Dartmouth Leads Home Carnival After First Day

Friday, February 11

Lyme/Hanover, N.H.

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth Day One

Wally Magill skis in the 10K classic at the Vermont Carnival, Feb. 5, 2022

Freshman Wally Magill nearly gave the Green a sixth skier on a podium.

Photo by: flyingpointroad.com

Dartmouth Leads Home Carnival After First Day

2/11/2022 11:55:00 PM | Skiing

Results Photo Gallery

Big Green skiers posted a total of five podiums on the day with at least one in each event

By: Rick Bender

HANOVER/LYME, N.H. — The Dartmouth Big Green ski team won both Nordic events on the first day of its first home carnival in three years, ending the day leading the field with 247 points. Vermont, which won the first three carnivals this season, is just one point ahead of New Hampshire in second place, 203-202.

With the cancellation of the giant slalom races leaving back-to-back days of the slalom at the Dartmouth Skiway, today's alpine races only counted toward NCAA qualification and not the team scores. That left the classical races — men's 10K and women's 5K — as the big events of the day, and the Big Green did not disappoint the home crowd in either one.

The men's 10K got things going at the Oak Hill Touring Center in the morning, with freshman Luke Allan — fresh off his first collegiate podium last week — climbing one step higher this week with a second-place finish in 28:43.6. Another rookie, Wally Magill, was edged out by less than a second for the last spot on the podium, finishing in fourth with a time of 28:53.7. Dartmouth got a third top-10 finish with junior Cameron Wolfe claiming seventh in 29:11.7, giving the Green a total of 123 points, just enough to squeak past Middlebury's 120, led by Peter Wolter's winning time of 28:06.5.

The women took to the course at noon, and freshman Jasmine Drolet continued to be the class of the EISA, winning the 5K by more than 30 seconds in 16:06.4 for her fourth victory in five races. While the rookie led the way, two seniors provided the remainder of the team's points as Rena Schwartz placed fifth in 17:13.3 and Callie Young crossed the tape in ninth in 17:23.7. The Big Green had another skier in the top 10, sophomore Garvee Tobin, who finished fourth (17:05.4), but she was entered as an individual and was not eligible to contribute to the team score, which ended up at 124. Vermont and New Hampshire tied for second with 113 points.

The Dartmouth alpine skiers put forth a terrific effort with a total of three podiums, led by Hannah Utter's gold on the women's side. The fifth-year senior was running a close third behind senior teammate Ellie Curtis and Vermont's Caroline Jones after the first run, then posted the best time on the second run to overtake the lead and win the gold in 1:34.14. Curtis had a fine run in her own right on her second tour with the sixth-best time, which kept her on the podium in third with a combined time of 1:34.59. Dartmouth nearly had a clean sweep of the podium with junior Gwen Wattenmaker in fourth in 1:35.83.

The men earned a medal as well with fifth-year senior Kalle Wagner finishing third in 1:42 flat. His first run was the second-best time in the field, and his second time down the mountain was plenty good to keep him in the top three, trailing only a pair of Vermont skiers. Junior Hunter Brayton had two strong runs to end up in eighth place (1:42.98), while sophomore Preston O'Brien tied for 17th in 1:43.70.

The carnival will conclude on Sunday with another slalom — which will count double the points in the final standings — and the 10K freestyles races for the men and women. The Nordic events will begin at 10 a.m., while action on the slopes kicks off at 9 a.m.