The Middlebury ski team produced its best result of the year this past weekend, taking third place in the Dartmouth Carnival. Middlebury has had some great individual results this year, but this was the first time the Panthers collectively found their groove.
UVM kept its stranglehold on the top spot of the podium, while Dartmouth was second in its home carnival. The standout performance of the weekend for the Panthers was provided by rookie Robert Cone ’14, who placed third in both races to lead the men’s alpine team to two second place finishes.
The 100th anniversary Dartmouth Carnival kicked off on Friday with a 5/10km skate race for the Nordic teams at Oak Hill in Hanover, NH. Frigid but fast conditions greeted racers, with temperatures hovering in the single digits when the races started.
Dartmouth started off its home carnival the right way by taking the top team score in the men’s race, behind an individual win by Sam Tarling of the Big Green. The UVM skiers maintained contact with Dartmouth, however, by sweeping places third through fifth; the Catamounts placed a close second behind Dartmouth.
Chase Marston ’12 continued to show that he is the most consistent performer on the Nordic team, leading the Panthers with a 10th place finish; Marston has finished in the top 15 for every race of the 2011 season. Rookie Ben Lustgarten ’14 and senior Jimmy Levins ’11 were the next two finishers for the Panthers in 14th and 17th places, respectively. The Middlebury men earned a fourth place team score for their efforts.
In the women’s race, Caitlin Patterson of UVM remained undefeated in her senior season by skiing her way to a convincing 25-second victory over the 5km race. The Dartmouth women are no slouches, however; led by Erika Flowers in second, the Big Green women took the top team score. Corinne Prevot ’13 again demonstrated that she is one of the top skiers for the Panthers, scoring another top 15 finish in 15th place.
Emily Attwood ’14 and Keely Levins ’13 completed the scoring contingent for Middlebury, placing back-to-back in 25th and 26th respectively; Attwood edged Levins by just six hundredths of a second. The Panther women ended the day with a fifth place team score.
The Alpine racers began their weekend with a GS race on the slopes of the Dartmouth Skiway in Lyme Center, NH. UVM returned to the top of the scoreboard in the men’s race, led by their standout first-year Jonathan Nordbotten. Cone paced the Panthers with his first of two third-place finishes of the weekend. Bryan Shpall ’13 and Jake Lund ’11 were not far behind Cone, placing 6th and 12th respectively. Middlebury collected the second place team score behind these three impressive performances.
In the women’s GS race, Courtney Hammond of Dartmouth took the individual win; however, it was the Catamounts who again took the team victory. Panther captain Nicole Dvorak ’11 was the best Middlebury skier on the day, just missing out on a podium finish in fourth place. Natasha Woodworth ’11 and Bronwyn Oatley ’13 completed Middlebury’s scoring group in 12th and 15th places respectively.
With three Panthers in the top 15, the women took the final spot on the podium behind UVM and Dartmouth. After the first day of racing, UVM had a sizable lead over Dartmouth in second. Meanwhile, Middlebury was solidly in third place for the first time this season.
The second day of ski racing started with a 15km classic mass-start race for the Nordic women. Patterson of UVM continued to demonstrate that she is the woman to beat in the east by skiing to a commanding 32-second victory over the next finisher. Panther captain Sophie McClelland ’11 skied a strong race to lead the Panthers with an 18th place finish.
Levins and Attwood were the next two finishers in 25th and 30th places, respectively. The Dartmouth women took the top team score, closely followed by UVM; the Panther women ended the day in fifth place.
The men raced two laps of a 10km course, which featured some truly brutal stretches of climbing. Tarling of Dartmouth took his second victory of the weekend, out-lunging teammate Eric Packer for the finish line. Marston had his best race of the season so far, finishing sixth on the day to pace the Panthers. Doug Debold ’12 and Lustgarten both continued their strong seasons placing 12th and 14th respectively. Dartmouth took the top team score, but Middlebury was not far behind in third place.
Back on the Alpine slopes, the downhill racers tackled a brand new Slalom course. Dvorak described the new course as pretty flat, but said that it “included more terrain and direction changes than the previous trail.”
Kate Ryley of UVM demonstrated that she is one of the top women racers on the circuit, taking another victory in the Slalom. Woodworth was the top Panther finisher on the day, collecting her first top 10 finish of the season with a ninth place.
Dvorak and Oatley had strong races to finish back-to-back in 13th and 14th, respectively. The Catamount women took the top team score in the race, while the Panthers were fourth.
In the men’s race, UVM’s Nordbotten demonstrated that he is fallible, when he had to hike on his second run after putting down the fastest first run. However, UVM showed that they have great depth, by still placing three racers in the top four led by Tim Kelley.
Cone skied like he was anything but, taking his second third place in as many races. Andrew McNealus ’13 was an impressive sixth, and Hig Roberts ’14 just missed out on the top-10 placing 11th. Middlebury’s strong skiing earned the men the second place team score behind UVM.
[Captain Bobby Poehling ’11 said,] “It was good to finally get on the podium once again in the carnival circuit, [but] there is still quite a bit of room for improvement.” Since the Dartmouth Carnival is the closest carnival to Valentines Day, “Carnie Crushes” were distributed following the races.
Dvorak commented that besides his impressive results, Cone also has attracted attention of another kind.
“Not only has Rob proved that he is one of the East’s best collegiate skiers, rumor has it that he is also the best looking, making him one of the most talked about ski racers on the Carnival circuit.”
This weekend, Middlebury College skiing will host the Middlebury Carnival, one of the oldest and most important traditions of Middlebury’s winter Carnival. The 88th edition of the Carnival will take place from Friday, Feb.18 through Saturday, Feb. 19, and will feature alpine races at the Middlebury Snow Bowl, as well as Nordic races at the Rikert Ski Touring Center. Both the men’s and women’s ski teams will look to improve on their season-best finish at Dartmouth and defend home snow against the other visiting schools. Races start at 9:30 a.m. on Friday with men’s slalom, followed immediately by the first run of the women’s slalom. The Nordic skiiers will open with the men’s 10k freestyle at 10 a.m.
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