Alpine Wins Giant Slalom, Big Green Sit in Second at Colby Carnival

Friday, January 31

Waterville/Carrabassett Valley, Maine

9:00 AM

Dartmouth College

Colby Day One

Andrew Miller alpine ski action at Harvard Carnival

Andrew Miller picked up his first career carnival victory.

Photo by: Gil Talbot

Alpine Wins Giant Slalom, Big Green Sit in Second at Colby Carnival

1/31/2020 6:02:00 PM | Skiing

Results Day One

Andrew Miller and Claire Thomas each won the gold on Friday

By: Rick Bender

WATERVILLE/CARRABASSETT VALLEY, Maine — Andrew Miller and Claire Thomas both won gold in the giant slalom for Dartmouth as the Big Green won both the men's and women's races to finish the first day of the Colby Carnival in second place with 434 points. Only Vermont topped the Dartmouth total with 450 thanks in large part to sweeping the men's 10K freestyle.

The snow at Sugarloaf proved to be the liking of the Big Green skiers on Friday morning, starting with the women. Only three skiers zipped through the course in under a minute on the first attempt, including two from Dartmouth — juniors Tricia Mangan and Thomas. But Vermont's Marina Vilanova led by four-tenths of a second with her 59.43-second run. But Thomas and Mangan were the only ones to ski the second run under 1:03 with the former jumping from third place to the top step of the podium with a combined time of 2:02.38 for her second career win. Mangan wasn't far behind in 2:02.64 to place second in a race for the third time this season, while Vilanova settled for third (2:02.72). Sophomore Ellie Curtis also had two strong runs to finish fifth in 2:03.56, just edging out teammate Stephanie Currie in 2:03.69, giving the Green 136 points and the victory by 20 points over the Catamounts.

In the men's GS, Miller took the lead from the beginning with the fastest run on the first tour in 58.03 seconds. Another strong showing in the afternoon gave Miller his first-ever carnival win (and first podium) in 1:59.32, two-tenths of a second ahead of Joachim Jagge Lindstoel from Vermont. Senior Kipling Weisel was fifth after the first run and placed sixth at the end of the day in 2:00.32, just ahead of junior Drew Duffy, who tied for seventh with Middlebury's Justin Alkier in 2:00.65. The trio amassed 122 points, beating out New Hampshire in second (111) and Middlebury in third (106) to win the event.

For the third straight week, junior Katharine Ogden finished second in the women's 5K freestyle, trailing Middlebury's Sophia Laukli by 10 seconds with a time of 13:45.9 on a very fast course at Quarry Road Trails. But she was well ahead of Vermont's Evelina Sutro who crossed the tape in 14:10.9 to take the final perch on the podium. Freshman Mara McCollor finished strong to place seventh in 14:24.4, while sophomore Molly Gellert also scored for the Big Green in ninth with a time of 14:28.4. The trio combined for 113 points, leaving Dartmouth third in a very tight race with Vermont, which totaled 116 points while Middlebury squeezed in between the two with 114.

In the men's 10K freestyle, the Big Green's top performer this season, junior Adam Glueck, did not start, so his classmate Walker Bean stepped up to lead Dartmouth in 26:09.9 — good for 13th overall. With freshman Cameron Wolfe claiming 28th (26:51.1) and junior Tyler Lee 35th (27:14.5), the Big Green wrapped up the event in seventh place with 63 points. Vermont swept the podium, led by Ogden's younger brother Ben who took the gold by over 30 seconds in 24:25.9.

The carnival will wrap up on Saturday with the slalom and the classical races, 10K for the women and 15K for the men.