After snow returned to Williamstown on Thursday, women’s skiing put up a strong performance at this season’s home carnival at Jiminy Peak amid a weekend of Winter Carnival festivities.
The Nordic team kicked off its racing with an individual start classic 11k race on Friday, where Molly Blakslee ’25 took 36th place, Bailey Carmack ’27 took 41st, Luci Ludwig ’26 took 44th, and Chloe Koch ’27 took 46th. Friday’s result was Nordic’s best team score of the season.
Weather conditions were ideal for the race after Thursday’s snowfall, Ann Rightmire ’27 told the Record.
“It was the first time we or any of the teams racing this weekend had skied on fully natural snow all year,” she said.
On Saturday, the Ephs competed in 5k team relays. Koch, Hadassah Lurbur ’24 and fellow first-year Rightmire took the 15th spot. “It was super fun to be able to team up with each other and race together,” Koch said.
The home course advantage was a boon to the team, Koch said. Rightmire and Koch expressed gratitude to Professor of Geosciences Alice Bradley, who was there supporting the team, as well as members of men’s and women’s crew who showed up en masse to help direct parking and give out race bibs.
“It takes a lot of work to put on a race like this, so it’s cool to see the whole community come together,” Rightmire said.
On the Alpine front, the Ephs had a long weekend of racing. Friday and Saturday saw the College hosting giant slalom (GS) and slalom races at Jiminy Peak, where conditions played a big role.
Friday morning, at the start of the GS race, 50 mph winds gusted across the mountain’s upper face, causing the race organizers to occasionally pause starts for an interval or two before letting racers on course. “We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to race, but they pulled it off,” co-captain Elena Zipp ’24 said of the conditions in an interview with the Record.
Overall, the Ephs put up a solid performance in the giant slalom. Chloe Aust ’25 finished 25th overall and won NCAA points, with Zipp also putting up NCAA points and taking 30th spot that day.
Saturday’s slalom race was a little less windy — but still cold — and the racers had to contend with fresh snowfall complicating navigation of the course. Aust and Zipp took 30th and 34th place, respectively, and were joined by Chloe Lathrop ’27 who finished 35th.
The Alpine skiers enjoyed the same home crowd boost as their Nordic counterparts, despite the challenging weather conditions.
“Since it’s the only home race, it’s just such a magical kind of thing,” Zipp said. “We had people come that had never seen ski racing before with signs and realizing, ‘Oh my gosh, this is what you do with all your time.’”
Though the Williams Carnival concluded on Saturday, the weekend wasn’t quite over for the Alpine team. Due to a cancellation at the University of Vermont Carnival last month, the Ephs spent Sunday at Catamount in Hillsdale, N.Y., making up another slalom race.
Sunday saw another good day for scoring with Aust, Lathrop, and Zipp all taking 24th, 30th, and 36th, respectively.
The final events of the year for women’s Nordic and Alpine will be at the Middlebury Carnival this coming weekend. Following that meet, some skiers may compete at the NCAA championships in Steamboat Springs, Colo., from March 6 to 9.
