Men’s skiing hosted a home carnival last weekend, competing with 13 other teams at the College’s home alpine ski course, Jiminy Peak. The weather conditions and the strength of the competition proved difficult, but the Ephs fought hard for a 10th place finish during the two-day event.
The Alpine team got off to a solid start on Friday with the giant slalom (GS) portion of the Alpine competition. They were led by Evan Cook ’27, who placed within the top 10 finishers of the event, a personal best. “[Friday] was a personal best for me in my career,” Cook said. “I was 10th place overall and was psyched about that.”
Cooper Iacobelli ’26 and Blake Bathum ’24 also scored for the Ephs, finishing in 29th and 48th place, respectively.
However, Friday’s weather proved adverse for the skiers. “[Friday was] one of the windiest days I’ve seen out there before,” Cook said, noting that there were many course holds for wind throughout the meet.
Dealing with the windy conditions, however, may have served as a home-field advantage for the Ephs, Bathum said. “Because we spend so much time at Jiminy and because it usually is windy, that wasn’t necessarily a challenge for us, whereas it might’ve been a challenge for other people who just aren’t used to that,” he noted.
Despite the windiness, Friday’s course conditions were ideal, in part because of snowfall on Thursday night, according to both Bathum and Cook. “The surface was really good because the snow set up well the night before,” Bathum said.
“The whole hill was ice, which is exactly what we want, so that held up great,” Cook added. “That was awesome.”
Saturday’s slalom competition saw the Ephs struggle a bit more, with Cook as the team’s sole finisher in the event, coming in 23rd and earning NCAA points. Bathum and Cook both noted that additional snowfall before Saturday’s competition rendered the slalom course tough to navigate. The Ephs’ Alpine team would finish the GS portion in eighth and slalom in 12th.
Despite this competitive adversity, Alpine enjoyed the festive home course atmosphere. “It was just great to see a lot of people from Williams able to make that little drive down to Jiminy and then trek up the hill a ways, tough it out in the wind and the cold,” Bathum said. “It’s always awesome to come to the finish and see your supporters there,” Cook added.
In the 11k Nordic course, Keelan Durham ’25 and Henry Johnstone ’24 led the Ephs in 23rd and 26th. In addition, Quinn Wilson ’25 came in 33rd, and the Ephs finished the first day of competition in ninth.
Saturday’s weather complicated matters for the Ephs. “Saturday, when we had the relay, it was snowing really hard, which affected the later legs when the snow had accumulated a lot more,” Chip Freeman ’27 said. “It really slowed the conditions down.”
The Ephs’ top two relay teams finished adjacent to each other in the 3x5k race. The Durham, Freeman, and Johnstone squad placed 12th, followed by Janne Koch ’26, Tzevi Schwartz ’26, and Wilson, whose relay placed 13th. According to Freeman, this result was encouraging. “The fact that it evened out like that showed that we were pretty consistent,” he said. The efforts landed the team a 10th place result on Saturday.
The Nordic skiers also enjoyed the home crowd at the Prospect Mountain course. “It was really nice,” Freeman said. “Especially on Saturday, there was a shuttle that brought a bunch of kids up and there were a bunch of families who came to the home carnival, so it was really good.”
The Ephs were back in action on Sunday to cap off a busy weekend, as men’s Alpine traveled to the University of Vermont for a make-up slalom event. Chris Golden ’24 finished 22nd overall in one of his best performances of the season.
Up next for men’s Alpine and Nordic is the Middlebury Carnival, which is set to conclude the regular season and could serve as the final race of many Ephs’ careers. “That is going to be our senior finale, which we’re all looking forward to,” Bathum said. “We’re pretty excited to be up there with a rowdy crowd and send it in for our last two races in college.”
