Skiing Moves Up to Finish Second at Williams Carnival

Saturday, February 18

Hancock, Mass./Woodford, Vt.

Dartmouth College

Williams Day Two

Riley Grosdidier skis the giant slalom at the Harvard Carnival, Feb. 10, 2023

Freshman Riley Grosdidier

Photo by: Gil Talbot

Skiing Moves Up to Finish Second at Williams Carnival

2/18/2023 8:09:00 PM | Skiing

Final Results (PDF)

Two more podiums in the Nordic races highlighted the day

By: Rick Bender

HANCOCK, Mass./WOODFORD, Vt. — Sophomore John Steel Hagenbuch won the men's 10K freestyle at the Williams Carnival on Saturday, his first career victory and third podium in the last two weeks, helping Dartmouth rise to second in the final standings with 772 points. The other Big Green podium came courtesy of freshman Ava Thurston who finished second in the women's 5K freestyle.

Dartmouth pulled ahead of Middlebury, which totaled 710 points, swapping places with the Panthers in the standings. Vermont took home the team title (887), winning both freestyle races and finishing second in both the men's and women's giant slalom.

Hagenbuch was the first up in the interval start at Prospect Mountain, setting the pace with the best time over the first loop, but only by one second ahead of Harvard's Rémi Drolet. The second lap was more of the same for Hagenbuch as he put together the best time on the second loop to beat the Crimson skier by a little more than 10 seconds to take the gold in 21:23.7. With sophomore Luke Allan taking seventh in 22:11.2 and freshman Jack Lange tying for 15th (22:38.8), the Big Green amassed 111 points, but the Catamounts eked out the win with 112 with their top three claiming third, fifth and 11th.

The women took to the course at noon, and Thurston — who won yesterday's 10K classic — zipped through the 5K race in 12:10.8. Only New Hampshire's Lucinda Anderson was able to beat that time (12:04.6), putting Thurston on the second podium step. Sophomore Jasmine Drolet, last year's EISA Women's Nordic Rookie of the Year, raced for the first time this winter after recovering from an injury, and she skated across the finish line in 12:36.9 to place 11th overall. And with sophomore Nina Seeman putting together a time of 12:45.0 to finish 17th, Dartmouth amassed 101 points, trailing Vermont (116) and UNH (114).

Like the women's Nordic team, the men's alpine squad finished third in the giant slalom today at Jiminy Peak. After the first run, the Big Green had two skiers in the top 10 in junior Max Martin (49.38 seconds, tied for fourth) and sophomore Oliver Morgan (49.62, eighth), plus another in 12th in freshman Cooper Puckett (50.12). Morgan managed to climb three spots in the standings with the fifth-best time on the afternoon run, finishing fifth overall with a combined time of 1:37.21, just edging out Martin (1:37.30) in sixth. Puckett was unable to finish his second attempt, which left junior Preston O'Brien to provide the final Dartmouth points in 30th (1:39.63), producing a total of 89 to close the event in third. Vermont's Joachim Lindstoel took the gold in 1:36.34, but two St. Michael's skiers took the other two podium steps to squeak past the Catamounts for the team win, 122-118.

The top three for the women's alpine team were all bunched closely together with their times on the first run as freshman Riley Grosdidier was 10th in 52.51 seconds, sophomore Carly Elsinger in 12th (52.67) and senior Gwen Wattenmaker in 14th (52.70). Grosdidier was even better on her second run, posting the fourth-best time to jump up two spots, tying for eighth in 1:41.72, while Elsinger also improved two places into 10th in 1:42.25. With Wattenmaker tying for 20th in 1:42.93, the Big Green scored 84 points to finish fourth behind Colby (112), Vermont (100) and Middlebury (88). The individual winner came from St. Michael's as Helene Kristofferson bested the field by more than a second and a half with a time of 1:39.29.

The EISA Championships are up next at St. Lawrence on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 24-25.