Dartmouth Skiway? More like Cancún beach day! After the first two carnivals of the season brought subzero temperatures and some serious wind chill, the EISA returned to the circuit (after not one but two weekends off, thanks to an unfortunate string of weather that forced UVM to reschedule the carnival up at Stowe last weekend) to find sunny skies and forty-degree weather. Tropical!
The first day of the Dartmouth carnival brought some big-league slalom, with the warm weather softening the upper layer of the snow--although, by the second runs, a relatively firm surface kept the track in reasonably good condition.
The first men's run, however, was a bit like an oversized bookcase: serious shelf. A few turny sections led to a significant trench by the end of the field. The second set, this one straight as an arrow, changed up the rhythm a little bit and fared much better over the course of the run.
Dartmouth, Harvard, SMC, UNH, and UVM all got skiers in the top 10, and UVM managed to stack four of its five guys in single digit positions. Third place went to the Big Green's Kalle Wagner, who grabbed his first carnival podium of the season on his home hill. The Catamounts continued their top-tier performance this season with the top two men's finishes: Mathias Tefre grabbed 2nd and Joachim Jagge Lindstoel, aided by a blisteringly fast first run, grabbed 1st.
The women's sets started off straight and only got straighter. This time it was the Big Green who got the pounce on the Catamounts, with 3 Dartmouth women in the top 5 compared to UVM's 1. In addition Middlebury, PSU, Williams, and all had athletes in the top 10, with 3 other UVM skiers rounding out the ranks.
Third place went to Dartmouth's Ellie Curtis, throwing even more Green up onto the EISA podiums today. Second place went to UVM's Caroline Jones. Dartmouth's Hannah Utter, giving the field a masterclass from on Skiway slalom strategy, grabbed her first win and first podium of the season after a top ten finish at each of the preceding carnivals.