Skiing Finishes Ninth at Dartmouth Winter Carnival

Competing in its third carnival in as many weekends, the Harvard skiing team finished in ninth place overall at the Dartmouth Winter Carnival this weekend.

Highlighted by sophomore Rebecca Nadler’s second straight second-place result, the Crimson landed a pair of top-10 finishes.

“Over the last few years, [Nordick coach Chris City ’94] has been making a big effort to build the team into a competitive group of racers,” sophomore Nordic skier Chris Stock said. “He’s done that with a lot of focus, and I think we are starting to see some of the payback.”

After recording the Crimson’s first top-three finish in nearly 30 years the previous weekend at the Vermont Carnival, Nadler did it again this past weekend, finishing the giant slalom in 1:54.26, less than a second behind Vermont’s Kate Ryley.

“I just try to push it a little more each race,” Nadler said. “I just try to focus on good things. So far it’s going well.”

Senior Caroline McHugh and junior Catherine Sheils also gained NCAA points in the event, finishing 26th and 27th with times of 1:58.48 and 1:59.69, respectively.

The Crimson took 340 team points overall, 102 points back of its closest competitor, St. Lawrence University. The University of Vermont emerged victorious in the meet with 982 points.

Of the 15 competing teams, the women’s giant slalom squad took fifth place with 78 points. Harvard also placed in the top 10 in three of the four cross-country events, finishing sixth in the women’s 5k and eighth in both the men’s 10k and women’s 15k freestyle events.

“On Friday we saw some of the best overall skiing throughout the team that we have seen probably this season,” Stock said.

Junior Nordic skier Alena Tofte led all Crimson women in the event coming in ninth place with a 14:31.1 in the 5k on day one. Her 50:57.7 15k on day two was good for 18th.

Sophomore Christopher Stock was the engine and lone NCAA point scorer for the men’s team. He recorded a 10k time of 27:15.8, which was good for a 13th place finish.

“The NCAA is one of my season goals,” Stock said. “I still have a couple races left, and we will see how they turn out, but I’ve been able to keep up my fitness over the course of the season so far. I’m certainly looking forward to the rest of the season.”

Stock also finished 23rd in the 20k, running the course in 60:57.2. Harvard’s other finishers in both events were freshman Akeo Maifeld-Carucci, senior Torin O’Brien, and sophomore Tanner Wiegand.

While Dartmouth was forced to winter carnival events such as the human dogsled race due to a lack of snow, the conditions did not significantly affect all of the competitors.

“I thought the conditions were pretty good,” Nadler said. “The snow was quite firm.”

Andrew Spielvogel inched into the official results sheet, posting a time of 59.73 seconds in his first run for the alpine team. But he could not replicate his performance in the second run, finishing in 1:36.04, which placed him at 41st overall. Harvard finished 12th overall in the event.

On day two, Spielvogel and his teammates all failed to qualify for a second run and team points.

“The team is continuing to improve,” Nadler said. “I know some individuals continue to struggle, but I think everything is going in a positive direction, and it’s really fun to be a part of it. We are trying to put Harvard on the map right now.”

—Staff writer Daniel A. Grafstein can be reached at dgrafstein@college.harvard.edu.