UVM remains perfect, winning Middlebury Carnival

MIDDLEBURY, Vt.—The University of Vermont kept its season-long streak alive, winning the Middlebury College Winter Carnival, Feb. 15-16, stretching out a narrow Day One lead over Dartmouth to win comfortably, 933 points to 859.

Another winning streak was snapped on Day Two at Middlebury, Feb. 16, as Middlebury’s David Donaldson finished third in the GS. Until Saturday, he’d won every GS this season. Still, he led the Panther team to a strong finish, helping them wrap up third place overall, with 766 points to 734 for the University of New Hampshire. Fifth place went to Williams College with 550 points.

On the final day of the last carnival before next week’s Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association championships at Bates, UVM won three of the four events, the men’s GS at the Middlebury College Snow Bowl, and the men’s 20km mass start freestyle and women’s 15km mass start freestyle at the Rikert Nordic Center. UNH captured the women’s giant slalom.

In the morning’s 20km freestyle race, UVM’s Scott Patterson put the hammer down, winning by nearly a minute. He finished four laps of the new Tormondsen Family Race Trail at Rikert in 45:13.7. In second was Friday’s winner in the 10km classic, Dartmouth’s Sam Tarling, in 46:09.2. Less than two seconds separated the next three racers: Dartmouth’s Scott Lacy finished in 46:16.9, Middlebury’s Benjamin Lustgarten in 46:17.5, and UVM’s Rogan Brown in 46:18.8.

In the women’s 15km freestyle at Rikert, Dartmouth and UVM skiers made up the top five. After three laps, Dartmouth’s Mary O’Connell was first in 39:35.0 and teammate Annie Hart was fourth in 40:50.1. UVM took second, third  and fifth, with Anja Gruber (39:52.5), Linda Danvind-Malm (40:21.2), and Stephanie Kirk (41:06.1), respectively. The winner of Friday’s 5km classic race, Annie Pokorny, led the Middlebury team in eighth place.

The Rikert race trail now has an end-to-end snowmaking system, and a look at some of the bare fields surrounding the stadium portion of the course made it clear that the investment is already paying dividends. The race trail, which saw some spills on icy corners but otherwise got positive reviews, will get its next test when Middlebury hosts this year’s NCAA championships, March 6-9.

Up at the Snow Bowl, the second run of the women’s GS wrapped up first in the afternoon, under mostly sunny skies on the Allen trail. UNH put two skiers in the top three, with Randa Teschner the winner (in a two-run time of 2:10.08) and Jenna Kantor in third (2:10.60). Middlebury’s Mary Sackbauer was the runner-up (2:10.48). Geordie Lonza of Williams wrapped up a great weekend with a fourth-place finish in GS (2:10.69); she had a break-through win in the women’s slalom on Friday. In fifth place was Dartmouth’s Abigail Fucigna (2:11.0).

In the men’s GS, UVM’s Jonathan Nordbotten denied Donaldson a perfect season, winning by half a second with a two-run time of 2:02.85. He was joined in the top five by two teammates, Travis Dawson in second (2:03.35) and Sean Higgins in fifth (2:03.47). Donaldson was third (2:03.42), and teammate Hig Roberts fourth (2:03.43).

Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association action resumes next week, Feb. 22-23, with the Bates Carnival serving this year as the regional NCAA championships, at Sunday River and Black Mountain.

EISA Skiing: Middlebury College Winter Carnival
Final Team Scores, Feb. 15-16, 2013

1. University of Vermont 933.0
2. Dartmouth College 859.0
3. Middlebury College 766.0
4. University of New Hampshire 734.0
5. Williams College 550.5
6. St. Lawrence University 445.0
7. Colby College 441.0
8. Bates College 400.0
9. Harvard University 332.0
10. St. Michael’s College 266.0
11. Bowdoin College 186.0
12. University of Laval 158.0
13. Boston College 141.5
14. University of Maine-Presque Isle 131.0
15. Plymouth State University 90.0
16. Colby-Sawyer College 47.0