THREE TOP-10 FINISHES IN MEN'S GIANT SLALOM LEADS SKI TEAM TO 5TH PLACE AT WILLIAMS

PAUL ATKINSON

MICHAEL CREMENO

WOODFORD, Vt. – Paul Atkinson (Toronto, Ontario), Zach Clayton (Manassa, Va.) and Michael Cremeno (Pembroke, N.H.) all finished in the top 10 in the men’s giant slalom on Friday to lead the University of New Hampshire ski team to fifth place following Day 1 of the Williams Carnival.

UNH recorded the second-highest team score in the men’s giant slalom with 111 points and the Wildcats compiled a total of 334 points in the four disciplines. The University of Vermont (494 points) is in first place followed by Dartmouth College (435), Middlebury College (358), Williams College (355.5) and UNH.

Atkinson had the highest finish by a Wildcat with fifth place in the GS at Jimny Peak. He completed the first run in 49.12 seconds and the second run in 49.84 for an overall time of 1:38.96. Clayton’s aggregate time of 1:39.39 was comprised of individual runs of 49.60 and 49.79 and was the seventh-fastest mark on the day. Cremeno raced to runs of 49.30 and 50.22 to finish in ninth place at 1:39.52.

Marie-Elaine Lepine (Mont-Tremblant, Quebec) recorded UNH’s other top-10 finish to backbone the women’s alpine squad to the third-highest team score (96). She skied to sixth place in the women’s giant slalom in 1:44.83; her individual runs were timed in 51.96 and 52.87. Catherine Blanchard (Eastman, Quebec) was the next ‘Cat and 12th overall at 1:45.31; her second-run time of 52.60 was slightly faster than her first run of 52.71. Aliza Aylward (Warren, Vt.) completed the scoring in 15th place; she completed runs of 52.90 and 52.92 for an overall time of 1:45.82.

Both the men’s and women’s Nordic squads placed seventh in the classic races. Natasha Kullas (Timmins, Ontario) was the Wildcats’ top finisher in 11th place as she completed the 5K course at Prospect in 17 minutes, 17.8 seconds. Liz Guiney (Park City, Utah), Abigail Taylor (Pittsford, N.Y.) and Danielle Baron (Gilford, N.H.) finished within a 10-second span to finish in 23rd, 26th and 28th place, respectively. Guiney crossed the finish line in 17:54.8 and was followed by Taylor (17:57.1) and Baron (18:04.1).

Dylan McGuffin (Northfield, N.H.) was timed in 30:53.0 to take 18th place in the men’s 10K race. Steven Bedard (Cheshire, Mass.) finished the course in 31:13.6 for 23rd place and Erik Lindgren (Pitea, Sweden) completed team scoring in 26th place with a mark of 31:22.9.

The Williams Carnival concludes Feb. 20 with the slalom at Jimny and the freestyle at Prospect.