Dartmouth hosted the fourth carnival Oak Hill and put together a great race today. When asked about his home course, Dartmouth skier John Steel Hagenbuch commented, “there’s a lot of work on our course, it’s maybe not the hardest in terms of the biggest climbs, but you’re working pretty much the entire time. There’s a really sustained working section through the start/finish/lap zone, which is fun because not many courses finish with a big climb.” To get an idea of what he’s talking about, see the course map below.
Course Map
Women
Dartmouth put together an impressive showing at their home carnival with four women in the top ten. Dartmouth skier Ava Thurston secured the top spot on the podium with a time of 24:15.9. During her warmup, she was “trying to think about whether in or out of the tracks was faster. There were a couple sections on the downhill where I think it was faster out of the tracks.” When asked about the course she’s spent the season preparing on, Thruston commented, “I think this course is one where you really have to think about lines, it’s very windy. We’ve done a lot of intervals on this course this year, so it was nice to have that practice and know where to make a track change or where to take the inside line.” Thurston’s teammate Evie Walton placed 7th today and said, “I felt pretty good, it was really hard out there, still a shock even after skiing on this course all season. But it was fun, vibes were great.” When asked about home course advantage, Walton commented “we’ve been trying to dial this course in for the entire season, and it seems like it helped out.” Bowdoin skier Emma Crum earned another podium today by placing 2nd. Her strategy today was “to go out hard.” She added that, “in my recent 7.5k races, I haven’t been going out hard enough. I also tried to push over the tops of the hills because it was super transitiony and pick the best lines because the course was so windy.” Rounding off the 7.5k classic race podium was Middlebury skier Shea Brams. Tatum Witter and Emma Reeder were the other two Dartmouth skiers in the top ten and placed 4th and 5th respectively.
Skiers striding up a long climb
Men
Dartmouth skier John Steel Hagenbuch got the win today with a time of 21:22.40. After his race, Johnny commented, “that was really hard. 7.5k classic is a race format that I feel like is engineered to be really hard in that it’s short enough that you’re able to go really hard the entire time, but it’s just long enough that it hurts really bad. I would say that it feels like a 5k, especially on a course like this, where it really rewards skiing the uphills well and pushing the transitions.” 2nd place was also secured by Dartmouth, with Luke Allan coming in just 2.3 seconds behind Johnny. Post-race Allan commented, “we’ve done a lot of workouts on this course, so I think we know the transitions and technique zones really well. We also got the wax pretty dialed, which is a testament to the testing that our coaches have been doing on course. I think home-course advantage is definitely real, so kudos to the coaches for making it happen today and to all the boys for throwing down.” UNH skier Roger Anderson skied a fantastic race with long old-school striding technique and came in just 0.5 seconds behind Luke Allan. When asked about his race, Anderson said, “‘I felt fantastic. Great kick, great skis. I told Shane yesterday, ‘I’m gonna get my first podium tomorrow’ and it happened.’” After calling his race, Anderson’s strategy was to “go out hard and keep the pace,” which proved to be effective. Middlebury skier Logan Moore came in 4th and spoke about the course saying, “it was faster out of the tracks in most places. Racing mid-day is kinda tough sometimes because the weather can change really fast. The climb out of the stadium heated up pretty significantly, and it definitely changed the way that section of the course was racing.” Moore’s teammate Mason Wheeler earned his first top five today and commented, “today was a pretty solid day. It finally came together, the energy was there and it was awesome to have so many people out there cheering, it definitely lifted me up that big hill on the back half of the course.” He gave us an insight on his strategy stating, “I had a different focus on each lap. My first lap I was trying to be as efficient as possible and keep as much in the tank as possible for the last two. On my second lap, I knew it was going to be harder and I just had to grit through it and then empty the tank on my last lap with whatever was left.”
Caden Cote motivating skiers up a long climb
Team Scores
Dartmouth has the lead after Day 1 and looks to hold on for the win at their home Carnival.
Come back tomorrow for Day 2 of the Dartmouth Carnival!
Comments