February 28, 2009 (Kingfield, ME) – Mother Nature has thrown some curve balls to the carnival circuit this year but the first day of the Colby Carnival, also the Eastern Championships, takes the cake and eats it with howling winds, pounding rain, and sunshine interspersed.

Through the tumult the reigning champion, Dartmouth, yet again took the lead on the first day with a very assertive 491 points. Following up second was Middlebury with 369 points while the University of Vermont was nipping at their heels with 364 points.

On the Nordic side of events Dartmouth took both of the victories in the Men’s and Women’s 10k and 5k classic events. Glenn Randall clocked the winning time of 31:59.9 while Rosie Brennan proverbially blew the competition completely out of the water by clocking a 19:11.8, over a minute and a quarter ahead of her nearest competitor.

Following the trail of fire scorched by Brennan was Colby’s very own Lucy Garrec with a time of 20:32.2. In third was Caitlin Patterson from the University of Vermont clocking a 20:40.8. On the Men’s side Middlebury’s Simeon Hamilton slid into the second spot with a 32:07.4 while Dartmouth skier Patrick O’Brien garnered third with a 32:11.6.

With high winds buffeting the downhill course, racers were forced to use the t-bar as well as a snowcat shuttle in order to reach the start. As a result only one run of the Slalom was held.

University of New Hampshire skier Sean McNamara was able to blast through the challenging conditions with a time of 43.99 in order to win. Following was University of Vermont skier David Donaldson clocking a 44.83 while Colby’s Vincent Lebrun-Fortin completed the podium with a 45.30.

For the Women Dartmouth’s Courtney Hammond was able to return to her winning ways with a time of 43.3 while fellow team mate Christine Roberts followed with a 43.81. Bringing up third in a time of 43.86 was Middlebury’s Natasha Woodworth.

Join us tomorrow as the conditions will most likely change from soft snow to solid ice with the rain ending overnight and temperatures dropping. Will today’s champions carry over to tomorrow or will the results be as variable as the weather?

For more results, images, and videos please go to www.eisaskiing.org