By: Caleb Horsch
The penultimate stop on the EISA circuit, the Middlebury Snowbowl hosted the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association for two days of racing. Six inches of snow on the Thursday leading up to the race challenged skiers, but the surface was workable and shaped up quite nicely for the Saturday GS. The racing could not have gone much better for the hosts, Middlebury Panthers, who won three out of four Alpine races. Despite the gargantuan effort, Middlebury would not be able to pass Dartmouth, who was buoyed by a very strong performance from their Nordic team and, results in the Men’s GS as they went on to take a fifth consecutive team win.
Men’s Slalom
As is typical at the Middlebury Carnival, racing began with the Slalom. Middlebury’s own Bradshaw Underhill clinched the Slalom title with his third Slalom victory of the season. Despite trailing UNH’s Jayden Buckrell on the first run, Underhill absolutely dominated the field on the second run, winning the run despite severe course deterioration. Despite slipping back to second on the second run, Buckrell finished comfortably in second place, nearly a second ahead of Mackenzie Wood from the University of Vermont in third.
The top 5 was rounded out by Bode Flanigan from Boston College and Dan Gillis from Dartmouth. This marked Flanigan’s third top 5 result in Slalom this season and matched Gilli’s best effort in Slalom. UVM placed two other skiers in the top 10 in, Magnus Styren Berge and Cole Palchack. The trio gave UVM the most points in the men’s Slalom.
Women’s Slalom
Colby’s Carissa Cassidy has been building momentum all season in Slalom. She has done no worse than fourth place this year and was searching for a back-to-back victory after her maiden win at the Dartmouth Slalom. After run one, Cassidy had some work to do. She sat in fifth place, but the standings could not have been much closer. 0.23 seconds separated the top 5 on run one, making run two a showdown for all the marbles.
On the second run, Cassidy skied with only a victory in mind and closed the gap to the leaders to take the victory. She was closely followed by Kjersti Moritz from Middlebury and Hedda Martelleur from the University of New Hampshire. After finishing third in her first Carnival last weekend at Dartmouth, Moritz did one better to finish second.
Zoe Zimmerman from Dartmouth and Cydnie Timmerman from the University of Vermont also finished in the top five. Cassidy’s result thrust her to the top of the Slalom standings, but Zimmerman remains hot on her tail. The duo will battle it out next weekend for the Slalom title.
Women’s GS
The Middlebury Panthers have always fared well on their home hill. Moritz added to her team’s long history of success at the Snowbowl by winning both runs and taking home her first collegiate victory. Her margin was notable in a very tight race as she bested Helene Kristoffersen from Saint Michael’s by 0.62. Hanna Larsson Nathhorst skied to a season’s best third place, which looks to qualify her for the NCAA Championships after she sat right on the bubble.
Fourth and fifth place went to Carly Elsinger and Chloe Lathrop, respectively. They both earned their best results of the season. The result was especially memorable for Lathrop, racing for the Williams College Ephs, as her best result in GS this season had been 16th place.
Men’s GS
The Middlebury men continued right where the women left off with Underhill and Nicholas Unkovskoy finishing one-two. At the end of the weekend, Underhill has won seven out of ten races this year, including four out of five GS races. The second-place finish by Unkovskoy was his best of the year and his third podium result. Benny Brown from Dartmouth grabbed another podium after winning his home Carnival last weekend. Oscar Zimmer added valuable points for Dartmouth in fourth place, and Wood grabbed another top 5 result in fifth.
Underhill said after the weekend, “It’s a dream come true. I have placed second three separate times at the Middlebury Carnival, so a season goal of mine was to get on the top step.” He attributed his success to the elective environment of the home crowd and his team and family, “They have helped me keep moving forward and focus on the next run rather than previous ones.”
Team Standings
Three finishers in the top 10 for the Dartmouth men’s team proved just enough to take the Carnival victory. They will look to go a perfect six for six next weekend. Standing in their way are the defending champions, the University of Vermont, who placed third this weekend. The University of New Hampshire Wildcats landed in fourth, and Colby slotted in fifth. The Williams College Ephs finished in sixth, buoyed by multiple top 10’s from Chloe Aust and Lathrop. The result marks their best finish of the season in the team results.
Not to be forgotten are the Panthers, who might be getting hot at just the right moment. Underhill said that moving forward, the team is looking to compete for a carnival win and take home some hardware at NCAAs.
The Qualifying Picture
Ahead of the last two days of racing this Friday and Saturday at the University of New Hampshire, athletes and coaches alike will be tuned to the NCAA standings. The qualifying picture is never clear until the final results are tabulated and have been known to swing dramatically after the final race.
On the men’s side, seven Dartmouth skiers sit inside of the top 17. With 17 qualifying spots this season and each team allowed a maximum of three skiers, others below the line will have an opportunity to qualify. Further complicating the picture on both the men’s and women’s side is that a number of athletes have been selected by their respective nations to attend the World Junior Championships taking place in Tarvisio, Italy. As World Juniors occurs at the same time as NCAA Championships, they cannot attend, and other athletes below the line may have an opportunity to qualify.
Back of the napkin math has Robert Underhill from the University of New Hampshire as the final men’s qualifier if the season ended today for the men with 91 points. Chloe Lathrop would be the final qualifier for the women with 112 points. These racers, those ahead of them and those behind them will look to lock up a spot next weekend.
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