Dartmouth Cruises to Carnival Victory at Vermont

Saturday, February 4

Stowe, Vt.

All Day

Dartmouth College

Day Two

Dartmouth Cruises to Carnival Victory at Vermont

2/4/2017 6:58:00 PM | Skiing

By: Dartmouth

STOWE, Vt. — Victories for sophomore Alexa Dlouhy in the women's slalom, senior Thomas Woolson in the men's slalom and senior Fabian Stocek in the men's 10K Classic led the Dartmouth ski team to a convincing victory at the Vermont Carnival on Saturday, its third in as many carnivals this season. The Big Green finished the two-day event with 923 points, topping second-place New Hampshire by nearly 200.

Dlouhy took the lead on the first run at Mount Mansfield, zipping down the slopes in 56.61 seconds, putting her ahead of junior teammate Kelly Moore in 57.39. Sophomore Hannah Melinchuk was near the top of the standings in fifth (58.56) as was senior Meg Currie in seventh (58.82). On the second run, Dlouhy continued to shine with the second-fastest time to win the race, more than a full second ahead of Colby's Marlene Haskell, who moved up a spot into second. Moore joined Dlouhy on the podium, beating out Melinchuk for third by a tenth of a second in 1:57.15, and Currie finished fifth as she posted the best time on her second attempt. The top three combined for 135 points, easily outdistancing the host Catamounts with 111.

In the other three races, the Big Green placed second as a team. The men's alpine team had Woolson to anchor it, and he put himself in good position after the first run, recording a time of 53.83 seconds with only St. Michael's Guillaume Grand (53.38) ahead of him. While the second run was considerably slower for the field, Woolson bested everyone in 1:00.87 to beat Grand by 0.38 seconds with a combined time of 1:54.70. Freshman David Domonoske came through for Dartmouth with his first-ever top-10 finish by placing eighth in 1:58.55, and senior Preston McLaughlin provided the final points in 19th at 1:59.78. But Grand led St. Michael's to the team victory with 123 points with the Big Green totaling 104.

Stocek did all he could at the Trapp Family Lodge as the only skier to break 30 minutes (29:49.6). After the first of the two 5K loops, he and New Hampshire's Peter Holmes were neck and neck, but the veteran Stocek was able to put space between them and win by more than 15 seconds. Sophomore Gavin McEwen was the next Dartmouth skier to cross the tape in 31:09.3, good for 13th, while classmate Koby Gordon rounded out the Big Green scorers in 19th with a time of 31:25.1. Though Williams College did not have anyone on the podium, it still managed to put its three skiers in the top 11 to eke out the team title in a 108-101 victory.

The women's 10K was dominated by Dartmouth and New Hampshire with the Wildcats taking first, third and fourth and the Big Green second, fifth and sixth. Freshman Abby Drach skated a consistent race, sitting second after the first lap and remaining ensconced in second by beating out UNH's Katrin Larusson by nearly 10 seconds with a time of 32:40.2. Big Green sophomore teammate Lydia Blanchet was right with her at the turn in third, but fell back to fifth by the race's end in 34:38.2 with classmate Taryn Hunt-Smith in sixth in 34:52.6. Wildcat Elizabeth Gill took home the gold in 33:52.4 while Larusson joined her on the podium in third. When the points were added up, UNH had 135 and Dartmouth 123 with Colby a distant third with 82.

Dartmouth returns home for its Winter Carnival next weekend at the Dartmouth Skiway in Lyme, New Hampshire, and the Cross Country Ski Center at Oak Hill in Hanover. The races begin on Friday with the giant slalom and the 3x5K Free relay.

Notes: Woolson picked up his first career carnival victory today, while Stocek picked up his second of the weekend and fourth of the season ... Dlouhy also had her first victory of the year, to go with three wins from her rookie season in 2016.