Dartmouth Sitting Second after First Day of East Regional

Friday, February 28

Middlebury, Vt.

9:00 AM

Dartmouth College

Middlebury Day One

Kalle Wagner alpine skiing at Harvard Carnival

Kalle Wagner stepped on the podium with his third-place finish in the slalom.

Photo by: flyingpointroad.com

Dartmouth Sitting Second after First Day of East Regional

2/28/2020 4:51:00 PM | Skiing

Results

Both alpine teams won the slalom for the Big Green.

By: Rick Bender

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — The Dartmouth men's and women's alpine teams both won the slalom on the first day of the Middlebury Carnival and NCAA East Regional, helping the Big Green finish the first four events in second place with 415 points, trailing only Vermont (453) while leading the host Panthers by 10.

The women's alpine team had the strongest showing for Dartmouth with four of the top five times in the slalom, generating 132 points to beat second-place Middlebury by 17. Only nine skiers zipped through the course at the Snow Bowl in under 50 seconds on the first run, including the four Big Green skiers. Junior Claire Thomas leap-frogged ahead of sophomore teammate Abi Jewett during the second run, claiming second with a combined time of 1:39.69, while Jewett kept her place on the podium in third in 1:40.15. Junior Tricia Mangan was right behind in fourth (1:40.59) with senior Stephanie Currie placing fifth (1:40.72). The only skier to beat that quartet was the Panther's Ali Nullmeyer, who had the fastest time on both runs to finish up in 1:37.60.

In the men's slalom, the Big Green had a much tighter outcome, besting Middlebury by a single point, 114-113. Dartmouth had three in the top seven after the first run, led by senior Kipling Weisel (48.08 seconds) in fourth. Although Weisel was unable to finish his second run, junior Kalle Wagner stepped up on the second run to climb onto the podium in third place with a time of 1:35.42. Junior captain Drew Duffy finished up with two strong times to take fifth in 1:36.11, while senior David Domonoske slipped into the top 10 with his combined time of 1:36.97, tying for ninth. The Panthers took the top two steps of the podium with Tim Gavitt taking the gold in 1:34.56, but their third skier placed 29th, leaving Middlebury that single point shy of the Big Green total.

Skiing without their All-Americans, Katharine Ogden and Lauren Jortberg, the women's Nordic team still managed to finish second in the 5K freestyle at the Rikert Nordic Center. Leading the way was sophomore Molly Gellert, who edged out a Panther for the last spot on the podium in third by little more than a second with a time of 13:27.7. Senior Abby Drach skated across the finish line in the middle of a tight pack of seven skiers to claim 12th place in 13:42.4, and sophomore Rena Schwartz supplied the final points for the Big Green by nipping junior teammate Sofia Shomento at the tape in 13:54.8, good for 17th. Vermont won the event with the top two times, including Evelina Sutro's 12:58.8 to win the race, scoring 132 points, while Dartmouth's 99 put them one ahead of Bowdoin for second.

Vermont won the men's 10K freestyle by sweeping the podium for 141 points, with Bowdoin in a distant second place with 102. The Big Green were paced by junior Walker Bean in 16th with a time of 23:56.6 with freshman Cameron Wolfe close behind in 18th (23:58.5). Also scoring for Dartmouth was junior Tyler Lee in 22nd, skating across the finish line in 24:22.1. The trio amassed 70 points for the Green, finishing seventh overall. Matias Oevrum won the race for the Catamounts with his time of 22:31.4.

Dartmouth will wrap up the regional tomorrow with the giant slalom and classical races. The women will be up first for the GS at 9:15 a.m., while the women's 15K classical gets under way with a mass start at 10 a.m.

Notes from the podium: Thomas and Jewett both picked up their first career podiums in the slalom, though Thomas has three in the giant slalom this year and Jewett one of her own as well … Wagner earned his first podium this year, second of his career in the slalom and third overall … Gellert, meanwhile, earned her first podium of the year and second of her career.