Alpine Report by Coach Mitchell
The Harvard Alpine Team competed in the 100th Dartmouth Winter Carnival this past weekend at the Dartmouth Skiway. Conditions were fantastic, both weather and snow. The team skied well but struggled a bit on such a flat hill. Nonetheless, there were some encouraging results, with Chris Kinner putting down two solid, relatively clean runs in slalom to finish 25th, which he followed up with a 41st in GS. Alec Boardman also chipped in a respectable 43rd in slalom, which Kevin McNamara and Andrew Spielvogel followed up in GS with a 44th and 49th respectively. The women were in great position after the first run of the GS, poised to match their strong 6th place from the UVM carnival. A missed gate in the second run put a slight kink in the plans and the team moved back a few spots, but was only a few small points from moving up three places. Caroline McHugh was the best finisher on the day, with a 26th in the GS and Catherine Sheils added a 38th. The women showed some promising form in the slalom, with Sheils leading the way in 22nd, backed up by Tenley Malmquist in 35th and Margie Thorp in 37th. A big thank you goes out to Meghan Luck, who skied with a broken arm in the GS to help the team’s chances in scoring a good team result; that is some serious dedication!!
The women also had a GS FIS University race that was not scored as part of the Dartmouth Carnival on Sunday and there was some great skiing happening again. With a good chunk of the college field in attendance, Catherine Sheils charged to a 27th place with Caroline McHugh nipping at her heels in a very strong 29th. This weekend the team contests the Williams Carnival at Jiminy Peak, MA. The hill is a bit steeper and more technical, which is to our liking, so the team is fired up to do some fast skiing!
Nordic Report by Coach City
We had an excellent day in the 15km mass start classic on Friday. Audrey Mangan, Esther Kennedy and Alena Tofte were seeded near the front of the group because of their classic performances this season, and they maintained that position through the first 7.5 km lap. On the second lap Esther and Alena started to move up through the field, and they were in the high teens going into the last 5km. Both skiers found a finishing kick and passed several skiers in the last 2 km. Alena finished in 14th and Esther was about a second behind in 15th. Audrey skied a strong race, too, and was a minute behind Esther in 30th. Cara Sprague was not far behind in 35th and Clare Miller finished 58th in an expanded field. Tony Ryerson led the men’s team with a solid race and a 41st place finish. Tony skied up into the 20s at the start and, after recovering from what Sara jokingly called “a spot of bother” between the 2 and 5km marks that set him back into the low 50s, managed to ski up to 41st.
In the relay on Sunday, Audrey skied a split that was one of the 15 fastest on the day and put us in 7th. Esther held on to that spot despite a fall. Alena’s fast Friday race caught up to her with about 2km to go on the anchor leg and she slipped to 9th. Tony and Trevor Petach had good relay splits, while Kevin Sprague was a bit under the weather. We’re shorthanded, so Tor O’Brien only raced the first leg for our B team. After having raced 20km on Friday, he declined our offer to let him wear all three bibs and keep skiing.
Alena in the classical train
Tor catches a U of Maine skier
Audrey tags off to Esther in the relay
The women's team celebrates Carni Crush weekend with loud lycra
