Feb. 10, 2006

Catamounts in First Place Tie at Dartmouth Carnival

LYME CENTER, N.H. – The University of Vermont Ski Team is in a first 
place tie with Dartmouth after day one of the Dartmouth Ski Carnival. 
The Catamounts had a combined eight top-10 finishes in the men’s and 
women’s Nordic events while senior Hilary McCloy (Sunapee, N.H.) led 
the way for alpine teams taking second place in the giant slalom. 
Vermont and Dartmouth head into tomorrow’s final day of racing with 400 
points each.

Recent warm weather and heavy rains forced the relocation of this 
weekend’s men's and women's Nordic events to the Craftsbury Ski Touring 
Center in Craftsbury, Vt. In today’s men’s 20k classical senior 
assistant captain Ryan Foster (Weston, Vt.) had the best performance of 
his career taking second place. Senior captain Anders Osthus (Duluth, 
Minn.) followed with a third place finish and freshman Juergen Uhl 
(Muhlenbach, Germany) was fifth. Freshman Anders Folleras (Lillehammer, 
Norway) came in ninth place.

In the women’s 15k classical Vermont had six racers finish in the 
top-14. Senior captain Kate Crawford (Hawley, Mass.) had her best race 
so far this season finishing in fourth place. Freshman Marion Solbjorg 
(Lillehammer, Norway) took sixth place, senior Anja Jokela (Shelburne, 
Vt.) was seventh and junior Carina Hamel (Southampton, Mass.) was 
ninth. Freshman Katrina Howe (Laconia, N.H.) finished 12th and senior 
Molly Gray (Newbury, Vt.) was 14th.

“I was really pleased because it was hard course and we were tested,” 
Head Nordic coach Allan Serrano said. “It was a reasonably difficult 
course and a good grinding race that was not a high speed chase. We 
stood up to it well and down the road this is the kind of competition 
that will help us in Steamboat, Colo., for nationals.”

The women’s alpine team posted a trio of top-10 finishes at the 
Dartmouth Ski Way with McCloy finishing second in the GS. Sophomore 
Jilyne McDonald (Bellevue, Wash.) was third and senior Amy Cochran 
(Keene, N.H.) took sixth. For the first time this season senior Jamie 
Kingsbury (Waitsfield, Vt.) did not finish in the top-three as she did 
not finish today’s race.

In the men’s giant slalom sophomore Greg Hardy (Stratton, Vt.) had his 
string of four straight wins snapped as he finished 11th in the GS and 
senior Paul Epstein (Carlisle, Mass.) was 16th.

“Dartmouth has a flatter hill and we haven’t skied flats yet this year 
so it was a challenge for us,” Director of Skiing and head alpine coach 
Bill Reichelt said. “It showed some in the men’s performance while the 
women’s team did alright. The slalom tomorrow is more suitable to the 
type of skiing we have done this season and we are looking forward to 
that.”

Saturday’s schedule is as follows: The men's and women's slalom at the 
Dartmouth Ski Way begins with the men's first run at 9:30am and the 
women's first run starts 10:30am. Final runs begin at 1:00pm. In 
Saturday’s Nordic events at the Craftsbury Ski Touring Center the 
women's 5k classical is scheduled to start at 10:00am and will be 
followed by the men's 10k classical at 10:45am.

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Chris Wojcik
Assistant Director of Athletic Communications
University of Vermont
Phone: 802-656-1110
Fax: 802-656-8328
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http://www.uvmathletics.com