It was an exciting weekend as Harvard skiers notched two top-ten individual results (including a podium finish for Rebecca Nadler) and both women’s teams recorded top-5 team placings under bluebird skies at Stowe….
Alpine Race Report by Coach Mitchell
Harvard Alpine took the hill at Stowe this past weekend for the UVM carnival. Racing conditions were optimal both days, with firm snow and pretty good weather. Fridays GS saw the first Harvard Alpine podium in about 30 years with Becca Nadler capturing second place, narrowly missing the win. On the strength of that performance, she moves into second place in the season standings and has secured a qualifying spot at NCAA nationals. Freshman Cate Kistler and captain Caroline McHugh finished 25th and 27th respectively, securing enough points to end up 4th in the team score for the day. The men had the best day of their season thus far, with Kevin McNamara and Ian Anderson both qualifying for a second run, ending the day in 38th and 45th places, adding to the overall team score.
Saturday’s slalom race was themed with very difficult course sets that saw close to a 50% DNF rate. Unfortunately, our men were among those caught out by the challenging set/hill, and the women only managed two finishers. Becca Nadler again led the way with a 6th place, her best collegiate SL placing to date. Freshman Liz Strong punched in a solid 19th place from the 55th start position for her first collegiate score of the year.
On Sunday, the men’s team competed at the historic Fisk Cup SL at Suicide Six ski area, where Kevin McNamara came from the fifties to finish 32nd on the first run. Unfortunately, he went out in the second run just before the finish enroute to what promised to be a season best result. Ian Anderson had a solid race, finishing 59th for the best FIS point score of his career in slalom.
The ladies competed at the Middlebury Eastern Cup SL the same day. Catherine Sheils had a great day finishing 8th place, while the rest of the team was close behind with Becca Nadler in 12th, Liz Strong 16th, Cate Kistler 25th, and Caroline McHugh in 33rd. This marked the most consistent performance for the team this season, which bodes well heading into the Dartmouth Carnival this weekend!
Nordic Race Report by Coach City
On Friday evening, Stowe received an inch or two of new snow that didn’t much mix with the wet, icy hard pack beneath. The result was a mix of wet glazing classic tracks and stretches of fairly dry new snow that defied easy waxing solutions. We found a wax combination that worked quite well for the women and tested well for the guys. Alena Tofte (15th), Esther Kennedy (28th) and Jen Rolfes (30th) combined to give our women’s team a very strong 5th place finish for the day. In typical Trapp’s fashion, the tracks changed very quickly in the course of the the men’s race and the wax we’d really liked a few minutes earlier left our top guys without much kick. Chris (23rd) led the men despite having to double-pole up most of the hills. Akeo Maifeld-Carucci (43rd) and Tanner Wiegand (53rd) skied well under the circumstances and rounded out the scoring.
The women produced another nice team result in Sunday’s 10km skate. Alena (9th), Esther (23rd), and Jen (50th) brought us a 6th, just one point out of 5th (Bates). The men skied fast in a very deep field in their 10km skate. Chris (21st) and Akeo (46th) were separated by less than a minute; Tor O’Brien was just about a minute behind Akeo in 60th and our third scorer. Tony Ryerson (who suffered a season-ending broken arm in early January) helped with testing skis and finding fast flouro topcoats for our racers on both days.
