The Craftsbury Outdoor Center was alive today, with the UVM Carnival hosting more than their usual number of skiers, and more varied. Mixed in with the collegiate racers today were SuperTour and top junior athletes.
After a brief postponement to account for the dump of snow that started last night and continued into this morning, the races kicked off before noon.
The first day of a race-packed weekend began with a 1.4km SuperTour freestyle sprint for both the men in the women, and EISA skiers finished competitively against a field of SuperTour skiers in the open races. On the men’s side, Matias Oevrum of UVM finished second, while Gregory Burt finished fifth. The EISA women also showed out and raced quick. UVM skier Anna Bizyukova finished fourth, and Callie Young, from Dartmouth, finished in tenth.
As for the EISA specific results, the home team won the day, though Dartmouth was nipping at their heels. The podium for the men: Matias Oevrum first, Gregory Burt second, and Dartmouth skier Luke Allan third. The women’s podium was also a Darthmouth-UVM mashup. Anna Bizyukova secured first for the Catamounts, followed by two Dartmouth skiers. Callie Young finished second, and Jasmine Drolet followed up a banner first ever carnival in Sleepy Hollow with a nice third place for her second.
Ollie Burruss, the Chief of Race for this weekend, spoke earlier this week about the conglomeration of the Nordic skiing world, and after day one of a busy weekend for the ex-Havard racer wrapped up, he noted that the day made him feel excitement for the rest of the weekend.
Though the heavy snowfall meant the trail needed some more maintenance than usual (hence the pushed back start), Burruss said that today he got good feedback from the coaches and the racers.
He also noted that the EISA skiers did well at the top, and it was nice to see the diversity of visitors reflected in the top finishing skiers. He was happy that the college skier did well, some Canadians came and skied fast, and a few of the younger skiers held their own against the collegiate and SuperTour athletes.
Today Burrus met a young skier, he said, whose grandfather raced at UVM in the 1970s. The full spectrum of the Nordic skiing world that Burruss was so excited to see this week, on display with this one family. "It's just the coolest thing," he said.
Check back in tomorrow for more coverage of the UVM Carnival. The home team leads the full team results with a score of 258, closely followed by Dartmouth's 217, and UNH is in third with 170.