W. Nordin Team Stars at Vermont

It was a reversal of fortunes for the Harvard skiing teams this weekend, as they stood in tenth place Sunday following the first two days of competition at the University of Vermont carnival in Stowe, Vt.

After a disappointing showing last weekend that saw Harvard finish last at Bates, the Crimson added 50 points onto last week’s score, posting 158 as of Saturday. With the added points, Harvard couldn’t help but improve its position among the 13 attending schools.

For the second weekend in a row, the highlights belonged to the women’s nordic team, which showed its muscle in freezing conditions.

“It was a long race,” co-captain Kate Damon said. “It can be really exhausting in the cold.”

When the temperatures dropped, Harvard turned it up. Sophomore Anna McLoon put out an even better performance than last weekend, finishing fifth out of 60 competitors and picking up 32 team points in the 5k on Friday.

Every Harvard woman skier finished the 5k course in the 30-degree cold. Damon took 41st place, good for 10 team points, and senior co-captain Julia Silvis was close on her heals in 44th place (nine team points).

“We just really attacked that course,” Damon said. “The whole team was thrilled with Friday’s results.”

More positive results came on Saturday, as McLoon took 12th in the 15k and the women’s nordic team finished the weekend with 98 points and a solid lock on seventh place—well ahead of Bowdoin, St. Lawrence, St. Michael’s and Colby.

“The women especially had a great race,” Damon said. “We are getting faster and into racing mode.”

On the men’s side of the nordic events, senior Boris Granovskiy was the top finisher in the 10k, picking up six team points while senior Misha Lipatov picked up five of his own.

Lipatov would be the center of attention Saturday, when after straying from the course, injured his head during the men’s 20k and required stiches. Fortunately, after the procedure, Damon said Lipatov was in good spirits.

After Saturday’s races, the men had added 20 points to the women’s 98 for an overall score of 118, good enough to rank ahead of three other schools.

“It is definitley an improvement over last weekend,” Granovskiy said.

In the alpine portion of the weekend’s carnival, the results were once again improved despite treacherous conditions.

Harvard prevailed over extreme ice in the slalom events on Friday . Conditions were so bad that the giant slalom had to be postponed by two days to yesterday.

Results from that event were not immediately available.

Notching an impressive finish on the icy terrain was once again freshman Carrie Baizer, who has turned into one of the biggest bright spots for the alpine team in this young season.

Baizer was the top finisher for the women in the slalom events, picking up ten team points with a 42nd place finish. Every Harvard skier managed to complete both runs of the slalom event, leading the team to 21 points despite the slickness of the course.

The men also turned out a strong performance, with only one skier not completing both trials. Senior Bryan Bellmare led the Crimson alpine men with a 40th place finish and 11 team points. Two other Harvard skiers completed the course, which saw 16 different competitors disqualified.

Both the alpine and nordic skiing squads are back in action next weekend as they travel to the Dartmouth carnival.