April 13, 2012 (Burlington, VT) – University of Vermont senior skier Amy Glen appeared in this week’s Sports Illustrated Faces in the Crowd section following her photo-finish victory to win the NCAA national title in the 15k classic event at the 2012 NCAA Ski Championships. Click HERE to see the Faces in the Crowd feature.

Glen beat out Dartmouth’s Sophie Caldwell by 1/10 of a second and two inches. The win was Glen’s first collegiate victory in her final collegiate race.

Glen’s individual victory helped the Catamounts capture the overall NCAA National Championship. It was UVM’s first NCAA title since 1994 and the sixth in the program’s history.

Vermont piled up 832 points, the most ever by an NCAA Champion, and won the national championship by a record-breaking 161 points.

The University of Vermont ski team and men’s basketball squad will be honored on Sunday, April 15 with a parade down Church Street starting at 12 p.m.

January 24, 2012 (Rumford, ME) – The EISA season kicked off with the Bates Carnival from Jan. 20-21. The alpine races were  contested at Sunday River in Newry, Maine, while the Nordic events were held at Black Mountain in Rumford, Maine.

Day 1
EISA schools patiently awaited the start of Carnival races over the past few weeks. When racing finally kicked off today (Jan. 20) with the Bates College Carnival at Sunday River and Black Mountain in Maine, the University of Vermont could not be thwarted.

On the opening day of the Bates Carnival, Vermont didn’t just fire the missiles; they launched the nukes. Of a total twelve podium spots up for grabs, Catamount racers locked up eight and scored a head-turning 531 points.

Lucy Garrec (UVM) won the women’s 5km freestyle race and was joined on the podium by teammate Caitlin Patterson. It was Garrec’s first collegiate freestyle victory, and after the race she noted, “I felt like the [5km freestyle] course suited me and allowed me to be light and quick.” Sophie Caldwell of Dartmouth finished third. The Bates women made an impressive move into third place with solid results from Beth Taylor, sixth, and Hallie Grossman, eleventh.

The Big Green retaliated in the men’s 10km freestyle race when Sam Tarling took second, Eric Packer third, and Gordon Vermeer fourth for Dartmouth. Race winner Patrick Johnson has returned to his Middlebury team with evidenced strength this season, and Vermont’s Franz Bernstein found the podium in third.

Day 2
Led by a second alpine podium sweep in the men’s races on Saturday (Jan. 21), the University of Vermont extended its convincing lead to take a noteworthy win at the Bates Carnival. The Catamounts once again broke the 1000-point mark, tallying 1004 total points over runner-up Dartmouth who posted 837. Middlebury was third with 699.

Two areas of weakness for the Catamounts were capitalized upon by other teams. In the men’s 10k classic at Black Mountain, Eric Packer of Dartmouth timed his decisive break perfectly in the final kilometer to secure the victory. He noted that his coach’s specific training plan leading into the season was beneficial, “Ruff [Patterson] frequently had us do head-to-head intervals to mimic the chaos of mass start racing, and that type of workout really paid off today in the hectic, short distance mass start.” He was flanked on the podium by Vermont’s Franz Bernstein in second and Middlebury standout Patrick Johnson in third.

The women’s 10k classic leader board developed predictably with UVM and Dartmouth duking it out in alternating fashion. Vermont’s Caitlin Patterson returned to her familiar spot in the winner’s column while fellow Catamounts Amy Glen and Lucy Garrec finished second and fourth, respectively. Dartmouth’s Sophie Caldwell snagged third and the Big Green placed its other two scoring racers, Anne Hart and Isabel Caldwell, well inside the top 10.

EISA action continues Jan. 27-28 with the University of New Hampshire Carnival at Attitash Mountain Resort and the Jackson XC Center.

Final team scores at the conclusion of the Bates Carnival:
University of Vermont – 1004
Dartmouth College – 837
Middlebury College – 699

Results HERE.
Full breakdown of team scores available HERE.

