The University of Vermont ski team won its third carnival of the year in impressive fashion and established some momentum heading into next weekend’s EISA Championships with a dominating win at the Williams Winter Carnival this weekend.

Vermont won with 770 points, 119 points better than runner-up New Hampshire, which finished with 651 points. Dartmouth was third with 648.

The Catamounts continued to absolutely dominate the alpine events. In Friday’s giant slalom events, the Vermont women took five of the top six places, with freshman standout Jamie Kingsbury winning again while Hilary McCloy was third, senior captain Gillian McFetridge fourth, Erin Mascolino fifth and Madaileine Krebs sixth.

It was a similar story in the men’s GS, with Vermont taking the top three places. Jimmy Cochran, easily the best skier in the East this season, won his sixth race of the year by nearly a full second, with teammates Matt Knittle second and Scott Kennison third.

Friday’s Nordic races saw junior captain Emily Klemp finish sixth in the 10-K freestyle with Molly Gray 12th and Kate Crawford 14th.

For the men, still skiing without Ethan Foster who is at the Under-23 World Championships, sophomore standout Lowell Bailey won the 10-K freestyle while Ryan Foster was fourth and Anders Osthus was 14th.

Saturday’s GS races (two GS events were run to make up for an earlier carnival when two slaloms were run) also had a decided Catamount flavor. Kingsbury continued her unbelievable season with another victory, with McFetridge second and Mascolino fourth. On the men’s side, Vermont also finished 1-2-4, with Knittle winning, Kennison second and Cochran fourth.

In the classical Nordic races, Anja Jokela skied a terrific third leg to propel the women’s 3-by-5-K relay team that also included Gray and Klemp to victory, nipping Dartmouth by eight seconds. The men’s relay of Foster, Bailey and Jordi St. John finished second.

Vermont is at the EISA Championships this weekend at Middlebury, where the Catamounts will go for an unprecedented 28th straight Eastern title.

-SportsInfo