Skiing Fends Off Vermont to Win the Harvard Carnival

Saturday, February 11

Dublin/Waterville Valley, N.H.

Dartmouth College

Harvard Day Two

The women's Nordic team is all smiles at the Harvard Carnival, Feb. 11, 2023

The women's Nordic team is alls smiles at the Harvard Carnival.

Photo by: Gil Talbot

Skiing Fends Off Vermont to Win the Harvard Carnival

2/11/2023 6:09:00 PM | Skiing

Final Results Photo Gallery

Podiums in the Nordic relays and the men’s slalom helped keeped the Catamounts at bay

By: Rick Bender

DUBLIN/WATERVILLE VALLEY, N.H. — The Dartmouth ski team won its first EISA carnival in nearly four years, holding off Vermont by 13 points to eke out the victory, 848-835, despite the Catamounts winning each event today. Both Big Green Nordic teams stepped on the podium in the classic relay races, and freshman Cooper Puckett took second in the men's slalom allowing Dartmouth to win at the Harvard Carnival.

The 3x5K classic relays began with the women this morning with Dartmouth entering two teams — junior Garvee Tobin, sophomore Nina Seeman and freshman Ava Thurston making up one trio, sophomores Emma Reeder and Tatum Witter along with freshman Grace Zanni the other. Reeder and Tobin were separated by only two seconds on the first 5K leg, sitting in third and fourth. Seeman pulled ahead of Zanni on the second leg, though a Middlebury team edged ahead into third. But Thurston, won won the 10K classical yesterday, pushed the Big Green across the finish into third by a comfortable margin, while Witter crossed the tape in seventh. Vermont edged Middlebury by only 2.3 seconds to win the race with the Big Green about 24 seconds off the pace.

In the men's race, sophomores Luke Allan and John Steel Hagenbuch, along with freshman Jack Lange, ran neck-and-neck with a Catamount trio the entire race as the two squads were within a second of each other at each checkpoint. Allan had a slight lead to start, Lange fell slightly behind and Hagenbuch closed the race just 0.3 seconds behind Vermont. The other Big Green threesome of senior Cameron Wolfe, freshman Cooper Camp and sophomore Wally Magill finished in fifth.

The slalom took place at Waterville Valley with the men up first. Yesterday's giant slalom winner, freshman Oscar Zimmer took the lead on the first run with classmate Cooper Puckett in fourth and sophomore Oliver Morgan 11th. But the top time on the second tour down the slopes came from freshman Dan Gillis, allowing him to vault from 15th all the way into a tie for fifth with a time of 1:25.45. Although Zimmer was unable to finish his second run, Puckett moved up to take second in 1:24.89, trailing only Vermont's Mathias Tefre (1:23.99). Morgan also improved, claiming seventh in 1:25.48, closing out the Dartmouth scoring with a total of 121 points, just one behind the Catamounts in the team standings.

The women's race was very tight after the morning run with the top 19 skiers separated by less than one second. Sophomore Carly Elsinger had the best Big Green time at 44.55 seconds, putting her in 10th, while freshman Sammi Trudeau sat 18th (44.89) and sophomore Olivia Holm in 20th (45.20). Trudeau climbed 10 spots in the standings thanks to a strong second run, finishing in eighth with a combined time of 1:34.48, just ahead of Elsinger in ninth (1:34.59). Although Holm did not finish, senior Gwen Wattenmaker put points on the board with her 19th-place finish in 1:35.58. Taking the gold was Plymouth State's Hanna Larsson Natthorst, but Vermont grabbed the next three places to easily win the event with 135 points. PSU tallied 99 points, one point better than Middlebury, while Dartmouth came in fourth with 92.

The Big Green will be back in action next weekend for the Williams Carnival on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 17-18.

Note: The last Dartmouth carnival victory came at the 2019 EISA Championship hosted by Bates.