UVM looks to double down at home carnival

In the opening NCAA races nationwide, the sheer strength of one team’s alpine or Nordic squad made all the difference in the results. In the case of the Utah Invitational, the University of Colorado Nordic athletes outpaced the alpine dominant Denver Pioneers to claim the overall team victory. At the opening EISA Bates Carnival, the perennial powerhouse University of Vermont Catamounts were tied in a dead heat with Dartmouth College at 424 points each following the Nordic races.

At the first day’s classic distance races, both the weather and course conditions changed rapidly from sunshine to snow squalls, making for a challenging contest. Middlebury’s Heather Mooney rose to the occasion to best second-place finisher Annika Taylor of the University of New Hampshire by 4.4 seconds over the 15-kilometer course. Despite Mooney’s podium finishes in past carnivals, this was the senior’s career first NCAA victory. Meanwhile, UVM rookie Alayna Sonnesyn squeezed into third by less than a second. 

Leading the EISA results in the men’s 20 km race were Dartmouth’s Patrick Caldwell (U.S. Ski Team development) and Fabian Stocek in first and second followed by New Hampshire newcomer Raleigh Goessling (two-time U.S. national champion in biathlon) in third. 

Mooney repeated her performance the next day by claiming victory in the women’s 5 km freestyle ahead of New Hampshire’s Annika Taylor and Dartmouth’s Corey Stock in second and third, respectively. The men’s 10 km skate race was also won by a repeat performer, Caldwell, who blasted away from the field to win by more than 45 seconds over the nearest competitor. Caldwell was supported on the podium by teammate Silas Talbot in third. Harvard’s Akeo Maifeld-Carucci finished as runner-up for his best career result.

Tied at 424 points apiece, Dartmouth and UVM moved their battle over to Sunday River for the alpine races. Catamount senior Elise Tefre won the women’s GS ahead of Big Green freshmen Libby Gibson and Foreste Peterson in second and third, respectively. With three skiers in the top 8, UVM edged out Dartmouth in the women’s GS, but only by a scant four points.

Although Vermont freshman Griffin Brown turned more than a few heads by winning the first run of the men’s GS from bib 31, a DNF in the second run kept him out of contention and opened the door for his former Burke Mountain Academy teammate Rob Cone, now at Middlebury College, to ski clean to the victory. Former Canadian development team athlete William St. Germain finished in second for UVM, and Chris McKenna put up more points for the Panthers in third, leading Middlebury to an impressive team victory in the men’s GS.

Cone nearly pulled off back-to-back wins if not for UVM newcomer Gaby Coulet (of Chamonix, France) who edged him out by a mere .03 seconds in the slalom. Coulet’s veteran teammate Bobby Farrell rounded out the podium in third and Taylor Wunsch finished fourth to give the Catamounts a commanding lead.

The women’s slalom was the icing on the cake for the Cats as 2014 NCAA Champion Kristina Riis-Johannessen made quick work of the field to take the win .73 seconds ahead of Dartmouth’s Maisie Ide. Colby’s Mardi Haskell finished on the podium in third.

With team victories in both the men’s and women’s slalom races, the Catamounts cruised to a 60-point win in the opening EISA match-up against Dartmouth. However, Middlebury showed its strength in women’s Nordic and men’s alpine, and the Panthers look to possibly shake at least a few things up in 2015.

Photo courtesy of Dustin Satloff

Bates Carnival Final Team Scoring

1. UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT UVM 914.0
2. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE DAR 854.0
3. MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE MID 720.0
4. UNIV OF NEW HAMPSHIRE UNH 706.0
5. WILLIAMS COLLEGE WIL 475.0
6. COLBY COLLEGE CBC 440.0
7. BATES COLLEGE BAT 433.0
8. ST LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY SLU 420.0
9. HARVARD UNIVERSITY HAR 265.0
10. CARLETON UNIVERSITY CAR 237.0
11. ST MICHAELS COLLEGE SMC 216.0
12. PLYMOUTH STATE UNIVERSITY PSU 170.0
13. BOSTON COLLEGE BC 159.0
14. BOWDOIN COLLEGE BOW 157.0
15. COLBY-SAWYER COLLEGE CSC 118.0
16. UNIVERSITE’ LAVAL LAV 116.0
17. UNIVERSITY OF ME -PRESQUE ISLE UMPI 60.0