The Dartmouth skiing teams headed up to Maine this past weekend to compete in the Colby Carnival. The teams improved on their two third-place finishes this season, beating Middlebury College by four points to take second. The University of Vermont won its third straight carnival with 899 points.
On the first day, Dartmouth started off strong, with the women’s team beating the field in the giant slalom. After strong first runs from Claire Thomas ’21 and 2019 Giant Slalom All American Tricia Mangan ’19, Thomas edged past Mangan in the second run for a total time of 2:02.38 for her second career win. Ellie Curtis ’22 finished in fifth and Stephanie Currie ’20 came in sixth. In the women’s 5k freestyle, Katharine Ogden ’21 finished second with a time of 13:45.9. Three more Big Green skiers made the top 10, with Mara McCollor ’23 in seventh, Molly Gellert ’22 in ninth and Abby Drach ’20 in tenth. McCollor said that the Quarry Road track’s short length made it more technical and slightly more difficult for the skiers.
A strong performance from the Dartmouth men in giant slalom secured a first place finish for the team. Andrew Miller ’22 took the individual gold with a time of 1:59.32, marking his first career carnival win. Kipling Weisel ’20 came in sixth with 2:00.32 while 2019 Giant Slalom First Team All American Drew Duffy ’21 tied for seventh with 2:00.65. With Adam Glueck ’21 — Dartmouth’s usual leader in the 10k freestyle — not competing, Walker Bean ’21’s 13th-place finish led Dartmouth in the men’s 10k freestyle competition. As the first day ended, the Big Green sat in second, trailing Vermont by only 16 points.
The team continued its strong performance on Saturday. The Big Green won women’s slalom with 120 points. Four skiers placed in the top eight and Ellie Curtis secured a podium finish. Sitting in 13th after the first run, Curtis came alive in her second attempt to move into third place with 1:50.28. The Dartmouth women secured 106 points in the 10k classical race for a second place finish. Ogden recorded a time of 33:09.1, good enough for second place and another podium finish for the Big Green. The second place was bittersweet as it also ended her impressive winning streak of 10 individual classical races after Middlebury’s Sophia Laukli took the gold. McCollor secured a top-10 finish in ninth with 35:30.0, while fellow freshman Anna Lehmann ’23 came in 13th with 35.51.1.
“The women crushed it again today, just all stacking it in,” Duffy said.
On the men’s side, Dartmouth finished second to Vermont in the slalom competition. Despite sitting in eighth after the first run, AJ Ginnis ’19 put together an impressive second run to make the podium at third. A veteran of the world cup circuit, this was Ginnis’ first college start. Fellow senior Weisel recorded the next best finish for the Big Green, placing sixth. Dartmouth placed seventh in the men’s 15k classical competition, led by Cameron Wolfe ’23’s 15th place finish.
Building on a successful season so far, Dartmouth pulled ahead of Middlebury by four points to secure their first second-place finish of the season. In its previous two competitions at Harvard University and Vermont, Dartmouth took third place behind Middlebury. In the end, Vermont walked away with its third carnival win of the season after an 899-point performance. The Catamounts won four of the weekend’s eight events.
Both Duffy and McCollor agreed it was a strong weekend for the team.
“We were really happy with how it ended up,” McCollor said. “I think we always want to be faster and do better, but this weekend was really good.”
Moving into the rest of the season, the team is focused on staying healthy and finding both speed and consistency in their skiing, but will continue to face tight competition with Vermont and Middlebury.
“It’s competitive, and that’s good to have,” Duffy said. “It pushes the whole level.”
McCollor said that Vermont and Middlebury’s added depth and tight competition has made the races even more fun for the teams this season.
Although next weekend is Winter Carnival in Hanover, the Dartmouth skiing teams will be competing at Bates College in Maine instead. There, Dartmouth looks to build on this weekend’s success. The Big Green will then end its season with carnivals at Williams College and Middlebury before the NCAA championships in March.
