Waterville, ME
The Colby College carnival wrapped up today with an exciting
set of team sprints. Racers competed in teams of two alternating laps of the
1.3 km race course until each had completed three loops. The morning dawned
clear and cold, making for fast early tracks. By 9 am the first men’s heat was
out on course.
The first heat, which contained all three teams that would
go on to make the podium, went out fast, charging up the tough technical sprint
course. Once again it was the University of Vermont men that ruled the course,
taking first and second place for the second day in a row. Yesterday’s leaders
Jorgen Grav and Jack Hegman teamed up to take first today, closely followed by
teammates Ian Moore and Cole Morgan. Charging to the line Tyler Smith of the
University of New Hampshire held off Dartmouth to grab third for himself and
teammate Peter Holmes. The Dartmouth pairing of Fabien Stocek and Callan Deline
finished fourth, while another UNH team of Raleigh Goessling and Eirik Fosnaes
rounded out the top 5.
The second men’s heat went off 45 minutes after the first
with teams pushing to try and dethrone the winners of the first heat. In the
end Cully Brown and Remi Salacroup of UVM would be closest, putting in a heat
winning performance good enough for eighth overall. The UNH team of Sam Reed
and Gavin Hess put in a second place performance in heat two, which was good enough
for ninth overall.
By the time the first women’s heat went off at 10:30 the sun
had warmed the tracks, and the already technical corners were becoming treacherous.
Many women could be seen checking their speed on the steep downhills favoring
safe cornering over the potential momentum gains. As with the men’s race, the
women’s podium was made up of teams racing in the first heat. Though Stephanie
Kirk took the early lead for the University of Vermont, she and teammate Mary
Kate Cirelli would eventually finish second. The win was taken by the
University of New Hampshire team of Katrin Larusson and Lizzie Gill, with Gill
charging away in the final lap. Third went to the Dartmouth pairing of Taryn
Hunt-Smith and Lydia Blanchet. The best effort of the second heat went to the
Bates team of Helen Sudcamp-Walker and Hallie Lang who won their heat and raced
into 8th place overall.
The women’s race concluded a great weekend of racing here in
Waterville, ME. The Nordic carnival circuit will take a break next weekend
before resuming the following weekend with the University of Vermont Carnival
at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, VT.