March 03, 2011 – After last weekend’s NCAA Regional Championships hosted by Bates College, EISA announced the end of year awards. For full awards info, NCAA Regional Championships results and NCAA Schedule visit www.eisaskiing.org.

2011 EISA Award Recipients

Alpine Men
First Team
– Jonathan Nordbotten, UVM
– Kevin Drury, UVM
– Tim Kelly, UVM
– Robby Kelley, UVM
– Paul Atkinson, UNH

Second Team
– Rob Cone, Middlebury
– Hig Roberts, Middlebury
– Zach Clayton, UNH
– Sean Higgins, UVM
– Trevor Leafe, UVM

Alpine Women
First Team
– Kate Ryley, UVM
– Meg Ryley, UVM
– Courtney Hammond, Dartmouth
– Annie Rendall, Dartmouth
– Geordie Lonza, Williams

Second Team
– Nicole Dvorak, Middlebury
– Lyndee Janowiak, UVM
– Bryana Park, UVM
– Ashley-Kate Durham, St. Lawrence
– Laurel Carter, Williams

Nordic Men
First Team
– Eric Packer, Dartmouth
– Sam Tarling Dartmouth
– Scott Patterson, UVM
– Nils Koons, Dartmoutn
– Franz Bernstein, UVM

Second Team
– Alex Howe, UVM
– Scott Lacy, Dartmouth
– Dimitri Luthi, Williams
– Erik Flagstrom, Dartmouth
– Fritz Horst, UVM

Nordic Women
First Team
– Caitlin Patterson, UVM
– Rosie Brennan, Dartmouth
– Lucy Garrec, UVM
– Erika Flowers, Dartmouth
– Amy Glen, UVM

Second Team
– Clare Egan, UNH
– Stephanie Crocker, Dartmouth
– Annie Hart, Dartmouth
– Caitlin Curran, UVM
– Elizabeth Guiney, UNH

Points Leader
– Alpine Men’s SL – Tim Kelley, UVM
– Alpine Men’s GS – Jonathan Nordbotten, UVM

– Alpine Women’s SL – Annie Rendall, Dartmouth
– Alpine Women’s GS – Kate Ryley, UVM

– Nordic Men’s – Eric Packer, Dartmouth
– Nordic Women’s – Caitlin Patterson, UVM

Rookie of the Year
– Alpine Men’s – Jonathan Nordbotten, UVM
– Alpine Women’s – Kate Ryley, UVM

– Nordic Men’s – Scott Patterson, UVM
– Nordic Women’s- Annie Hart, Dartmouth

EISA Coach of the Year
– Patrick Weaver, UVM
– Johnny Davidson, UVM

February 28, 2011 (Rumford, Maine) – Skiers reconvened at Black Mountain on Sunday for the second day of NCAA Eastern Regional Championships. The mass start classic races saw exciting action at the finish line, with skiers sprinting for top five positions and finishing within a few seconds of each other.

In the women’s race, a sprint finish saw Rosie Brennan (DAR) upset series leader Caitlin Patterson (UVM), securing the win by three seconds, finishing in a time of 52:35.6 for the 15km mass start classic race. Patterson narrowly out-sprinted her UVM team mate Amy Glen, who settled for third by half a second. With Brennan’s team mates Erika Flowers and Annie Hart sprinting for fourth Dartmouth put three skiers in the top five, Flowers crossing 4.8 seconds ahead of Hart.

Eric Packer (DAR) repeated his performance on Saturday, taking the win in 1:01:33.2 for the men’s 20km race. On Packer’s heels were UVM’s Scott Patterson in second place, down 8.3 seconds, and Dimitri Luthi (WIL), 12 seconds down. Packer’s Dartmouth team mate David Sinclair was fourth, crossing in a time of 1:02:11.9, Benjamin Lustgarten (MID) picking up fifth in 1:02:47.6.

UVM lead the weekend with 501 points squeaking by Darmouth with 500 in second followed by UNH in third with 327 points.

Skiers are gearing up for NCAA Championships which will be hosted by the University of Vermont with the Nordic events running from March 9-11.

Women’s results HERE.
Men’s results HERE.

