LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – The nordic ski team wrapped up their portion of the St. Lawrence Carnival in conjunction with the US National Championships on Tuesday, passing Dartmouth in the standings for first place. The Catamounts sit atop the standings with 470 points after the men swept the freestyle sprint podium and the women collected the second most points in their respective races.
Owen Young,
Fin Bailey,
Tabor Greenberg,
Haley Brewster,
Hanna Koch, and
Lena Poduska all advanced to the open national heats. All the racing took place from Mt. Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y.
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Day Two St. Lawrence Carnival Results (Nordic)
Day Two Stream
The day started with the men's qualifiers where Young recorded the second fastest time out of 365 other racers from across the nation, finishing his sprint in 2:42.56. Bailey earned himself a spot in the quarterfinals after racing a qualifier sprint time of 2:46.03, the 22nd fastest opening time. Greenberg continued his strong start to the year, racing the sixth fastest qualifier by U20 racers, earning a place in the quarterfinals with a time of 2:48.39.
Young advanced to the semifinals after placing second in his quarterfinal sprint with a time of 2:42.06 and proceeded to claim a lucky loser position during the semifinal sprint, racing a time of 2:48.40, earning a spot in the final national heat. Young finished as the fourth overall American in the national standings.
As a unit, UVM men swept the EISA freestyle sprint podium, seeing Young place first, Bailey place second, and Greenberg claim third. It marks Young's first EISA carnival victory while Greenberg collects his second straight podium appearance and Bailey finds his first podium finish of the season.
The UVM women nordic skiers also made a huge impact on the day, seeing six out of the seven racers place inside the top 22 EISA skiers. Brewster saw her first podium appearance of the season, ranking second overall on the EISA podium after tying for the ninth fastest qualifier sprint out of 282 other racers with a time of 3:15.62. Brewster continued on to ski the second fastest time in her quarterfinal heat, a time of 3:12.15.
Senior
Emma Page recorded a career high EISA placement, racing to sixth place with a sprint time of 3:23.63 (32nd overall), securing 37 critical EISA points for Vermont.
Kristin Maltun Helland finished in the EISA rankings at 13th with a sprint time of 3:25.28 (45th overall), bringing in 28 EISA points for the Catamounts.
First year skiers Koch and Poduska each advanced to the junior open national heats in just their second day of collegiate carnival experience. Koch recorded a qualifier time of 3:28.42 (66th overall) the 17th fastest opening run by a U20/U18 skier. In the quarterfinal heat, she won her race outright, skiing a time of 2:57.49, advancing to the semifinals. Koch finished second in her semifinal heat with a time of 3:02.69, earning a spot in the national final heat. Poduska was also able to race her way into the junior national semifinal heats after earning a luck loser spot with a quarterfinal sprint time of 2:57.98.
Overall, the 141 day two points garnered by the men and the 112 day two points garnered by the women was good enough to spring UVM into first place of the St. Lawrence carnival, marking a successful opening to the new EISA season.
NEXT UP
Following the completion of the Nordic portion of the St. Lawrence Carnival, the Vermont ski team will get ten days to prepare for their next pair of events taking place in Kingfield, ME at Sugarloaf as the alpine squad kicks off their season with the alpine portion of the Colby Carnival on Friday January 16 and Saturday January 17. The men and women alpine skiers will compete in the GS first on Friday then conclude with the slalom on Saturday. Start times will be posted on UVMAthletics.com and uvmskiing socials when available.
