With winter temperatures reaching a high of 4º during the races today all EISA skiers and spectators gave their best effort to keep moving! Luckily, the sky was cloudless and the sun provided some needed extra heat to keep everyone at the Saint Lawrence winter Carnival as warm as they could get. As spectators bundled up in puffy down coats and the warmest mittens they could find, skiers stripped to their uniforms so the women could take on the 5k and men the 10k freestyle races.
Coming in first place for the women's 5k was Lina Sutro, representing University of Vermont with a speedy time of 14:53, with her teammate Jenny Pedersen (3rd place) with a time of 15:58. Middlebury's Annika Landis stole second place with a final time of 15:44. Dartmouth's Taryn Hunt-Smith scored 4th place just 2 seconds behind Pedersen. Hunt-Smith reported she focused on skiing hard and "powering through the long uphill as hard as she could," while remembering to not ski the course too hard with such a challenging first portion of the course. Dartmouth's head coach, Brayton Osgood, commented on the team's opportunity to train in Silver Star in Canada, where they experienced cold weather similar to today's, giving the team a chance to ski on "cold, fresh snow." On top of that, he added temperatures like this allow athletes to remember "it's a winter sport, and it's cold and you have to be outside," whether or not it is above zero! Also performing well were Jackie Garso (SLU) in 6th place, and Hannah Hardenbergh (HAR) in 8th, and Colby's top scorer Marin Coletta in 9th.
UVM women raked in the most points (133), Middlebury followed in second overall points, earning 105, and Dartmouth just behind in third place with 100 points.
UVM men stole the show, earning the top 5 places in the 10k freestyle race. Ben Odgen pushed teammate Bill Harmeyer into second place as he took the lead with a time of 27:02, just 1 second faster than Harmeyer. Just another second behind 2nd place UVM skier was Finn O'Connell (UVM) with a time of 27:04, who was only 5 seconds faster than fellow teammate Karl Shultz! With Ian Moore earning 5th place with a time of 27:28, the top 5 skiers, (UVM) finished within 26 seconds of each other, proving their coach's comments on the ability the mens team has "work together and be competitive with one another," which helps each teammate to push the others to work harder and perform better as training continues.
Zane Fields proved his athleticism for the Colby team as he took 6th place just 6 seconds behind 5th place. Also racing well were Elliot Ketchell (BOW) and Peter Wolter (MID), who were only .2 seconds part from each other. Sam Wood also represented Middlebury earning a 10th place, with teammate Lewis Nottonson and Callan DeLine (DAR) right behind him.
The UVM coach commented that skiing at Nationals was great training to prepare both the men's and women's team to race well in the first Carnival race. Ben Ogden noted he tried to ski with control and maintain his speed throughout the second lap, and focused on "skiing with confidence" during the tricky downhill within the course, he also commented he likes to have fun with downhill training by adding in jumps to his workouts and practices. Finn O'Connell (UVM) said he used his strength with V2 to his advantage to pass others who were V1-ing the uphills.
The UVM men's team earned 141 total points, with Middlebury in second with 105 and Dartmouth in third with 89. Canada's team, Laval took fourth place and Bowdoin earned fifth.
Even with frightening temperatures close to zero, everyone shined their smiles and showed how excited they were for the first Carnival race of 2019. Let's see how the 10k classic Carnival races go tomorrow!
