

U.S. Ski Team athletes Nick Krause and Kipling Weisel finished in second and third overall, 1.09 and 1.10 seconds behind Nef, respectively.

UVM’s women stopped Dartmouth from taking all four events on the weekend with strong skiing from Paula Moltzan and Laurence St. Germain. Moltzan took the first run, but with some untimely mistakes just before skiing onto the flats in the second run, she relinquished the lead to her teammate, St. Germain.

UNH was the first carnival of the season for St. Germain, as she divides her schedule with the collegiate circuit, the NorAm circuit and even the World Cup circuit. St. Germain certainly knows how to make her starts in the EISA circuit count. Over the past two seasons, she has only started three EISA slalom races and has not finished lower than second. This time she took the win with a combined time of 1:59.85.

She was followed by Dartmouth’s Alexa Dlouhy, who finished 0.13 seconds back, and Moltzan was forced to settle for third, 0.37 seconds back.

St. Germain mentioned that Carnivals bring an added pressure that you don’t find in any other race because of the team aspect of the event. She said the crowd and ambience between the college and NorAm circuit is completely different.

“I’m for sure way more nervous at Carnivals than I am at NorAms,” St. Germain said, “In NorAms, you race for yourself and if you fall it’s too bad for you, but here you have your whole team and you’re racing for the team,” she continued.

In the men’s slalom, Robby Kelley and Tucker Marshall of Redneck Racing bested the rest of the field. Kelley said that he loves to race any Carnival he can when he is home on break from the World Cup circuit. He added that the two years he spent racing as a UVM Catamount were some the best years of racing he has had.

They were followed by McLaughlin in third, who was the top college athlete. McLaughlin had a combined time of 1:46.04. He was chased by St. Michael’s College athlete Guillaume Grand. Grand finished in second last weekend as well behind McLaughlin. UVM’s William St. Germain finished third. Grand and St. Germain were 0.66 seconds and 1.16 behind McLaughlin, respectively.

The Purple Knight was the only athlete outside of Dartmouth and UVM to find his way to the podium this past weekend. Grand said that he is feeling strong in slalom right now, although his GS is not at the level it was last season.

“I’m really happy. It’s just perfect. I was not expecting that,” Grand said about his strong start to the year, although he still still wants to push to improve. He may have been pleased with his finish in the EISA results, but he said he would like to be closer to Kelley and Marshall.

With the help of their Nordic teams, Dartmouth won the Carnival as well with 903 points, followed by UVM with 845, and UNH with 659. It’s also important to note that the weekend marked an opportunity for athletes to get familiar with the venue that will host the NCAA National Championships this March.

The EISA circuit will move to Stowe next weekend, Feb. 3-4. Full collegiate results for the UNH Carnival can be found here while FIS results can be found here.