Craftsbury, VT
The EISA returned to Craftsbury Outdoor Center this weekend
for the 106th Dartmouth Winter Carnival. With just one day of racing
this weekend, it was all on the line in today’s distance races. In anticipation
of extremely cold weather the race organizers chose to move race times up,
trying to get ahead of dropping temperatures that threated to fall below the
legal race limit of -4 degrees Fahrenheit.
Though still challenged by the lack of snow, organizers were
able to expand onto a 3.2km loop for today’s races. The expanded loop was more
challenging than last weekend’s, adding a new climb and a few twists that, when
repeated over the course of 5/6 laps, made for a challenging race.
In temperatures hovering around zero, the men’s 20 km
classic mass start got underway at 9:30 am. The race was tightly contested with
the top 5 all coming in within 19 seconds. After trailing Eli Hoenig of
Williams College for most of the race, Jack Hegman moved ahead to take the win
in 47:33.0 for the University of Vermont. Hoenig finished 2nd in
47:39.4, followed by Fabian Stocek of Dartmouth College in 47:45.3. Peter
Holmes of the University of New Hampshire, and Jorgen Grav of UVM rounded out
the men’s top five in 4th and 5th respectively.
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| Eli Hoenig leads on his way to 2nd in the men's 20 km |
The women’s 15 km classic race played out in a similar
fashion, with the top five all finishing inside a 20 second window. Classic bib
leader Kelsey Phinney held on to her lead, finishing first in 44:59.0. She held
off a chase by Olivia Amber of Colby College who finished 2nd in
45:03, just seconds ahead of Mary-Kate Cirelli of UVM. Katrin Larusson of UNH raced
into 4th, followed by Mary O’Connell of Dartmouth in 5th.
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| Kelsey Phinney celebrates her win in the women's 15 km classic |
The University of Vermont returned to dominance, taking the
win on the weekend with 888 points, 30 points ahead of second place Dartmouth.
EISA Nordic racing will resume February 19th with the Williams
College Carnival. Due to poor snow conditions at Prospect Mountain the venue
has been changed to the Lake Placid Ski Jumps.
