Women's Nordic Sparks Crimson Skiing

As it raced in its second carnival in as many weekends, the Harvard skiing team gained momentum for the upcoming season.

With six top-40 finishers between the four Crimson teams and an impressive fifth-place finish in the women’s nordic relay, Harvard offered a strong showing at the St. Michael’s College Winter Carnival.

The women’s nordic team was led by captain Audrey Mangan, who placed a team-high 24th in Friday’s 10k individual race.

“Historically that’s a pretty good result for us as a team,” nordic coach Chris City said about Mangan’s finish. “Anything in the top 30 is an encouraging result.”

Other top finishers for the women’s nordic squad were freshman Esther Kennedy and junior Cara Sprague—who is also a Crimson cross-country runner—as the two finished 34th and 39th, respectively.

These three Harvard competitors also had a notable finish in the 3-by-3 women’s sprint relay, placing fifth in a pool of nearly 30 teams.

“It was the highest finish this team has ever had,” City said. “We beat a lot of teams that we typically finish behind. It was a really solid result.”

The men’s nordic performance was not as consistent as the women’s due to critical mistakes during the races.

“The guys’ side skied okay,” City said. “Each of our guys made a few mistakes on the course, and unfortunately a few mistakes can really add up.”

The men’s relay team, composed of freshmen Anthony Ryerson and Kevin Sprague and captain Trevor Petach, posted an 18th-place finish.

Like the women’s nordic team, the women’s alpine had several Crimson athletes finish in top spots.

Heading the alpine team was freshman Catherine Sheils, who finished 21st in the individual race on Friday and 17th in the race on Saturday. Also placing in the top 40 were freshman Megan Luck and Tenley Malmquist, who finished 27th and 39th for Harvard.

“This weekend has brought one of the better women’s results we’ve had in a long time,” said alpine assistant coach Erik Kankainen. “We’re certainly happy with the direction we’re going.”

Also akin to their brother team, the men’s alpine squad had a little more trouble finding success on the course.

“It was a tough hill and there was a pretty high rate of [competitors] who weren’t able to finish the course,” Kankainen said. “A few of our guys weren’t able to make it down cleanly.”

Still, despite the difficulty it may have had, the Crimson was able to post two top-40 finishers with one not far behind.

Captain Christopher Kinner placed 35th and junior Sam Harrison and freshman Andrew Spielvogel followed closely with 40th- and 41st-place finishes, respectively.

“Overall, on the alpine side, we’re making progress,” Kankainen said. “Our men have been very fast in training, but we just have to build the consistency to put that speed into races.”

On the whole, the performances of the four Harvard teams are encouraging, particularly because the skiing program has only recently begun to gain real competitiveness and attention.

“We just celebrated our 75th anniversary,” City said of the skiing program. “But [it’s] only in the past five or ten years that we’ve started putting effort into getting our team to a competitive level in the league.”

According to City, this progress has been made by a steady coaching staff, support from the athletic department, and stronger recruiting classes.

“We have some talented athletes who came in with the freshman class,” City said. “Now, we’re really starting to catch up with the rest of the league.”

The carnival at St Michael’s this weekend offered an opportunity to see the new and seasoned talent of the team in action.

“This is by far the strongest team we’ve had in a long time,” Kankainen said. “We’re looking forward to good results in the upcoming weeks.”

—Staff writer B. Marjorie Gullick can be reached at gullick@college.harvard.edu.