Waterville, ME
This morning
the second day of the Bates College Carnival began under cloudy skies. College
skiers were joined by hundreds of eastern cup racers for the day’s freestyle events.
Despite the best efforts of the organizers, the full race loop was deemed unfit
for racing and the Women’s 5km and Men’s 10km races were contested on the same
1.5 km loop at yesterday’s sprints. With the women racing 3 loops and the men
6, many a coach or teammate could be heard yelling at a skier that it was their
final loop.
Despite the counting
challenges the skiers were in top form. The women’s race got underway at 10 am
under a curtain of snow. Today Kelsey Phinney of Middlebury held off the oncoming
charge of the University of Vermont to take the win in 12:13.0. Following just
7 seconds behind her was Alayna Sonnesyn of UVM. Sonnesyn’s teammates Iris
Pessey and Mary-Kate Cirelli followed in close succession. The University of
New Hampshire’s Lizzie Gill rounded out the top five.
While it was
the University of Vermont women who won on the day, the Dartmouth women put in
an extremely strong showing taking places 6 through 9. However, in the end it
was not enough to take the weekend win away from the UVM women who finished the
carnival with 240 points. Dartmouth was a close second with 225 points and the
University of New Hampshire rounded out the top 3 with 186 points for the
weekend.
On the men’s
side it was Jack Hegman of the University of Vermont who battled through the
white out conditions to take the win in 22:07.5. Following just two seconds
behind him was teammate Jorgen Grav, while Fabian Stocek of Dartmouth finished
third. Rounding out the top five were Eli Hoenig of Williams and Oscar Friedman
of Dartmouth.
A strong
performance by Cully Brown filled out the University of Vermont’s top three and
helped secure the men’s win for today. Callan Deline’s 11th place
finish helped Dartmouth to just outpace the men of Williams College. Dartmouth
finished the day with 112 point to Williams’ 108. The UVM men took the weekend
win with an impressive 260 points, while Williams and Dartmouth tied for 2nd
with 199 points each.
Racing
resumes next Saturday with the Colby College Carnival. Racers will return to
Waterville, ME for a 15km Classic Mass Start and Freestyle Team Sprints.
