The St. Michael's Carnival continued with another exciting day of skiing. Today skiers raced a 3x5k relay on a 2.5k course. Each member of a three-person team skied two laps of the course before tagging their teammate. It snowed a few inches last night which made for great skiing and even better vibes.


Men

27 skiers toed the line at 10:00am for the start of the men’s relay. There was a crash right at the beginning of the race that took down the front row of skiers, leaving them with work to do in order to catch the field. Colby skier Jack Young won the first leg and tagged off to his teammate Andrew Defor. John Steel Hagenbuch passed Defor and gapped the field, putting Dartmouth in a great position for their third leg skier Luke Allan. Allan finished off the Dartmouth relay, and secured Dartmouth the top spot on the podium. When asked about his race, Allan commented, “Johnny handed it off in a good spot, so I tried to ski my own race. We were all double poling so it definitely became pretty muscular by the 2nd lap, and maybe was not the right call at the end of the day. But it ended up working out for us and we were happy to come away with it.” Second place was claimed by Middlebury, with Ben Jenkin, Mason Wheeler and Logan Moore making up today’s relay team. First-year Ben Jenkin earned his first EISA podium after falling on his first lap. He fought back putting his teammate Mason Wheeler in a great position to remain in the race. Wheeler gained a few places and passed off to teammate Logan Moore. Moore fought his way to 4th and at the bottom of the final climb, he kicked it into the next gear. He passed the skiers in front of him and skied the team into 2nd place. Rounding off the men’s podium was St. Michael's. Declan Hutchinson, Oliver Miatke, and Daniel McCollor earned the first team podium for St. Michael's. Post-race, Hutchinson commented, “my strategy was to try to be out in front, but I ran into a little chaos on the trail and was 30 feet off the back, dead last. So then I had to grind it out and try to pull it back as much as I could.” He was able to put his teammate Oliver Miatke in a good position. Miatke said, “I felt good and the skis were good. Andrew Defor from Colby was in sight so I just locked onto him and made some gains, and passed him in the finish. Johnny got me part way through, but that was a little bit expected.”



Women

The race was led by Middlebury skier Sofia Scirica, who came in first through the lap lane. Her teammate Maggie Wagner held the lead in the beginning, but was joined by UVM skier Molly Moening. Ava Thurston (Dartmouth), Emma Crum (Bowdoin), and Annie McColgan (UVM) skied the last leg together. According to Crum and McColgan, Ava Thruston took off and dropped the hammer at the end, ultimately leading to the Dartmouth win. When asked about her strategy as the scrambler (1st leg skier), Evie Walton said she wanted to “just try to hang with the group as much as possible.” Dartmouth won both the men’s and women’s race, which according to Walton, was “the best feeling ever. It’s such good momentum for the team.” Jordan Grialou, Gillian Fairfax, and Emma Crum made up the Bowdoin relay team and earned 2nd place today. When asked about her strategy as the scrambler, Jori commented, “I was hoping to hang on with the first girls, and try to ski fast to put our team in a good position.” Fairfax chimed in stating, “Jori handed me a really good spot and I was just trying to stay as close to the leaders as I could and give Emma a good shot at being in the front.” Rounding off the podium was the UVM team – Kristen Maltun Helland, Molly Moening, and Annie McColgan. Moening commented, “it was great, I had a good time skiing with Maggie. It was a throw back to the Minnesota state high school league. I tried to get to the finish line as quickly as I could for Annie.” McColgan congratulated her competitor’s efforts stating, “skiing with Ava and Emma Crum is always a challenge, they are two pretty immaculate classic skiers, and both incredible scrappy racers. Obviously a little bitter-sweet to get beat out at the finish, but two really great skiers to get beat out by, so not too bitter at all.”

Relay days are always fun as they highlight the team over the individual and give skiers an extra reason to dig deep and go to the well. Thank you to all the volunteers, Sleepy Hollow, and everyone who worked hard to pull off this race weekend!
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