By: Caleb Horsch
The 2025 Eastern College season kicked off on Friday and Saturday with racing at Sunday River. After a year away, the circuit returned to the iconic Maine resort for a Slalom and GS race. High winds in the days leading up to the race closed the mountain, but winds cleared just in time for Friday’s race and left behind a phenomenal racing surface. The snow was hard but grippy, with little more than a scratch on it even at the end of each run.
Giant Slalom
On Friday, racers tackled the GS with Colby coach Eric Harlow setting run one. He set a challenging and turny course that tested racers from top to bottom. There was plenty of offset throughout, and two chicanes with turny corridors preceded them. Lydia Riddell took full advantage of her coach’s set and took a half-second lead into the second run. Allie Resnick, winner of two GS races last year, sat in second place, well ahead of her teammate Zoe Zimmerman.
On the men’s side, Middlebury’s Brad Underhill looked above the rest. He would take a 0.44-second lead into the second run in front of Harvard’s Duncan Armstrong, competing in his first college race. Isac Hedstroem from UNH rounded out the top 3 on run one. The hard snow meant that late bibs could ski themselves right into the top 10. Armstrong, Benny Brown, Jayden Buckrell, Milan Novak, and Callum Langmuir all started with bibs higher than 28 and found the top 10.
The second run set went to hosts Bates College, and despite less offset, coach Jake Johnston kept the challenge high. Dartmouth Sophomore Isabelle Washburn, seventh after the first run, skied aggressively and won the second run. Washburn held off three skiers who were ahead of her on the first run and landed in third place, her second college podium. The University of New Hampshire’s Hedda Martelleur was tied with her in third.
The race win would come down to Resnick and Riddell. As the light went down and the course deteriorated, it would take gutsy skiing to come out on top. While Riddell skied cleanly, it would be Resnick who would come out on top. She took the race win while Riddell settled for second. The result marked Riddell’s second podium, and she will return to Whiteface the sight of her first podium next weekend.
By the start of the men’s second run, the sun had dipped completely below the mountain, and the light was dark throughout the course. Not to be outdone by his teammate, Nick Unkovskoy dominated the second run to move into fourth place. Dartmouth’s Benny Brown skied onto the podium, competing in his first college race after a year off due to injury. Hedstroem ended the day second, and Underhill held on for the win.
Slalom
It started snowing early on Saturday and remained constant for the Slalom race, but the surface remained outstanding. The men got the day underway, and Dartmouth first-year Philip Lundquist was eager to make a good debut. He did just that on run one, taking the lead over his teammate Louis Latulippe and Boston College’s Bode Flanigan. Despite the long Slalom, the top 10 was separated by less than a second after run one, making it anyone’s game.
Justine Clement finished second four times in Slalom last year and while she has enjoyed plenty of success, the top step of the podium has alluded her at times. She came out absolutely gunning on run one and would take a lead of half a second into the second run. Resnick finished in second, and Colby’s Carissa Cassidy sat in third.
The race was far from over after run one for the men, and multiple skiers improved their placings significantly. Oscar Zimmer and Calum Langmuir from Dartmouth moved up to sixth and fourth, respectively. The University of Vermont’s Magnus Styren won the second run to end the day in second place. Bode Flanigan held onto his third-place result; for Flanigan, who has had a great deal of success in GS, this result represented a Slalom breakthrough. Flanigan’s best result last year in the event was a sixth-place finish at the Colby Carnival. He appears to be a threat in both events this season for the Boston College Eagles.
On the women’s second run, Martelleur was fantastic. She made an incredibly costly mistake on her first run but found herself still in sixth place. She brought that same skiing, but this time without an error on run two. She moved up to second place, ahead of Cassidy and Resnick, who finished in fourth and fifth, respectively. For Cassidy, this marked a career-best result and finished off a very solid weekend after a ninth-place finish in the GS. Dartmouth’s Zoe Zimmerman rounded off the podium as Clement took the win by 0.72 seconds.
Team Results
Buoyed by results from Resnick and Lundquist, Dartmouth took the carnival win. The team posted the most points in the Men’s Slalom and Women’s GS and the second most points in the Women’s Slalom and Men’s GS. Second place belonged to the University of Vermont. The Catamounts lost only one carnival last year, the first one of the year at Colby. They will hope this marks their only loss in the season yet again.
Resnick was thrilled with her team’s start to the season: “It was so great to start the college season this weekend. I am very proud of the entire Dartmouth team and so happy to walk away from the GS with a win.” Resnick said they were set on keeping the “momentum going into the next few weeks before the NCAA Championships at home.”
Looking Ahead
This will be a short week for the league, which will make the long trip to Lake Placid for the Saint Lawrence Carnival. The site of the NCAA Championships two years ago, Whiteface offers a challenging GS hill with a long, steep pitch right out of the gate. The Slalom hill is flat out of the gate before gradually rolling over to a final pitch into the finish.
The University of Vermont will be looking to regain its top spot next week, while Dartmouth looks as tough as ever. The series will kick off with the Giant Slalom on Thursday and finish with the Slalom on Friday.