St. Michael's Carnival Begins with Freestyle Sprint Races

Friday, January 20

Ripton, Vt.

9:30 AM

Dartmouth College

Saint Michael's Day One

Anja Grover skis in the 7.5K freestyle at the Bates Carnival, Jan. 13, 2023

Freshman Anja Grover

Photo by: flyingpointroad.com

St. Michael's Carnival Begins with Freestyle Sprint Races

1/20/2023 2:30:00 PM | Skiing

Results

Freshman Anja Grover led the Big Green skiers on the first day of competition

By: Rick Bender

RIPTON, Vt. — The St. Michael's Carnival kicked off today with the freestyle sprint races, held at Middlebury's Rikert Nordic Center, with Dartmouth finishing the day in sixth place. The Big Green women had three skiers advance to the quarterfinals while the men also had three advance as the teams combined for 135 points. Middlebury ended the day with a slight lead over Vermont, 245-238.

Freshman Anja Grover was the top scorer for either Dartmouth team, placing third in her quarterfinal heat to place 15th overall. Racing in the first quarterfinal, sophomore Emma Reeder skated to a fourth-place finish, leaving her 17th in the final standings. Another sophomore Tatum Witter, crossed the tape in fifth in the third quarterfinal to take 22nd overall with the trio amassing 70 points for the Big Green.

Vermont's Haley Brewster edged out her teammate, Waverly Gebhardt, in the finals for the top step of the podium, and three Middlebury skiers also raced in the finals, leaving the Panthers seven points behind the Catamounts' total of 127.

For the Dartmouth men, sophomores Aiden Casey and Wally Magill reached the quarters along with senior Alex Nemeth, who was competing as an individual. Both Casey and Magill took fourth in their respective heats, putting them in 18th and 19th place, respectively, with Casey edging Magill thanks to his slightly better time in the preliminaries. Nemeth, meanwhile, ended up in sixth in his quarterfinal heat and wrapped up his day in 29th place. Freshman Cooper Camp took 31st to garner the final 16 points for the Green, giving the squad 65.

Middlebury once again had three skiers in the finals, but it was Vermont's Ben Ogden who won the final race by nearly two seconds to take the gold. The Panthers won the team title, however, with 125 points to UVM's 111, putting Middlebury atop the overall leaderboard.

The slalom races for this carnival will be raced in two weeks due to a lack of snow in New England (notwithstanding the several inches that have fallen in the last 24 hours). But the Nordic races will continue tomorrow with the 15K classic, starting at 10 a.m.