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| UVM Celebrating after a stellar day of racing |
The second day of the Williams Carnival kicked off with individual start, 3.8KM skate races for both men and women. Racers were greeted with blue skies and slightly cooler temperatures in the high twenties. Although the course was slightly variable with some icy patches and other mushy sections, it was still an insanely speedy loop for the racers. When looking at the demographics, the loop included one significant climb with the remaining distance being filled sloping flats or technical downhills.
The women’s race began at 10:00 AM, with UVM’s
Alayna Sonnesyn taking back her place on top of the podium, finishing the course in 9:16.7. Her teammate
Lina Sutro (UVM), finished nearly a second behind her in 9:17.3 and Dartmouth’s
Taryn Hunt-Smith took third in 9:20.2.
Sonnesyn shared that today’s race was a great comeback for the UVM women’s team: “We were looking for a little more after yesterday so we had a little pep talk in the van, and we knew that we needed to get after it, and we did that, so we’re all pretty excited.” When asked about strategy Sonnesyn commented, “It’s a short race and I’m much more of a distance skier so I knew I just had to go for it from the start and give it everything I had. I knew that every second was going to count so every time I was getting tired I just had to remind myself that you just have to keep going.” This race makes Sonnesyn have six EISA 1st place podiums under her belt out of nine. Will she snag the last two races at the Middlebury Carnival? We will have to wait and see.
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| Sonnesyn focused at the start |
Runner-Up Lina Sutro was another Catamount that dominated today, commenting that, “it was a good race.” When asked about the hardest part of the course, Sutro shared, “probably sticking with the flats at the end. Just every second counted so it was really tough.” As the last carnival approaches, Sutro is blown away by how fast her freshman season has passed and hopes to still bang out some top performances for those last two races.
An exciting and overdo result of the day was to see Taryn Hunt-Smith (DAR) break into a podium spot after placing nearly every race this season in fourth and fifth. “It was really fun to finally get out of that 4th spot. I’ve been close to the podium every time, so it was really good to finally make that move.” Hunt-Smith shared that the most challenging part was how difficult it was to maintain her speed on the flats. “I kind of thought there would be more recovery there but I just had to keep pushing the whole time and grab every second I could.” As a whole Hunt-Smith sees this as a solid season and was happy to see her team do so well, “I’m really happy with it, but I don’t want it to be over yet.” In the women’s team score, UVM took the win by Sonnesyn and Sutro working with
Margie Freed (10th) to grab a total of 130 points, ahead of Dartmouth with 124 points, and Middlebury with 92 points.
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| Women's Podium - Hunt-Smith, Sonnesyn, and Sutro |
In the men’s race UVM continued to dominate with sophomore Karl Schulz taking the win in 8:20, ahead of teammate Juri Miosga in 8:21, and Dartmouth skier Gavin McEwan in 8:23. Schulz was pumped to notch his first EISA victory, commenting that “It was super fast out there and I actually felt pretty good this time, so that was really nice.” When asked about his strategy Schulz commented that “I tried to take it pretty hard on the uphill but not too hard and then really hammer the flats and the transitions as hard as I could.” This allowed Schulz and his teammates to reach their goals, he explained: “I was really hoping for a good payout today and I think we definitely achieved that.”
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| Schulz leads to UVM team to Victory |
Runner-Up Juri Miosga (UVM) was also happy with his race, “it’s the first time I’ve been on the podium and my season didn’t start off too well so this weekend was really good for me.” Miosga followed Schulz strategy of leaving some power left in the tank after the hills, which he thought “worked out pretty well.” When asked about conditions Miosga commented, “Given the weather it was okay, the only problem was that it was really icy on the uphill so that was difficult, but I think it was like the same for everybody.”
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| Miosga at the Start |
Third Place finisher Gavin McEwan was another Dartmouth skier that had a breakout race. He was happy with the result, commenting that the hardest part was the finishing stretch. “It was kind of a downhill but you still had to work. It wasn’t really that fast there so you couldn’t just tuck it.” Strategy wise McEwan shared that he was really trying to work into the downhills, “because they had a lot of speed” to gain. McEwan like his teammate Hunt-Smith was not happy to think that the season coming to a close, stating that “it goes by fast, I wish it was longer.” In the men’s team competition, results mirrored the women’s race with UVM coming in first due to Schulz and Miosga working with
Bill Harmeyer (5th) to make a grand total of 136 points. Dartmouth came in second with 108 points, and Middlebury came in third with 85 points.
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| Men's Podium - McEwan, Schulz, and Miosga |
Next week racers will compete in regionals and the final EISA Carnival of the season at Rikert Nordic Center in Middlebury, VT. The Middlebury Carnival will kick off on Friday with individual start, 5KM/10KM Classic races. Then the action will continue on Saturday with mass start 15KM/20KM Skate races.This will be an exciting weekend to see who will rise to the occasion in order to grab one of the 13 tickets to go to the NCAA Championships in Steamboat Springs, CO. Stay tuned this week for video recaps from this weekend.
Click here for photos from day 2!
