Colby Carnival

(Photos: Cory Ransom/EISA)

This past weekend was a very cold trip to Sugarloaf for the Colby Carnival.  The women continued their strong skiing, while a pair of first-year men started to pick up the pace.

Friday GS

The women were led by Avril Dunleavy who came out of the 32nd start position in the first run to finish 9th.  She followed that up with the 3rd fastest second run to finish 4th on the day, just over 3 tenths of a second off the podium. Our second scorer of the day was Katie Fitzpatrick with two solid runs to finish 15th.  Anne Rockwell had one of her best GS performances of her career to finish 24th adding much need points after DNF's by Emily Hayes and Emily Bamford.  Overall the women ended up 4th in tight race with UVM, Dartmouth and UNH. Also of note, sophomore Wes Warner got her first carival start in place of a sick Zoe Livingston.

The men didn't fare quite as well, but we finally saw the speed Tanner Dirstine is capable of in GS.  Tanner went from a start of 40th to 23rd on the 1st run. Unfortunately Tanner hit some chatter in the flat afternoon light and lost a ski.  Matt Perejda and Peter Cole were the only scorers for the men in 41st and 43rd. Chris Bradbury, Brent Talbott and Cody Bullen were all 1st run DNFs.

Saturday SL

The men showed some improvement in SL over the first two carnivals. Chris Bradbury and Tanner Dirstine finished 24th and 25th after excellent second runs from outside the flip.  Peter Cole was our third scorer in 39th and Brent Talbott finished 45th.  Cody Bullen was DNF and Matt Perejda did not qualify for the second run after a short hike..

With four women starting in the first seed, the team came out firing. Avril led things off starting 3rd and finishing 3rd in run 1, just .3 seconds out of the lead. Katie and Anne followed in the 8th and 9th start spots to finish 5th and 14th in the first run of the day.  Emily Bamford our final first seed starter was 18th in morning after a small mistake. Emily Hayes was 23rd after run 1.

Going into the second run the women were sitting second, not far behind UVM.  Unfortunately some small mistakes cost them, but the women were able to hang on for 3rd behind UVM and Dartmouth. Avril finished the day in 5th for her second top-5 of the weekend.  Anne Rockwell had another good performance to finish 11th. Katie's bobble out of the start cost her and she slipped back to 16th, while Emily Hayes' great second run moved her up to 15th.  Emily Bamford was a 2nd run DNF.

Overall on the weekend the combined Alpine and Nordic scoring put us in 5th.  This weekend is an off weekend for Alpine while the Nordic team finishes off the UVM carnival.  The following weekend we are off to Dartmouth.