Dartmouth Takes Third at Middlebury Carnival

Saturday, February 19

Middlebury, Vt.

Dartmouth College

Middlebury Day Two

Molly Gellert competes in the 10K free at the Dartmouth Carnival

Senior Molly Gellert finished strong to win the women's 15K free.

Photo by: Gil Talbot

2/19/2022 6:39:00 PM | Skiing

Final Results

Molly Gellert earned her first collegiate victory and third podium, winning the 15K free

By: Rick Bender

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Senior Molly Gellert skied her best race of the 2021-22 season, winning the women's 15K free at the Rikert Nordic Center, highlighting the day of skiing on the trails and slopes for Dartmouth. The Big Green finished the Middlebury Carnival with 734 points to place third, while Vermont won the team title with 1,038 and the host Panthers took second with 865.

The victory for Gellert was her first as well as the third podium finish of her collegiate career as she outlasted the field. At the first checkpoint of the race at the 5K mark, the Alaska native was running fifth in the mass start race, trailing a pair of Catamounts, a Bowdoin skier and one of her teammates, sophomore Garvee Tobin. Upon the completion of the second loop, she was running neck and neck with Bowdoin's Renae Anderson at the front of a pack of eight skiers separated by fewer than five seconds. But Gellert's endurance was the deciding factor as she pulled away from that pack and won by more than 14 seconds ahead of Vermont's Haley Brewster with her time of 46:20.6.

Joining Gellert on the podium was Tobin in third place less than a second behind Brewster in 46:35.8. Freshman Tatum Witter contributed points to the Big Green effort as well, claiming sixth (46:46.7) while junior teammate Mara McCollor crossed the tape next in seventh (46:54.3). The scoring trio produced 131 points to edge the Catamounts (123) for the team victory.

The men had a tougher go of things, finishing fifth in the team standings for the 20K free. Freshman Luke Allan kept up with the lead pack for the first half of the race before settling into a groove in sixth place with a time of 53:45.1, 23 seconds behind the fifth-place finisher and 34 seconds ahead of the skier in seventh. Dartmouth's top finisher in yesterday's 10K classic, freshman Wally Magill, was unable to finish the race, and the team's other regular scorer all season, junior Cameron Wolfe, did not start the race. That left the scoring to junior Alex Nemeth in 28th (56:38.6) and freshman Asa Chalmers in 37th (57:16.0), amassing a total of 69 points. Vermont's Jacob Nystedt got faster each lap and outlasted New Hampshire's Scott Schulz for the gold by 7.5 seconds in 51:56.7, helping the Catamounts win the event.

Over at the Snow Bowl with the lift repaired after high winds knocked it out of commission yesterday, canceling the races, the giant slalom was conducted for the first time since Jan. 21. Senior Ellie Curtis stepped on the podium for the Big Green women, putting together two solid runs for a combined time of 2:06.50, good enough for third place. Freshman Carly Elsinger and fifth-year senior Hannah Utter also put points on the board by finishing 12th (2:08.27) and 14th (208:59), respectively, giving Dartmouth 102 points. That left them behind Middlebury (109) and Vermont (138), which grabbed the top two steps of the podium with the gold going to former Big Green skier Stephanie Lebby, now a graduate student at UVM.

After the first run for the men, freshman Oliver Morgan and sophomore Olof Hedelin were both among the top 15, while rookie Jordan Simon was outside the top 30. But those skiers reversed roles on the second time down as Simon ripped off one of the top times to vault into 13th place overall with a combined time of 2:03.76. Oliver and Hedelin dropped back a bit into 23rd (2:04.75) and 24th (2:04.84) to collect 73 points as a team, leaving Dartmouth in fifth. Middlebury squeaked past Vermont, 126-122, to win the team title thanks to the top two times from Justin Alkier and Bradshaw Underhill while two Catamounts skiers placed third and fourth.

The alpine team will remain in Middlebury to run another giant slalom race tomorrow for NCAA-qualifying purposes, making up the Vermont GS that was canceled at the beginning of the month. Next weekend, Dartmouth will participate in the EISA Championships and East Regional at the UNH Carnival in Jackson, New Hampshire.