Ski teams face Big Green

Here at Middlebury, students are used to a general atmosphere of athletic success.  The Middlebury sports teams routinely compete for NESCAC championships and often see action in National playoffs as well. It has become something Panther fans expect out of their athletic teams. This week, Middlebury Athletics reached a higher level, as two former Middlebury skiers, Simi Hamilton ’09 and Garrott Kuzzy ’06, competed in the Olympic games in Vancouver, Canada.

In light of Middlebury’s success at the international level, the College’s ski team is also competing well at the collegiate level. This weekend the Panthers showed their capacity to improve and placed a season-best third overall in the Dartmouth Carnival. Scoring a total of 743 points, Middlebury fell short of beating only UVM and the host school Dartmouth.

Riding the success of their Olympian brethren, the Men’s Nordic skiers continued their dominance with yet another event win in the 3x5 freestyle relay event. Captain Graham Egan ’11, rookie Dylan Grald ’13 and Patrick Johnson ’11 were the Panthers responsible for this performance. Once again, Nordic dominance set the pace for the Panthers, but the alpine squad did its fair share for the men as well. Notably, captain Bobby Poehling ’11 placed second in the slalom while rookie phenomenon Brian Shpall ’13 was not far behind, placing eighth. Junior Jake Lund was Middlebury’s third scorer in the event, placing 15th. As for the Giant Slalom (GS), the men turned in another solid performance with Shpall placing 12th, Poehling taking 14th and Lund not far behind in 20th. The impressive alpine performance boosted the Panthers’ score when coupled with the consistently strong Nordic placing.

The women’s alpine team also turned in a solid day, with captain Nicole Dvorak ’11 pacing the squad. Dvorak placed second in the slalom and fifth in the GS. Lindsey Kraft ’11 followed Dvorak in the slalom with the 21st slot and and a 15th in the GS to put together some high top scorers for Middlebury. Leah McLaughry ’10 was the third scoring panther in the GS and Christine Schozer ’13 took 23rd in the Slalom to round out scorers.

“This was definitely our best performance of the season, but we still feel that if we perform to our potential there is significant room to improve,” Schozer reflected on the weekend. The women’s Nordic team enjoyed a fair amount of success as well, placing Corinne Prevot ’13 10th and Lauren Fritz ’10 11th in the 15k classical race. These two went on to pace the 3x5 freestyle relay, along with Keely Levins ’13, for a seventh place performance.

With the Olympics underway and a strong performance at Dartmouth, the Panther Ski team looks to be gathering steam heading into its next event at the Williams Carnival on Feb. 19 and 20.