2/26/05 - The Middlebury College men's and women's alpine and nordic ski teams hosted the EISA Championships this past weekend at the Rikert Ski Touring Center and the Middlebury College Snow Bowl. The Panthers finished the event in third place, as they have in all six carnivals this season.
In the men's 10K classical race, Middlebury was led by junior Garrott Kuzzy (Minneapolis, Minn.) in 10th (29:57), sophomore Beau Baldock (Jackson, Wyo.) in 11th (30:08) and first-year racer Jimmy Ades (Shelburne, Vt.) (31:06) in 20th place. Kuzzy was impressive the next day in the 20K freestyle race, finishing third overall in 49:59. Baldock placed sixth (51:30) in the race, while junior Jake Whitcomb (Worthington, Mass.) finished 22nd (53:45) to round out Middlebury's scorers.
Pacing the Middlebury women in the 5K classical race were junior Taylor Leach (Old Forge, N.Y.) in 14th (17:54), senior Tyne Pike-Sprenger (W. Dover, Vt.) in 16th (18:01) and junior Jenny Jorvig (Minnetonka, Minn.) in 18th (18:10). Sophomore Evelyn Dong (Wayland, Mass.) paced Middlebury with a sixth place (46:22) finish in the 15K freestyle race. Junior Claire Anderson (Whitefish, Mont.) in eighth (46:41) and Jorvig in ninth (46:43) were the Panther's other scorers.
The Middlebury women placed three in the top five to win the day's slalom event. First-year racer Megan Hughes (Killington, Vt.) finished just 3/100th of a second behind for a second place finish in the race. Sophomore Tara Martin (Lyndonville, Vt.) (1:35.71) finished the race in fourth place, followed by sophomore Lindsay Brush (Charlotte, Vt.) (1:36.76) in fifth. Hughes moved up a spot to win the GS race with a combined time of 2:01.3. Senior Jessica Smith (Rockport, Maine) ended the race in fifth (2:03.4), followed by first-year racer Krissy Poehling (LaCrosse, Wis.) in seventh (2:03.9).
On the men's side, senior John Rusten (Federal Way, Wash.) (1:23.36) and first-year racer Clayton Reed (Stowe, Vt.) (1:23.69) finished in third and fourth places respectively in the slalom race. Middlebury's other scorer was senior Derek Shields (Colorado Springs, Colo.), who placed 20th in 1:25.64. In the GS, Rusten finished the race in fourth place (1:57.78), followed by Reed in sixth (1:57.94) and first-year racer Joseph Swensson (Niantic, Conn.) in seventh (1:58.08).
