With the fastest second run of the day, Phillipe Rivet of
UNH claimed his first career carnival win by only three hundreds of a second
over UVM’s Dom Garand. Dartmouth’s Thomas Woolson followed just behind in
third, only 0.40 out of the top spot.
It was a cold day on Narrow Gauge, possibly the most
challenging GS hill of the year, and many of the pre-races favorites weren’t
able to make it through Sugarloaf’s famous Miles’ Mile section of the first
run. Guillaume Grand almost fit that description with his first run, but his
second run narrowly missed Rivet’s and brought him back into fourth position. UNH’s Bryan Cookson finished fifth, while Colin
Hayes and Riley Plant led Middlebury in 6th and 8th, respectively.
Bobby Farrell of UVM showed his adeptness in GS after his SL
win last weekend with a seventh place finish from bib 40, while Max Martin of Plymouth
State and Michael Boardman of Colby rounded out the top 10. The home fans from
Colby were also quite excited with first-year Jack Auty as he charged his way
from bib 75 to finish 24th.
In the women’s race, Dartmouth’s Foreste Peterson followed
up her second place finish in last weekend’s GS by winning today by 1.49
seconds. Colby’s Mardi Haskell had her first podium finish of the year in
second, as did UNH’s Lisa Wesjoe in third. Wesjoe led a flurry of teammates as UNH
put four women in the top 15: Kelly Anne Dinapoli placed seventh, Sohvia
Virkkula ninth, and Morgan Klein fourteenth. Libby Gibson’s fast first run
landed her in fifth to add to the Big Green’s tally, while Brittany Lathrop
once again led UVM in sixth.
Caroline Bartlett of Middlebury made it into the top 5 for
the first time, and her fourth place finish alongside Lexi Calgangi in twelfth helped
Middlebury to the third spot in the overall team standings behind UNH and
Dartmouth. Sierra Leavitt used her home hill advantage to finish eighth, while Alexa
Dlouhy’s tenth place confirmed that the Dartmouth women stayed on top of the
EISA GS team rankings.
Tomorrow’s slalom looks to be a good one as Alex Dlouhy and
Bobby Farrell look to keep a hold of their leader bibs and UNH look to win
their first carnival this year.
