Big Green Complete Second Straight Carnival Victory

Sunday, February 7

Stowe, Vermont

9:00 AM

Dartmouth College

Nordic Day Two

Bates Carnival Concludes with Big Green in Second

Big Green Complete Second Straight Carnival Victory

2/7/2016 5:06:00 PM | Skiing

By: Dartmouth

CRAFTSBURY COMMON, Vt. — Dartmouth's men's and women's Nordic teams both finished 3-4-7 in their respective 10K Classic races on Sunday at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center to conclude the Vermont Carnival, clinching the second straight carnival victory for the Big Green. Dartmouth tallied a total 972 points throughout the two-week carnival, besting the host Catamounts by 60 points and third-place New Hampshire by 249.

For the second straight day, freshman Lydia Blanchet (Anchorage, Alaska) led the Big Green women on the course. Yesterday she finished atop the podium in the 5K Freestyle, today she earned another step by placing third in 28:08.8. Senior Corey Stock (Lincoln, Mass.) closed a 19-second gap between her and Blanchet to less than eight on the final lap, finishing fourth in 28:16.0, while another senior, Mary O'Connell (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) placed seventh in 28:43.2.

Alayna Sonnesyn of Vermont edged out Middlebury's Annie Pokorny by half of a second to win the event in 28:02.5, helping the Catamounts tie Dartmouth in the team standings with 120 points, while the Panthers managed 110.

Vermont took the top two spots in the men's race, which was originally scheduled to be a 15K race but was reduced to 10K. Cole Morgan and Joergen Grav battled for the lead with Morgan beating out Grav by 4.1 seconds with a time of 23:37.4. The first Big Green skier to cross the finish line was junior Fabian Stocek (Jilemnice, Czech Republic) in third place in 23:50.5 for the final podium slot. Trailing behind Stocek was junior Patrick Caldwell (Lyme, N.H.), racing for Dartmouth this weekend while part of the concurrent Eastern Cup race as well, taking fourth in 24:07.1 Also scoring for the Green was sophomore Luke Brown (St. Paul, Minn.) in seventh with a time of 24:55.2, nipping Eli Hoenig of Williams by a nose.

By taking the top two slots, Vermont was able to win the event with 134 points while Dartmouth recorded 120. But it wasn't nearly enough to make up the large difference in the standings.

Winter Carnival returns to Dartmouth next weekend on Feb. 12-13, though with the lack of snow in the area, the Nordic races will take place at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center once again. The alpine races will go off as scheduled at the Dartmouth Skiway in Lyme, New Hampshire, with the giant slalom starting on Friday at 9 a.m. The slalom will begin on Saturday at 9 a.m., while the Nordic classical races will get started on Saturday at 10 a.m.