February 25, 2016 (Lake Placid, NY) – In a winter where the first four carnivals were held at two different sites, it was not unexpected for the Williams College Carnival to be moved from Woodford, VT to the Olympic Ski Jumping Complex in Lake Placid, NY, due to a lack of snow at the original venue.

Aided by volunteers from the Olympic Regional Development Authority, the Feb. 20-21 weekend races took place on a 2.5-kilometer training loop that wraps around the complex, climbing from the bottom of the large-hill outrun to just above the base of the tower, followed by a rapid descent back to the stadium. The 10km freestyle and 5k classic pursuit events for both genders, saw many pain-filled faces as each racer tackled nearly 200 feet of climbing in the first 800 meters of the course.

The first day saw each athlete taking four laps around the technical course, where the University of Vermont continued their dominance, taking three of the top four spots in both the men’s and women’s races, with strong performances by Jack Hegman, Jorgen Grav, and Cole Morgan, along with Alayna Sonnesyn, Mary-Kate Cirelli, and Iris Pessey (Each gender went 1-2-4). On the men’s side, Dartmouth put three more into the top six, with Fabian Stocek taking third, followed by Callan Deline and Luke Brown in fifth and sixth respectively. Middlebury’s Annie Pokorny rounded out the women’s top-3.

The results from this race were used to set up the start order for the following day, where the athletes would be battling it out in a race to be the first across the line, with start times being determined by how far back one finished the previous day.

In a warm, wet classic race, coaches were put to the test trying to find the winning combination that would let their racers climb well, but not lose time on the descent.

For the women’s race, many racers tried to go out on zeroes, hoping for the right conditions, but were met with mixed results.

“After wax testing in the morning,” said Cirelli, “my ultimate goal ended up being to just roll with the tricky conditions and use my arms to make up for any weird kick!

Pokorny, starting 19 seconds back from Sonnesyn, noted “It was a really tricky day for waxing, and our coaches gave me a pair of skis that I could kick well if I skied relaxed and strong.” She would go on to close the gap to the leader in the first lap, taking the win by 11.5 seconds over Sonnesyn, with Cirelli another 16 seconds back.

“Because the entire first kilometer of the lake placid course is uphill, I could see Alayna in front of me from the start,” Pokorny said. “Feeling good, I decided to go for it and see if I could catch her on the first lap. I caught her at the top of the climb, then we skied together through the descent. It felt right to try to take off at the base of the hill, I’m not sure when I got ahead but I just focused on getting to the top of the climb alone to avoid giving someone else a draft to the finish.” This was Pokorny’s first collegiate win since the 2013 Middlebury Carnival.

On the men’s side, UVM proved to have one of the superior combinations, with Hegman increasing his 17 second lead after the skate to take home the victory by nearly 30 seconds. Grav, who was battling it out with Stocek for second place, took it by 0.5 seconds. Morgan finished 4^th to round out the UVM team score.

“By the end of the first lap I knew I had put 10 seconds on Jorgen,” said Hegman, “so I just focused on staying relaxed and trying to survive the last lap.”

The EISA will be concluding it’s carnival season February 26-27 with the Middlebury College Carnival/EISA Championships.

Results

Day 1
Men’s here.Women’s here.

Day 2
Men’s here.
Women’s here.