February 23, 2013 (Rumford, ME) – Sunny skies and warm weather greeted the Nordic field during Friday’s individual 5/10km classical races in Rumford on the first day of the joint Bates Carnival and EISA Championships. Finding the right kick wax was a challenge for many, as temperatures steadily rose throughout the races. A long and steady climb throughout the middle of the course meant slick skis could cost valuable time. In the end it seemed no team had it “nailed”, though various klister wax combinations were used.

Last weekend’s classic 5k champion, Middlebury’s Annie Pokorny, started fast and skied strong up the long hills of the Black Mountain race course. In the end, however, it was last weekend’s 15k skate champion, Mary O’Connell of Dartmouth, who came out on top. O’Connell bested Pokorny by just 1.7 seconds. According to some split-times, O’Connell was trailing Pokorny early on, but made up ground in the very end of the race.

Third place went to another Dartmouth skier, Emily Blackmer. Blackmer has shown consistent classic form this season, and raced to another strong finish for the Big Green. Vermont’s Anja Gruber and Dartmouth’s Annie Hart rounded out the top-5, as the Dartmouth women took the victory in the team score.

In the men’s race, the final podium finishers all started one after another. Middlebury’s Ben Lustgarten was bib 61, followed by Dartmouth’s Sam Tarling in bib 62 and Vermont’s Scott Patterson in bib 63. Despite all three starting within a minute and a half of each other, the three men all skied very similar races; only 7 seconds separated the top three at the finish. Patterson was victorious, with Tarling just 2 seconds behind in 27:21.8. Lustgarten continued a strong season of podium-performances with third place.

With so many pre-race favorites starting near each other, Lustgarten remarked he was “just happy to ski my own race and feel good.”

Finishing just off the podium were Dartmouth skiers David Sinclair and Silas Talbot, taking 4th and 5th place, respectively, to give the Big Green a team victory to add to their women’s earlier performance and their team’s overall success on the day.

Racing continues Saturday with mass-start 10 and 15-kilometer freestyle races in Rumford and the slalom races at Sunday River.

Women’s XC Day 1
Men’s XC Day 1  

1.   DARTMOUTH COLLEGE                  DAR   448.0            
2.   UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT              UVM   438.5            
3.   MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE                 MID   382.0            
4.   UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE        UNH   354.0            
5.   WILLIAMS COLLEGE                   WIL   288.0            
6.   BATES COLLEGE                      BAT   249.0            
7.   COLBY COLLEGE                      CBC   248.0            
8.   ST LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY             SLU   185.0            
9.   HARVARD UNIVERSITY                 HAR   181.5

10.   ST MICHAELS COLLEGE               SMC   146.0            
11.   BOWDOIN COLLEGE                   BOW   101.0            
12.   BOSTON COLLEGE                    BC     79.0            
13.   UNIVERSITY OF ME -PRESQUE ISLE    UMPI   67.0            
14.   PLYMOUTH STATE UNIVERSITY         PSU    60.0            
15.   COLBY SAWYER COLLEGE              CSC    28.0            
16.   CLARKSON UNIVERSITY               CLK     9.0            
17.   BABSON COLLEGE                    BAB     2.0