Women’s Overall XC Ranking HERE.
Men’s Overall XC Ranking HERE.

Top Combined Nordic Team Scores HERE.

February 02, 2011 (Otepaa, Estonia) – Holy cow, today’s been an absolutely huge day! With 4 races going on I have no idea how the coaches and wax techs kept up with it all! First we had the junior women’s 4×3.3km relay, in which we finished 7th. I’m so totally excited because we moved up a place from last year!

The relay went like this: Amy Glen scrambled (classic) and tagged off to Kinsey Loan, who then tagged of to me for the skate half of the relay. I tagged Joanne and she anchored us for a solid 7th place. I’m also extremely excited about finishing second for lap splits to Heidi Wang (Norway) by 5.4 seconds. It was definitely a successful day – and we definitely had some crazy fast skis (yeah Salomon!)

After the relay, we travel waxed our skis, packed out bags and set out for a long day of spectating! And we did some HARD CORE cheering. We had numerous US flags and signs, and I do believe we also had the loudest voices on the whole course.

The junior men’s 4x5km relay went second, and they ended up finishing 10th in a close sprint with Canada. Then a short while later, the women’s 15km pursuit race set off, and Sadie led the US with a 17th place finish.

The last race of the day was the men’s 30km pursuit, and it was so much fun to cheer as the sun came out and it was an absolutely gorgeous day!

Noah led the US men with a 22nd place finish, but the coolest part of the whole day was seeing Alex Harvey crush it today and WIN THE WHOLE DARN RACE!!!! It was totally inspiring to hear an anthem other than Norway being blasted in the stadium.

I’m giving a huge shout-out to all the coaches and wax techs for all their hard work and patience in dealing with US. And thanks also to NCCSEF for all the support. It wouldn’t have happened without you!

So now I’m headed over to Madona, Latvia, with the Scando Cup team… and pretty much the only thing I know about Latvia is that car-jacking is basically a sport. The next week should be very interesting!

January 30, 2011 (Otepaa, Estonia) – The Norwegian duo of Heidi Weng and Martine Ek Hagen scored first and second on Sunday in a strong display of power in the Junior women’s 5+5km Pursuit at the FIS Junior World Championships in Estonia. Weng, a star performer who had not yet won a gold at the championships, pushed hard past Hagen in the home stretch to claim the title. Helene Jakob of Germany, who is one year younger then the both of the Norwegians, surprised many in taking the bronze medal.

The USA’s Jessie Diggins, a CXC skier who hails from Afton, Minnesota once again led the North Americans in 12th place in 31:50.2 despite a crash early in the competition. Fellow American Joanne Reid was a solid 24th. The top Canadian woman was Annika Hicks in 31st on fresh packed snow and in windy conditions.

“Today was a solid day for the US junior women,” Diggins told SkiTrax post-race. “We had a 12th (Diggins), 24th (Reid), 40th (Glen), and 50th Heather Mooney – with 78 girls racing, I’m proud to have all our girls in the top 50.

“I’m also super excited because the US women rocked the pit exchanges in the pursuit,” continued the rising US star. “We’ve been practicing and it’s exciting for me to finally have a good equipment switch under my belt because I haven’t had much luck in the past – it was a mental road block I had to get over. But after I crashed and broke a pole at the start of the race, I relaxed a lot more and decided to just try to have a technically good race and see how far I could pull myself back up. So I was thinking a lot more instead of being in the lead pack and letting adrenaline take over, which I think helped me ski smarter.”

Diggins was grateful as she was given a pole by a Canadian coach following her crash.

“I’m also extremely grateful to the Canadian team; I was given a pole a little farther down the trail by one of their coaches. North Americans have each other’s back!”

Other North American finishers included Canada’s Janelle Greer in 36th, Amy Glen (USA) in 40th, Heather Mehain (CAN) in 43rd, Heidi Widmer (CAN) 47th and Mooney in 50th.

