Second Place for Skiing in Home Carnival

Saturday, February 12

Lyme/Hanover, N.H.

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth Day Two

Rena Schwartz

Photo by: flyingpointroad.com

2/12/2022 8:05:00 PM | Skiing

Final Results Photo Gallery

The Big Green won all four Nordic events over the two days of competition

By: Rick Bender

HANOVER/LYME, N.H. — Dartmouth won each of the four Nordic races as a team over the two days of its first home carnival in three years, but a rough day on the slopes relegated the Big Green to second place for the fourth time in the four carnivals this season, beating out New Hampshire by a single point while trailing Vermont by a 951-797 margin.

At Oak Hill, freshman Luke Allan continue his recent surge by winning the men's 10K free, his second podium of the weekend and third of his career, not to mention his first collegiate victory. Unbeknownst to him due to the individual start, Allan was neck-and-neck with Middlebury's Peter Wolter for most of the first half of the race before inching ahead entering the 5K checkpoint by about five seconds. He maintained his lead and crossed the tape in 26:07.5, 3.2 seconds ahead of Wolter for the gold as the two swapped places from yesterday's 10K classic race.

Fellow freshman Wally Magill put together a strong race as well to finish fifth in 26:38.5, while junior Cameron Wolfe was the other scoring skier for the Big Green in 17th place with a time of 28:17.5. All told, Dartmouth scored 113 points, tying Vermont for the lead in the team standings.

The women's team hit the trails after the men at noon, and the Big Green picked up another podium in the form of a second-place finish by freshman Jasmine Drolet, her sixth podium in as many races of her young career. She was beaten out for the top step of the podium by another Jasmine, this one by the name Lyons from New Hampshire, who won the event with a time of 31:13.0, while Drolet completed the course in 32:07.3.

The Big Green boasted four skiers in places four through eight, the first two of which contributed to the team score in seniors Callie Young (33:20.7) and Rena Schwartz (33:26.2). That brought the Dartmouth point total to 127, well ahead of UNH's 110 and the Catamounts' 103 to take the team title.

The alpine races at the Dartmouth Skiway were particularly crucial to the team standings with today's slalom counting double toward the team score (the giant slalom was not run yesterday's slalom only counted toward NCAA qualifying). And while the men amassed 106 points to place second today, slightly better than yesterday, the women could not repeat their dominating performance that saw them take three of the top four spots.

Fifth-year senior Kalle Wagner grabbed his second podium of the weekend by claiming second with a combined time of 1:39.94, just behind Vermont's Joachim Lindstoel with his 1:39.31. Wagner was actually in the lead after the first run with the only sub-49-second time, but Lindstoel was not far behind and overtook Wagner on the second time down the mountain. The Catamounts also had the third-and fourth-best times to win the event with 135 points. Freshman and local product Oliver Morgan scored a top-10 finish with a time of 1:41.28, good for ninth, while another rookie, Jordan Simon, nipped sophomore teammate Olof Hedelin for the third-best Big Green time in 1:41.76, placing 16th.

The top three women yesterday all had their problems today, though fifth-year senior Hannah Utter and senior Ellie Curtis produced two of the top three times on the first run. Disaster struck on the second trip down as both failed to finish, and junior Gwen Wattenmaker — who placed fourth yesterday — did not qualify for the second run. That left freshman Carly Elsinger (1:41.73, 13th) and fifth-year senior Mikaela O'Brien (1:42.71, 22nd) as the lone point winners for the Big Green, totaling 49 to end up ninth in the team standings. With Vermont taking two podiums to compile 131 points, the Catamounts were able to surge past the Big Green for the title.

The team will next compete at the Middlebury Carnival next weekend beginning on Friday, Feb. 18.