MIDDLEBURY, VT--Williams finished the EISA championships this weekend with a 5th-place result. Hosted by Middlebury, Saturday's nordic races--distance classic events--were held at Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont, while the giant slalom races were at Middlebury's Snow Bowl.
The women's nordic team finished the season with their best result of the year, placing 4 finishers in the top 30. Senior Holly Whitney, skiing in her final carnival race for the Ephs, went out in style. The Bowdoinham, Maine native skied the entire race at the edge of the top 20 and finished in 19th place, in 1 hour, 8 minutes and 7 minutes.
Chrstina Knapp wasn't far behind her senior teammate. The junior from Anchorage was 21st in 1:08:14. Next across the line was Elena Luthi. The first-year rounded out the team's scoring in 26th place in a time of 1:08:46.
Hannah Smith finished 28th for the women. Smith was 42nd after 5 kilometers, but worked her way up through the middle section of the race, ending up finishing in 1:09:44.
As a team, the women placed 6th with 64 points. UVM won the race, buoyed by an individual victory from Lucy Garrec, who finished in 1:05:12.
In the 20-kilometer men's race, Vanya Rybkin led the Ephs. The first-year from Fairbanks, Alaska finished 10th in 1 hour, 20 minutes, 40 seconds. It was his first top-10 in an EISA race. Rybkin was 17th through 5 kilometers and 14th through the halfway mark but continued to move up the rest of the race.
Kalle Jahn was 2nd for the Ephs on the day. Jahn started worked his way up from around 40th to finish in 27th in 1:22:29. Senior captain Dimitri Luthi, even on a lackluster individual day, finished 33rd in 1:23:04 to finish the scoring for the men.
On the day, the men were 6th with 61 points. Dartmouth, which swept spots 2-4, won the event with 132 points. Middlebury's Patrick Johnson was the individual winner in a time of 1:19:34.
Geordie Lonza led the Ephs in the giant slalom, which was held at Middlebury's Snow Bowl. The junior finished 6th in a combined time of 2:06.9.
Katy Kirkpatrick was the next Williams finisher. Kirkpatrick had a particularly strong second run to crack the top 20, finishing 19th in 2:08.55. The senior from Shelburne, Vermont saved her best skiing for her final carnival weekend, going out in style with her fastest result of the year.
Senior Laurel Carter completed the team scoring in 23rd place with a two-run time of 2:08.99. Annie Leiter was close behind in 28th, and Shannon Campbell was 34th.
The women ended up 5th for the day with 76 points. UVM's Kate Ryley was the individual winner in 2:04.86, and led her team to a 127 point day.
Sean Cummiskey, the senior captain skiing in his final collegiate race, led the men with a 26th-place finish. Cummiskey had a strong first run that put him into the top 20, and finished with a two-run total of 2:02.67.
Chris Nocek was next for the Ephs. Nocek, who had led the team in Friday's slalom, was 28th in 2:03.25. Dylan Thomas used a strong second run to move into 39th to round out the day's scoring.
Carson Houle and Nicolas Tomczyk were 49th and 52nd, respectively. The men finished the day 7th as a team with 55 points. UVM, led by winner Kevin Drury (1:58.45) put 3 racers in the top 4 to grab 135 points and the event win.
The balanced team effort allowed the Ephs to hang onto 5th place for the weekend with 539.5 points. UVM won with 955, comfortably ahead of 2nd-place Dartmouth (848). Middlebury and UNH finished in a tie for 3rd with 724.5.
Complete results can be found at http://www.barttiming.com/eisa/Results12/mc12.htm
