Skiing Sits in 12th at Weather-Delayed Vermont Carnival

Frigid temperatures have permeated throughout the Northeast this past week. But even in the mountains of Vermont this Friday, senior Rebecca Nadler was still on fire for the Harvard alpine ski team.

Nadler’s second place-finish in the women’s giant slalom in Stowe, Vt. this past weekend highlighted the Crimson’s appearance at the Vermont Carnival.

Harvard sits in 12th place out of the 13 competing teams at Mt. Mansfield through the first day of the tournament in the team’s first EISA competition of the year. The second day of competition, scheduled for Saturday, was cancelled due to inclement weather. There are plans in the works to reschedule the event, but no date has yet been announced.

“There were some pretty challenging conditions at training,” junior Elizabeth Strong said. “For example, it was -25 [degrees] one day and 58 degrees the next day--really brutal temperatures. The snow was melting.”

The Crimson finished with the first day of the meet with 80 points, just two shy of tying for ninth place with St. Lawrence, who notched 82 points through the first day.  The University of Vermont leads the pack of 13 teams with 234 points.

“It was a really strong showing,” Strong said. “[The women’s giant slalom] was probably one of the better races that we’ve ever had in general.”

68 of Harvard’s points came from the women’s giant slalom performance. Nadler was the top finisher for the Crimson, recording a combined time of 2:03:51 over her two runs. That mark was just .80 seconds behind the winner Kate Ryley of Vermont, who also won the event in last year’s Vermont Carnival. The next closest competitor  - Lizzie Kistler of Dartmouth – clocked in at more than a full second behind Nadler.

Nadler had started off strong in the giant slalom event in last year’s Vermont Carnival, standing in second through her first heat. But a slow second run dropped her down to 11th place in the event.

This year, she continued her strong performance into the second heat, finishing only 3 hundredths of a second slower on her second run than on her first. Her time this year marked more than a five second improvement in her performance compared with just last year in the same event at Mt. Mansfield.

Strong was the next fastest Crimson racer, recording a combined 2:13:21 in her two runs to place 30th in the competition. Freshman Kaitlyn Gibson and sophomore Samantha Udolf rounded out the Harvard giant slalom performance with 41st and 46th place finishes, respectively. The combined performances of these four racers were good to place Harvard seventh out of 13 teams in the women’s giant slalom. Vermont led the women’s event with 107 points, just one above second place Dartmouth.

“The snow was really icy,” Strong said. “...In normal conditions the course would be really chopped up and hard to ski in [for skiers with late starts]. But the ice made it fair for everyone.”

The men’s giant slalom team contributed the Crimson’s other 12 points on the day. Senior Ian Anderson was the top Harvard finisher with a time of 2:09:65, fast enough for 40th place. Sophomore Jack Stobierski was right behind in 43rd place with a time of 2:11:03. Sophomore Matthew Mansson had a strong run of 1:02:86 in his first run, but a miscue on the second run prevented him from getting any points for the team.

“Matt had a really good first run but he fell pretty hard the second run,” Strong said. “But his first run was really encouraging.”

Sophomore Simon Merryweather and freshman Danny Fowler both did not finish in the event. The combined point total from the four skiers performances landed the men’s team in last place, a full 5 points behind the next closest team, Bates. Vermont took first place in the men’s event, combining for 127 points.

Vermont also boasted the best men’s individual giant slalom performance. Dominique Garand led the men with a combined time of 1:58:88 in his two heats, .85 seconds faster than the next faster competitor, Robert Overing of Dartmouth. These two racers were the only ones to break the two-minute barrier on Friday on the men’s side.

The team is satisfied with its performance, given the adverse weather conditions.

“We were there just trying to make the best of it.” Strong said. “It was really exciting to race feeling a little underprepared, but then [to have] a really good performance.”

—Staff writer Kurt T. Bullard can be reached at kurtbullard@college.harvard.edu.