Burke, Vt. - The University of New Hampshire carnival continued Saturday with the GS portion. Winter weather returned to the east with cold temps and lots of wind present to start the day. Difficult sets, particularly on the women's side, eliminated a good chunk of the field. The long Burke slalom hill had combined times of over two minutes for the whole women's field and one minute fifty seconds for the men.
The men responded from a poor performance a day earlier with a consistent and lights-out first run. Five Mules landed in the top 30 after the first run, tied for the most among all teams racing. Led by Freshmen
Teagan Turner, whose speedy first run from bib 57 put him deep in the 'flip' in 24th.
The women were greeted with a difficult hill was not enough of a challenge in the view of the Dartmouth coaching staff, who set a 'turny' and 'grindy' course that challenged the entire field. The bottom section, in particular, proved too much for many racers whose tired legs could not keep up with the 70+ big turns and rhythm changes. The course ended the days of three Mules with straddles putting some of the team's top skiers on the sidelines. Still, the other three ladies stepped up in a big way as
Cassie Lieblein skied to seventh on the first run and
Lydia Riddell and
Molly Mueller found the top 30.
For the second run, five Mules ran within seven bibs of each other as they chased their teammates down the mountain.
Brooks Reed skied a superb second run to finish third on the run behind only the Norwegian duo of Mathias Tefre and Joachim Jagge from the University of Vermont. Other Mules took advantage of a good second-run start position to move up, and all five stayed in the points. Leading Colby was Reed in 20th, followed closely by Morgan and Turner in 21st and 22nd.
Patrick Coughlin and
Tucker Strauch rounded out the Mules lineup in 24th and 25th.
The pressure was on for the women's side, needing all three racers to finish, but they stepped up in a big way with some massive move-ups on the second run.
Molly Mueller skied the bottom section of the course amongst the very fastest with a top 10 interval and ended the day in 18th.
Lydia Riddell matched a great result from the previous day to finish in 13th. However, the best was yet to come for the Mules as
Cassie Lieblein charged top to bottom to move up to fifth place on the day.
Lieblein's results this weekend all but assures her qualification to NCAA championships joining her teammate
Ella Spear. That the women have qualified in just two series is an impressive feet with many more Mules having the opportunity to join them in the coming weeks.
Racing continues for the alpine team as they head to Smugglers Notch for the Saint Michaels carnival this Friday and Saturday. Cold temperatures will greet them as coaches and athletes bundle up and get ready for more high stakes action.
WOMEN'S RESULTS (PDF)
MEN'S RESULTS (PDF)
