Sprague’s Sixth Sparks Ski Squad

Skiers across the league must have wondered where Dartmouth acquired its new team member, because surely the “HAR” on the results sheet must have been a typo, a simple one-letter mistake. It seemed impossible that a Harvard skier could have really placed sixth in the EISA Championships, hosted by Middlebury. But, in fact, Cara Sprague had, finishing less than a minute slower than overall winner Katie Bono of the Big Green.

“I thought I’d had a good race, but I was apprehensive about getting excited too early,” Sprague said. “The way I found out was I was coming back from my cooldown when two freshman girls on our team ran up to me and started tackling me. It was way better than finding out by reading a sheet of paper.”

The junior led the Crimson nordic women to a second place finish in the event, behind only Dartmouth—which completed its second-straight undefeated Carnival season this past weekend—for possibly the highest finish in Harvard’s history.

“I think [there has] probably not [been a finish that high],” said nordic coach Chris City ’94. “Certainly not in my memory. It’s possible that in the late 60s or early 70s the alpine team might’ve had a result that good...I’m not sure how to express our excitement. That’s really unprecedented.”

It was Sprague’s first time as the Crimson’s top finisher this season.

“She’s had good parts of races before,” City said. “She just was able to put it all together for 5k. She was moving really fast the whole way.”

Finishing second for Harvard was freshman Esther Kennedy, who placed 14th, with classmate Alena Tofte finishing 10 seconds behind to place 19th. Captain Audrey Mangan rounded out the Crimson’s top four with a 27th-place finish.

“They’ve been putting that in week in and week out,” City said. “I’m incredibly proud of the work that the women did all fall. They took lessons from what went well and what didn’t go so well. I think there was a lot of confidence-building—getting used to being up with the front pack.”

Also marking out a place for herself in Harvard history was freshman Catherine Sheils, who took eighth place in the slalom, fueled by her first-place finish in the event’s second run.

“That’s got to be the best result of a Harvard alpine skier in 25 [or] 30 years,” alpine coach Tim Mitchell said.

Sheils did not have the same success yesterday in the giant slalom but still managed to place 11th in the second run—despite starting after all the top skiers had gone and conditions had deteriorated.

“For Catherine to finish 11th on the run was just incredible,” said men’s alpine captain Chris Kinner. “She skied very smart tactically.”

The historic finishes could not save the Crimson from another ninth-place finish.

Entering into the final two events of the carnival, it looked like Harvard, only 10 points behind Bates, might have been able to break through for its first eighth-place finish of the season.

But eighth- and 10th-place finishes by the women’s and men’s nordic teams in the free events prevented the Crimson from moving up in the overall rankings.

And while captains Chris Kinner, Trevor Petach, and Audrey Mangan weren’t able to find that elusive eighth place, all three finished their careers with the team’s top finishes in their respective events.

Kinner was the Harvard men’s top finisher in both the slalom and giant slalom while navigating his way through ever-changing conditions.

“Yesterday was ridiculous,” Kinner said. “It would be sunny one second and blizzarding the second. I went out of the start knowing that I had this ahead of me...I was really psyched.”

Petach led the way in the 20k free skate, after freshman Anthony Ryerson had the team’s top finish in the classic race—his best finish of the year. The nordic team had the potential to be a family affair, but the younger Sprague, freshman Kevin, broke his pole midway through the free race before rallying to finish just behind Petach.

“It was a really good race overall for the guys,” City said. “They had two frustrating races in the middle of the season. It was really good for them to finish with strong races.”

—Staff writer Christina C. McClintock can be reached at ccmcclin@fas.harvard.edu.