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| (L to R): Tanguy Nef (2nd, DAR), Sandy Vietze (1st, UVM), and Guillame Grand (3rd, SMC) atop the podium. |
Team Results Women's GS Results Men's GS Results
Sugarloaf has been hosting collegiate ski races for a long time — at least since the 1967 NCAA Championships were held there. Since then, the mountain has become a mainstay of the Eastern ski racing circuit, and over the course of 50 years, Sugarloaf’s reputation as an excellent venue has only increased — so, too, has its reputation as a site of finicky weather. This weekend was no different.
After a day-long weather delay pushed back the start of the EISA Alpine Ski season, racing finally got underway at Colby College’s home hill.
In a close battle between Dartmouth College and UVM, the Big Green came out on top. Dartmouth placed first in both the men’s and women’s Giant Slalom (GS) races (tying Middlebury in the women’s race), and — with the help of their strong Nordic squad — won the overall Colby College Winter Carnival title. The Big Green scored 727 points, eking out a victory over the University of Vermont (719 points).
In a close battle between Dartmouth College and UVM, the Big Green came out on top. Dartmouth placed first in both the men’s and women’s Giant Slalom (GS) races (tying Middlebury in the women’s race), and — with the help of their strong Nordic squad — won the overall Colby College Winter Carnival title. The Big Green scored 727 points, eking out a victory over the University of Vermont (719 points).
The races were held on the historic Narrow Gauge trail. Cut in the summer of 1955, and named, like many of Sugarloaf’s features, after an obscure term from Maine’s logging industry (narrow gauge: a type of railroad track with an overall narrow span, often laid in mountainous terrain), this trail is sinuous and unforgiving.
Today, under partly-cloudy skies and howling winds, racers pushed from the start and soon cleared the Snow Bowl before diving down to Narrow Gauge's most well-known feature: the Headwall. This sheer, swooping left-turn spits racers out into Mile’s Mile, a stretch with significant fallaway on its left (as racers struggle to follow the trail, which moves the other direction). Finally, they reach Kangaroo, a series of bumps leading down to the final pitch and the finish line.
Add in a chewed-up course with a few ill-placed shelves and cross-ruts, and you’ve got one heck-of-a GS race.
The women’s GS race was won by Dartmouth College’s Foreste Peterson in 2:03.35. She bested Middlebury’s Caroline Bartlett for the top podium spot, though Bartlett put up a good fight: Bartlett won the first run of the day, but struggled in a significantly rutted course during the second run and lost time to Peterson. Peterson’s 2:03.35 beat Barlett’s finish (2:04.31) by nearly a full second. Lisa Wedsjoe of UNH was third in 2:05.30.
Middlebury College Head Coach Stever Bartlett [no relation] was content with the performance.
“Carol had a little struggle second run,” Bartlett said. “But she fought to stay in and to finish second.”
Any disappointment at giving up the top individual place was overshadowed by the Middlebury women’s exceptional team finish. Aside from Bartlett, the Panthers placed two other women in the top-15 — Jackie Atkins (6th, 2:07.15) and Lexi Calcagni (10th, 2:08.16) — to tie Dartmouth College for first in the women’s alpine standings. Both teams finished with 114 points, followed by the University of Vermont (107 points).
“This is the best start to our carnival season in many, many years,” Stever Bartlett noted. “To come out with such a good performance on the girls’ side.”
Dartmouth College’s Peterson was backed by Stephanie Currie (5th, 2:06.95) and Alexa Dlouhy (16th, 2:08.73).
Their coach, John Dwyer, was content with today’s result, but added that he and the Big Green are gunning for a better result next week.
“The conditions were a little tough, with the light more than anything else,” Dwyer said. “A couple cross-ruts here and there. But I think overall the girls made the adjustment that they needed to make, and skied fairly well. Next week…we want to try to stack a little bit more. Get our finish rate up, and try to have a bunch of them in the top 10.”
Dwyer and Dartmouth Men’s Head Coach Peter Dodge must have similar playbooks: the Dartmouth College men’s squad placed four racers in the top-10 on the way to victory over the University of Vermont. The race was close. UVM’s men finished just five points behind the Big Green, and eight of the top-10 finishers were from these two schools.
The Catamounts' Sandy Vietze won the race handily over Dartmouth’s Tanguy Nef. Vietze placed first in both runs, finishing in a combined time of 1:59.39. Nef was more than half a second back in 2:00.11, followed by teammates Brian McLaughlin (4th, 2:00.51) and Thomas Woolson (5th, 2:01.51). The Catamount’s other two scorers were Max Roeisland (6th, 2:01.70) and Griffin Brown (8th, 2:02.49).
University of Vermont Assistant Coach Tim Kelley was impressed by Vietze's race.
University of Vermont Assistant Coach Tim Kelley was impressed by Vietze's race.
"I thought he skied really well," Kelley said. "He’s been skiing really well in training. He’s always had that top speed. Consistency has kind of been an issue in the past, so it’s nice to see him skiing solid and consistent, and putting two runs down."
The only finishers in the top-10 not from UVM or Dartmouth were Guillame Grand (3rd, 2:00.51) from St. Michael’s College, and Cooper Yates (10th, 2:03.01) from Plymouth State University.
As expected, the weekend’s alpine competition was mainly a battle between Dartmouth and UVM. But, Middlebury stepped up big-time in the women’s race. Their performance, along with strong finishes by their Nordic squads, brought the Panthers into third overall this weekend (553 points).
Even though the first day of racing was lost to the wind, it was a big win to hold the first GS race of the season. Carnival host and Colby College Head Coach Danny Noyes summed up the success.
“We all look forward to the first carnival and getting going,” Noyes said. “Losing a day is unfortunate. But we all recognize that Sugarloaf is one of the best GS hills in the east, so we were excited to be able to postpone the GS and run it today. I think we saw some great skiing, and I think the level of EISA GS is taking another step up this year, so it’ll be exciting to see that go along over the next couple weeks.”
