EISA: Caitlin Patterson, Eric Packer take skate victories on first day of Regionals

The winners surprised no one in today’s 5 and 10k individual start skate race.  Both wearing the leader’s jerseys, UVM’s Caitlin Patterson and Dartmouth’s Eric Packer again stole the show on the first day of the EISA Regional Carnival at Bates.

A half foot of fresh wet snow fell yesterday in Rumford, Maine, but overnight winds churned the pack into a fine, soft powder.  The course crew at Black Mountain re-groomed in the early hours, but though the stadium shone brilliantly in the morning sun the frequent gusts continued, making for a soft and windblown skate track around the five kilometer course.

“It didn’t feel like there was any rest out there,” remarked Patterson, “especially with the wind and snow drifting – the downhills were not restful at all, and I was a little thrown off by that, it felt like a really hard start to the course.”

Though conditions were tough, Patterson thought it may have been her lightness and quick tempo which helped her notch another victory over her EISA competitors.

For Patterson, this adds up to an impressive 7 wins for 7 starts in this season, and she again took the race by a convincing margin, posting a time of 15:10.4 to finish almost 22 seconds up on teammate and 2^nd place finisher Lucy Garrec.  The pair of wildcats decided a convincing 22 point win for their women’s team, backed by a 6^th place finish from Amy Glen.

Third place in the women’s race, with a time of 15:37.9, was Clare Egan of UNH.  Fourth and 5^th place went to Dartmouth’s Erika Flowers and Rosie Brennan, backed by teammate Sophie Caldwell in 8^th for a second place team finish.

A strong racer in the skate technique, Kirsten Gill of Bates picked up her third top-ten finish of the season in 7^th place.

UNH followed UVM and Dartmouth by putting all three of their top scores inside the top-ten with a 9^th place finish by Anya Bean and 10^th place tie by Elizabeth Guiney.  Guiney tied with Middlebury’s Corinne Prevot, setting the mark for a top-ten time at 16:11.7.

In the men’s race, Dartmouth proved their depth once again.  Skiing without two of their top scorers they still managed to take the top men’s team score by 14 points over UVM. Eric Packer took a resounding 22 second win over the field, earning his right to hold onto the leader jersey. His teammate Scott Lacy took the opportunity to grab his best finish of the season, sliding into 2^nd place with a time of 28:40.0.  While Lacy was just under 2 seconds ahead of 3^rd place’s Alex Howe of UVM, Howe took the podium from teammate Scott Patterson by less than one second.

Erik Fagerstrom of Dartmouth snagged a 5^th place finish to contribute to the top team score, while Franz Bernstein was the third man to score for UVM in 6^th place.

Welley Ramsey of UMPI grabbed 7^th place, just ahead of Dartmouth’s Gordon Vermeer in 8^th, while the two stand-out performances in the top ten came from a pair of seniors who took their first season finishes inside the top eighteen: in 9^th place UNH’s Andrew Clemence and in 10^th place Evan Dethier of Williams.

Top Three Combined Nordic Team Scores:

1. University of Vermont

2. Dartmouth

3. Middlebury

Full Results

Tomorrow: 10am Men’s Mass Start 20k Classic and 12pm Women’s Mass Start 15k Classic