Team USA’s Reid was pleased with her 24th place finish: “It went really great today, all the girls were especially happy with our exchanges, we all stayed pretty calm and did good work in the pits. It was really sweet to be skiing with Amy and Jessie and Heather. There was a point in the race that we were all skiing together before Jessie took off and got after it. I ended up right next to Amy for a while and we worked together but I lost her when we went through the exchange,” said Reid.

Weng and Hagen, who are neighbors in Norway, know each other well having been in the same class at school. Today it was their day in the pursuit. The starting field remained compact after two 2.5km classic laps. Following the ski exchange Weng lost a bit when Elena Soboleva and Anna Scherbinina pushed hard and created a gap.

Weng came charging back in the second uphill. Then Hagen moved in front and accelerated on the final lap. Weng seemed to have some difficulty to follow but hung in with Hagen and the Norwegian duo appeared together in the stadium. In the finishing straight Weng summoned what power she had remaining and sprinted ahead of Hagen to take the win.

Germany’s Jakob was sixth after the classic part and was in contact with the lead group. During the free technique leg she dropped the Russian girls in her group and posted the second fastest time skate time to take the bronze medal.

As for Weng, it marked her second championship medal after placing third in the 5km individual start competition. “Everything was fantastic today and went as I planned,” Weng said in a FIS Press interview. “During the last lap I got really tired and I was very close to let Martine go. I thought about the gold medal in this race but I didn’t believe I could win it.”

As for her long-time friend Hagen the event was great. “The race was fun. I had a very good feeling through the whole race and I enjoyed it a lot. I didn’t expect two Norwegians to be on the podium. I expected only Heidi to win but not me. She is in a very good shape.”

This marked the second to last day of the Junior Worlds in Otepaa.

Full results HERE.

January 28, 2011 (Otepaa, Estonia) – Germany’s Lucia Anger claimed the Junior Women’s classic 1.2km sprint title as the two leading skiers Elena Soboleva (RUS) and Germany’s Hanna Kolb crashed over the final hill in the final leaving the door open for Anger. Norway grabbed the remaining spots with Kari Oeyre Slind taking the silver medal, while her teammate Ragnhild Haga won the bronze.

Canada’s Janelle Greer and Heidi Widmer both qualified but did not advance past the quarter finals and finished 21st and 28th respectively. American Heather Mooney (USA) missed qualifying by 0.29s, placing 31^st, followed by Amy Glen (USA) in 42nd, Heather Mehain (CAN) in 45th, Izzy Caldwell (USA) in 57th, Kinsey Loan (USA) in 58th and Canada’s Annika Hicks who placed 61st.

“It was a disappointing day for me today,” said Widmer. “I was hoping to improve on last year’s 15th place qualification and 22nd overall sprint results but I just didn’t have access to those top gears today. In my qualifier, I skied the first half with decent speed, but during a transition on one of the small climbs, I wasn’t aggressive enough with my kick which cost me.”

“I quickly put the mediocre qualifier behind me and set my sights on the afternoon heats. I lost contact with the group on the second climb and made up some time on the descent thanks to some fast skis finishing 28th. Today taught me a lot and reminded me that I still have a long journey ahead and I’m excited to see what the future has in store,” added Widmer.

Kolb, the fastest qualifier, was the favourite and she and Soboleva advanced to the final winning their quarters and semis. The dramatics for the women’s Junior World title unfolded during the final match up as Soboleva was leading with Kolb right behind and Anger in tow as the others trailed.

Over the final uphill Kolb tumbled and took out Soboleva. That’s when Anger, reacting to what happened made her move and burned it to the finish line to take the win. The Norwegian Slind also came up from behind and finished 0.3 seconds back. Haga, the winner of the opening junior 5km free race, was third.

Anger basked in the spotlight saying, “I had hoped to win a medal in a competition here, but the sprint gold is a surprise for me. My tactics were to go as fast as I could. I saw what happened when the crash took place. I looked that I could pass them from the left and it was very close for me as well.”

Slind was happy with her finish. “The crash is part of the game, but I feel lucky. I passed them and did not get involved in the accident….you just have to be a little lucky to get there.”

Qualifications HERE.
Final Results HERE.