Ski Racing calls it an historic weekend for Harvard, and they’re not talking about Knicks phenom Jeremy Lin. After knocking on victory’s door in the past few weekends, Becca Nadler knocked it down with a win in the Williams GS on Saturday and was named EISA Skier of the Week…
Alpine Race Report by Coach Mitchell
Becca wins!
This past Friday-Saturday, Harvard Alpine raced the final regular-season carnival of the year at Jiminy Peak for the Williams College Carnival. The normal schedule was juggled slightly due to weather and snow conditions with the slalom being contested on Friday and the GS on Saturday.
It was a big day on Saturday, with Becca Nadler starting in the GS series standings red “leader bib.” Nadler had a day befitting the wearer of the leader bib, dicing the challenging hill, winning both runs and punching in for the overall win, the first for a Harvard Alpine skeir since Ben Steele in 1974! Catherine Sheils and senior captain Caroline McHugh gave the Crimson their second and third scoring results in 30th and 37th respectively, with Liz Strong rounding out the day in 40th.
Caroline
The women’s team rallied for a 4th place finish in Friday’s slalom, only 9 points out of 2nd place. The team was led by Becca Nadler, who clocked the fastest time on the second run with an aggressive approach on a course that even ate up a few world cup level skiers. On the strength of her second run, Nadler ended the day on the podium in 3rd place, a career best collegiate slalom result. Catherine Sheils was primed to be in the mix for a podium spot as well, but a bobble in the second run threw off what was shaping up to be a career best result for her as well. Freshmen Cate Kistler and Liz Strong both rallied strong second runs, with Kistler ending up 11th and Strong 24th, their best collegiate results to date.
Kevin
The men’s team was hampered by injury this week, with both Andrew Spielvogel and Ian Anderson out with shoulder injuries… Kevin McNamara held down the fort for the men’s team solo both days. In Friday’s slalom, McNamara put down a great first run, moving from a start position of 60 all the way up to 38th place; a second run slip-up enroute to what surely would have been a top-20 result cost McNamara a shot at his best collegiate result to date, but the speed was there… McNamara narrowly missed out on the second run cut in Satuday’s GS race, a day where there were few opportunities to move up the result sheet.
Nordic Race Report by Coach City
Those who have raced at Prospect Mountain outside Bennington know that area has its own weather pattern – there can be brown grass in Bennington and fabulous skiing a few miles away at Prospect. It’s a sign of just how weird this winter has been that Williams had to move its carnival to the opposite end of Vermont – Craftsbury – to find snow. We chased it there, too, for a one-day 10km classic race on Craftsbury’s newly homologated 5km course. Rain and warm temperatures this week had transformed the snow into an icy, sugary mix that held up surprisingly well throughout the morning’s racing. Alena Tofte led the team with her best classic race of the season (10th). Esther Kennedy skied very well but surrendered a few seconds over the last kilometer to slip to 29th (just 7 seconds out of 24th), while Jen Rolfes finished the scoring in 48th. In the men’s race, Chris Stock had his best distance classic result of the season with a 16th place finish, 20 seconds out from 11th. Tanner Wiegand (61st) and Tor O’Brien (66th) also scored for us in a very tightly-bunched field.
