By: Caleb Horsch
The EISA circuit continued this week with a trip to historic Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondacks. The snow was quite good, and the level was as high as ever for the thirteen teams who made the trek.
Giant Slalom
The series got kicked off on Thursday with the GS. Trevor Hamilton from Plymouth State set run one and put down a flowy course for the field to charge down. The ladies got the action underway, with Colby Colleges Lydia Riddell setting the time to beat on run one. She was by far the cleanest down the top pitch and carried her speed onto the middle flat section. She was trailed by Saint Michael’s Helene Kristoffersen, a mere three-tenths of a second off the lead. Reigning EISA skier of the week, Hedda Martelleur from the University of New Hampshire, sat in third, and last week’s winner, Allie Resnick, placed fourth.
On the men’s first run, Dartmouth’s Benny Brown could not be stopped. Brown skied aggressively down the opening pitch and took a massive half-second lead into run two. Behind Brown, the race was quite tight. Colby’s Nolan Sweeney sat in second place, just ahead of the Middlebury duo of Nick Unkovskoy and Brad Underhill.
As the day wore on and the sun dipped down, the second run got underway. Hosts Saint Lawrence set run two, which had a few tricks that required smart tactical skiing. Phenomenal second runs from Middlebury’s Mika Reha and Dartmouth’s Izzy Washburn moved them up to fourth and fifth, respectively. For Washburn, the result represented a career-best finish; for Reha, it was a return to form after she did not finish the Bates Carnival GS.
Determined to retain the GS leaders’ bib, Resnick took plenty of risk on her second run. She moved up one spot to finish in third. Martelleur pushed out of the gate next and skied a solid second run to come down in the lead. She saw off a challenge from Kristoffersen who came down in second and when Riddell lost a ski near the bottom of the course, she secured her first collegiate win.
Underhill has looked superb in GS this season, but he would have his work cut out for him on run two as he trailed Brown by 0.84. By the end of the flip 30, the course had deteriorated, and the bumps and chatter created a significant challenge. Despite all that going against him, Underhill delivered a great second run and saw off four skiers that defeated him on run one. He earned his second GS win of the young season. Underhill’s focus was solely on “continuing the great start to the season and putting down run [he] was proud of.” His result vanquished some of his past struggles at Whiteface, “I was nervous coming into the races because of my past results at Whiteface.” He now holds a 70-point lead in the GS standings with two GS races complete.
The men’s GS podium was rounded out with a tie between Brown and Sweeney for second. Brown comes out of his first two carnivals having already earned two podium finishes, and Sweeney scores his best finish in a college race. Sweeney’s result represents the best finish by a male Colby skier since Vincent Lebrun-Fortin placed second at the University of Vermont Carnival in 2010.
Slalom
Another beautiful day greeted the field on Friday for the Slalom. The men got the action underway with bib one Mack Wood from the University of Vermont setting the time to beat. He held a four-tenth lead over Dartmouth’s Dan Gillis. With UVM eager to best Dartmouth in the team standings, the matchup would be crucial to who won the carnival. With very close margins, Bode Flanigan from Boston College sat in third place.
On the women’s first run, Zoe Zimmerman from Dartmouth got the action underway. Her skiing across the top flats was quite strong, and she led after run one ahead of Cydnie Timmermann from the University of Vermont. Martelleur rounded out the top three after the first run.
An easier set for the men’s second run left little room for error or anything less than full-charge skiing. The margins were tight, with the top 10 being separated by only 0.76. Underhill did just what the set required and moved up six spots to earn his first collegiate slalom win. Wood and Unkovskoy rounded out the men’s podium. Underhill said of his win, “I’m very excited about where I ended up. I never thought I would be able to take the top spot in a slalom race.”
For the women, Benedetta Caloro, from hosts Saint Lawrence, represented the Saints well. She won the second run and moved up 13 spots as a result. She finished the day in 9th place, a career-best result. A big mistake from Martelleur moved her outside of the top 15 and moved up Hannah Soria and Carissa Cassidy into fifth and fourth, respectively. The finish represented Cassidy’s second, fourth-place finish of the year. Justine Clement, winner of the opening Slalom race of the season, also moved up one spot to finish in third. While Timmerman was able to narrow the deficit to Zimmerman, she could not overcome it, and Zimmerman grabbed her first collegiate win.
Team Results
Dartmouth won a second consecutive carnival on the backs of excellent performances by Zimmerman and Brown. They took home a whopping 931.5 points to second place, the University of Vermont’s 798. Helped by Underhill’s double win, Middlebury placed third ahead of the University of New Hampshire and Colby. For Underhill, his individual success is all about bringing the Panthers to victory, “I really wanted to do my part in pushing Middlebury up in the team rankings,” he said, “my goals are to continue to improve on the technical side of my skiing and helping Middlebury win its first carnival in five years.”
Looking Ahead
The annual ‘bye week’, a break in the racing schedule, will give some reprieve to racers who will look to catch up on training as cold weather pounds the East Coast. Some will be making the trip to Western Canada for the Nor-Ams before the final push of the season. The Carnival season will resume next week with the Saint Michael’s Carnival at Smugglers Notch.