February 8, 2010 (Stowe, VT) – The Trapp Family Lodge was the center of Nordic skiing this weekend, with events for the University of Vermont’s Winter Carnival, held in conjunction with the TD Bank Eastern Cup and Junior Olympic Qualifiers. With blue skies, sun and snow perfectly groomed – even if it was a little windy, it was the snow that was important.

Sunday’s events were freestyle, with the J2s going 5 kilometers and the men and women each going 10 kilometers around the John Morton designed race course. Collegiate skiers dominated the day, taking almost all of the top-ten places. For men Tim Reynolds in 5th (Green Racing Project) was the top skier not competing for an EISA collegiate team. The top four were Patrick Johnson (Middlebury), Saturday’s winner Franz Bernstein (UVM), Dylan McGuffin (UNH) and Eric Wolcott (SLU). Johnson (26m46s) laid down a conservative first lap but a blazing second lap to take his first ever EISA win. Yesterday’s victor from the University of Vermont, Franz Bernstein (26m56s) wasn’t far behind.

The women’s side had the EISA streak broken only by former Olympic medalist Nina Gavryluk (Gunstock) in 4th and Canadian Megan McTavish in 6th. University of Vermont’s Caitlin Patterson (30m49s) fired it up for the home course and skied to first place while the Dartmouth Duo of Rosie Brennan (31m04s) and Ida Sargent (31m13s) wasn’t far behind to claim second and third place. Fifth went to their Dartmouth teammate Sophie Caldwell who regained the 2010 Eastern Cup lead with her performance.

The J2 Boys podium looked the same at the top with Ford Sayre’s Patrick Caldwell earning a narrow victory over Mount Mansfield Nordic’s Jack Hegman. Devlin Shea from GMVS earned his first podium in a distance race this season, grabbing 3rd. For J2 Girls, Heather Mooney (Stratton) skied away with the victory with her close rival Corey Stock taking the day off. Maddy Pfeiffer (Proctor Academy) continued her strong season and earned 2nd with Heidi Halvorsen (GMVS) just behind in 3rd.

Summing up the totals from the four UVM Carnival events, Dartmouth squeaked by with 890 points, a mere eight points past the University of Vermont with 882 points. Third place went to the University of New Hampshire with 745 points and Middlebury and Williams took fourth and fifth with 683 and 617 points respectively.

Next weekend is the Dartmouth College carnival. The Nordic events will return to the Trapp Family Lodge due to lack of snow at Dartmouth’s home course.

With files from NENSA and EISASkiing

Women’s full results here.
Men’s full results here.

Results (brief)

Women
1. Caitlin Patterson (UVM) 30:49.1
2. Rosie Brennan (DAR) 31:04.0
3. Ida Sargent (DAR) 31:13.6
4. Nina Gavrylyuk (Gunstock) 32:01.3
5. Sophie Caldwell (DAR) 32:29.9
6. Megan McTavish (Chelsea, QC) 32:41.5
7. Alexia PIchard-jolicoeur (LAV) 32:47.1

Men
1. Patrick Johnson (MID) 26:46.5
2. Franz Bernstein (UVM) 26:56.6
3. Dylan McGuffin (UNH) 27:07.9
4. Eric Wolcott (SLU) 27:19.9
5. Tim Reynolds (Craftsbury Green Team) 27:29.5
6. Etienne Richard (St-Alexis de Matapedia, ME) 27:30.9
7. Nils Koons (DAR) 37:34.7
8. Steffan Lloyd (Chelsea, QC) 27:35.9