Cornell
On February 2nd and 3rd the Cornell ski team traveled up to Lake Placid for their yearly Carnival. The main races of the weekend were a 10k x 10k pursuit, skate on Saturday and classic on Sunday. Saturday afternoon also featured a 3×2x1k sprint relay.
Even with the monster ice storm the previous evening, the grooming crew at Mt. Van Hoevenberg did a great job breaking up the ice and setting up a great race course. In the first leg of the pursuit Andrew Courtney came in 6th place, Chris Mui had a huge race coming in 7th, and Owen Skinner came in 9th. In the 2nd leg Andrew caught the skier in front of him to finish 5th, and Chris and Owen came in 9th and 12th, respectively. Rich Benware, a grad student at Cornell, came back from a long hiatus from ski racing to finish 17th overall. Patrick Nadeau also finished in 21st overall for the Big Red. Having his first ski race ever was Anshul Kumar, who had a great time out on the snow.
For the women’s team Cornell had a strong showing with Melinda Mcaleese and Beth Esponnette finishing 3rd and 5th in the skate race. Then in the classic race Melinda held on to 3rd while Beth moved up a spot to 4th overall. Cornell skiers Emily Lyons and Allie Mouche finished in 9th and 13th place overall. A few Cornell racers only raced the classic portion due to some “technical difficulties” on Saturday. Bridget Hass, Julia Schoen, and Lisa Hollywood finished in 9th, 14th, and 18th place in the classic leg.
In the sprint relay on Saturday Owen Skinner, Chris Mui, and Andrew Courtney came in 5th overall while the women’s team of Beth Esponnette, Emily Lyons, and Emily Lyons came in 3rd.
Many thanks go to the Benware and Mcaleese families, who hosted the team on Friday and Saturday nights.