The day began partly cloudy and warm, though throughout the day clouds occupied an increasing share of the sky and strong winds picked up, offering skiers a boost to the finish and chilling spectators who started the day prepared for balmy weather.
Temperatures the past two days stayed mostly in the forties, and rain fell early this morning, so all considering the course held up well today. Though by the time the women started to cross the finish line, it was on its last legs. Standing by the fence watching the last skiers start, Dartmouth coach Brayton Osgood said "weather is awesome for the spectators right now, but it's tough skiing out there for the girls."
Pushing through the warm weather and the melting, softening snow, Dartmouth held onto their lead at the top of the team scores. Today was similar to yesterday for the Big Green. More podium finishes and more consistency down the roster, outside of the top finishers. Dartmouth finish ahead today with 487 points. UVM and UNH finished second and third respectively.
Freshman Luke Allan lead the way for Dartmouth today and won the men's 10k freestyle skate, improving on his second place yesterday. This is Allan's first carnival race win, and after a series of competitive finishes this season Allan looks poised to be a top EISA skier for the rest of his four years at Dartmouth. After the races wrapped and he'd stepped off the podium twice, Allan found time amongst all the pre-crush commotion to very briefly mention that he was happy to win his first EISA carnival race.
The rest of the Dartmouth squad put in competitive performances to contribute to the Big Green's team win. Freshman Wally Magill grabbed fifth in the men's race. Drolet podiumed again and the other two scoring women for Dartmouth finished fourth and fifth. Tobie Garvin, though not a scoring skier for Dartmouth, also placed well, occupying the sixth place spot.
As for the rest of the podium places, the skiers were the same as yesterday with just a little shakeup through the ranks. On the men's side, behind Allan's time of 26:07.5 was Peter Wolter, from Middlebury, in second (26:10.7) and UNH's Scott Schulz in third (26:32.2).
Jasmine Lyons, a freshman at UNH, won the women's race with a time of 31:13.0. Lyons is another young skier, like Dartmouth's Drolet and Allan, that made an immediate impact on the EISA carnival circuit upon her arrival in the league. Behind Lyons was Drolet with a time of 32:07.3, and then Anna Bizyukova, a more veteran skier from UVM who is also having a fast year filled with top three finishes, with a time of 32:38.1.
Still packing up the finish line after the awards were presented, Cami Thompson-Graves, head coach for Dartmouth, took a beat to talk about her young skiers and the Dartmouth team carnival win.
"It's such a great opportunity to race at home. We don't get to do it consistently and to be able to work on different sections of the course makes a difference," she said. "And we're absolutely psyched to have Jasmine and Luke, and I think Wally Magill is right there too."