Catamounts Sweep Freestyle Races

Linda Danvind-Malm climbs to victory in the women's 10k skate. (Photo: Ian Nesbitt / EISA Skiing)

WATERVILLE, ME. — The UVM Catamounts skied lights-out during day two of the Colby College Carnival.  Linda Danvind-Malm and Scott Patterson each took individual victories, leading their team past Dartmouth for good this weekend.  In the women's race, UVM placed three skiers in the first four positions, a dominant performance broken up only by Annie Hart of Dartmouth, who finished second. Anja Gruber (3rd) and Stephanie Kirk (4th) rounded out the scoring for the Catamounts.

Dartmouth's Emily Hannah and Corey Stock took the 6th and 7th spots, giving the Big Green second place.  Heather Mooney (5th), Stella Holt (11th), and Kaitlin Fink (17th) gave the Middlebury women an edge over UNH for third.

Also cracking the top-10 for Dartmouth but not scoring were Isabel Caldwell (8th) and Carly Wynn (10th).  Carleton University's Kendra Murray was 9th.

In the mens' race, Scott Patterson skated to another commanding minute-plus win over the field.  Patterson has become known for winning freestyle races by huge margins, and appears fit enough to try the freestyle discipline sweep again this season.  His next closest competitor was Dartmouth freshman Patrick Caldwell, a skate specialist in his own right.  Caldwell looks poised to take up the mantle left by Sam Tarling as Dartmouth's best skater.  Ben Lustgarten of Middlebury was third.  Lustgarten held off UVM's second scorer, Rogan Brown.  After being tied with Brown after lap one, Lustgarten skied to a ten-second advantage at the end of lap 3 and held that margin through the finish.  Jorgen Grav (9th) rounded out the scoring for the Catamounts, and Cam Woodworth (6th) and Silas Talbot (7th) scored for Dartmouth.

The Harvard men continued their impressive team skiing during day 2.  Akeo Maifield Carucci skied to a career-best fifth and lead Crimson teammates Tony Ryerson (14th) and Chris Stock (24th) to another team podium spot, beating out Middlebury (Lustgarten; Austin Cobb, 15th; Jack Steele, 33rd) by just two points.

Also of note in the top-10 were Jordan Buetow (6th, Bates) and Eli Hoenig (10th, Williams).

Next weekend the carnival circuit heads to UNH, where the Nordic races will be held at the Jackson XC Ski Center in Jackson, NH.