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| UVM's Paula Moltzan is undefeated in EISA slalom races this season. |
The EISA Regional Championships at the Middlebury Carnival. Can it really be the end of the regular season?
Yes.
Six weeks later, and we find ourselves tucked in the Green Mountains just a few miles east of Middlebury, Vermont. The Middlebury Snow Bowl is one of the historic collegiate ski racing venues: other schools may have begun hosting Carnivals earlier than Middlebury, but Midd has hosted races at The Bowl since 1934. Even Dartmouth can’t touch that. (Their Skiway was developed 20 years later). This is a fitting site for the Eastern Regional championship races, and after the first day, they’re not disappointing.
Dartmouth and UVM are in a dead heat for the EISA Regional Championship title. Across all disciplines (alpine and Nordic), Dartmouth leads 483—467 over UVM after Day 1. In alpine events, Dartmouth is ahead by just two points, 250—248.
The races are going much smoother than they might have. After getting hammered by the warm temps this week (Although really, who’s complaining about skiing in a tank top? I would never.), Middlebury’s main ski lift broke.
“On Wednesday morning, the lift kind of blew up,” Middlebury Head Coach Stever Bartlett said. “It started billowing smoke, and [the mechanics] tore it apart. Fortunately, the engine didn’t blow. It was just bearings. But the lift was down Wednesday morning until yesterday [Thursday] at 3:00 p.m.”
Middlebury has another chairlift that accesses the Ross trail, but it became inaccessible after the week’s snowmelt. Staff at the Bowl considered pulling racers partway to the race start behind a snow cat and having them hike the last stretch to the start, but at the last minute the mechanics came through.
“They worked almost 24 hours straight on that thing, and they just tore the whole engine apart and put new bearings in,” Bartlett said. “We got really lucky.”
Despite the abnormally warm temperatures this week, the slalom (SL) hill today was in excellent shape. It was pretty much just ice, which ski racers love even though the rest of us find it terrifying.
The surface held up so well that after Dartmouth College’s Tanguy Nef won the men’s race, another competitor was overheard saying, “Nef could’ve won today even if he started 50th.”
Nef won in a combined time of 1:33.59, nearly three-quarters of a second ahead of UVM’s Sandy Vietze (1:34.29). Middlebury’s Erik Arviddson made it to the podium in the first home carnival of his career, crossing with a time of 1:34.63 to finish third.
The Dartmouth men’s team beat out UVM 128—112, with Brian McLaughlin (4th, 1:34.64) and Thomas Woolson (6th, 1:35.55) rounding out the Big Green’s scoring.
Dartmouth Men’s Head Coach Peter Dodge was pleased with Nef's win, but noted that his team’s focus is on the overall EISA title as well as the upcoming NCAA Championships.
“We’re really thinking ahead to NCAAs and trying to get in the right mindset,” Dodge said. “But we’re in a really tight battle with UVM for the eastern championship,” Dodge said. “We gotta do some work. We can’t just ski.”
One individual putting in some work is UVM’s Paula Moltzan. With her win today in the women's slalom race, she’s a perfect 6-for-6 in EISA SL races this year. I polled two of the longest-serving EISA coaches, Dartmouth’s Dodge and UVM’s Bill Reichelt, and neither could recall another skier in recent memory who was as consistently dominant as Moltzan has been this year.
“I mean, winning six-for-six in slalom is awesome,” Dodge said. “And she’s been winning by a lot. She’s been skiing really well. Untouchable.”
UVM Assistant Coach Tim Kelley noted that part of what makes Moltzan’s achievement noteworthy is the unpredictability of slalom as a discipline.
“It’s tough…Anything can happen. It’s just a tough one. Probably the most inconsistent sport of all, so I think [her accomplishment] is really super impressive to do in slalom where everything happens so quick.”
Moltzan’s victory today was decisive. She won by well over a second. There was plenty of daylight between her time of 1:35.89 and that of her teammate and second-place finisher Francesca English (1:37.12). Dartmouth’s Alexa Dlouhy crossed in third with 1:38.21. UVM’s third scorer was Maddie Irwin (1:38.58), who placed fifth. The Catamount women beat Dartmouth 136—122.
Tomorrow is a big day. The EISA Regional Championship is on the line. First- and Second-Team All-East awards are decided, AND it's the last day to try and secure a spot for the NCAA Championships. Whew.
Good luck.