Sarah Bennett ’19 training at Whiteface in 2018. (Photo: Instagram)
This past week, some athletes from the men’s and women’s FIS team traveled to Attitash and Cranmore Mountains in New Hampshire for FIS finals. Hugh Dempsey ‘19, Jake Reynolds ‘19, and Wim Roney ‘18 were on the men’s side and Joanna Rosenbluth ‘19, Beth Fisher ‘19, Sarah Bennett ‘19, and Sarah Coombs ‘19 on the women’s side.
The first day consisted of two Super Gs, where one of them counted as a Super Combined. (A super combined is an event where one run of either Downhill or Super G is combined with one run of Slalom.) The two alpine combined that were supposed to happen changed to one Super G that counted as a normal race and the other counted as the combined run with the Slalom the following day.
In the Super G race, Bennett finished 4th, Coombs in 12th, Rosenbluth in 29th and Fisher in 35th. On the men’s side, Reynolds finished in 43rd, Roney 44th and Dempsey in 49th. In the alpine combined, Bennett finished 3rd, Coombs in 16th and Rosenbluth in 25th.
Matthieu Cote ‘18 and Chelsea Smith ‘19 arrived in New Hampshire to finish the race series with the team while Beth Fisher returned to Lake Placid. On the first day of Giant-Slalom, Bennett finished third, Smith in 33rd, Rosenbluth in 38th. On the men’s side Cote in 13th, Roney in 41st, Reynolds in 46th, and Dempsey in 57th. On the second day of Giant-Slalom, Bennett finished in 5th, Coombs in 20th, Rosenbluth in 42nd, and Smith in 46th. On the men’s side Cote was in 20th, Reynolds in 44th, and Roney in 46th.
The last two days were held at Cranmore for the Slalom races. On the first day, Bennett finished in second, Coombs in 23rd, Smith in 38th, and Rosenbluth in 49th. On the men’s side Cote finished 33rd, Roney 38th, Dempsey 47th, and Reynolds 60th.
The wind started picking up on the last day of Slalom. The main lift that brought the racers up to the race course shut down at the start of the second run, which required racers to take a 30-minute lift to the top. The men were starting first, and since not all of them made it to the top on time, the jury decided to send them out of order, which put at a disadvantage the people who had secured a good place for themselves for second run. The wind was blowing up the hill, which hindered the performance of racers whose runs happened while the wind was strong. These conditions created what many athletes and coaches considered an unfair race. As for the results, Bennett finished 3rd, Coombs 36th, Smith 40th, and Rosenbluth 47th. On the men’s side only Dempsey finished his race and ended up 42nd.
Click here to see one of Sarah Bennett’s slalom runs. Video courtesy of Northwood Skiing’s Facebook Page.
