Last Updated: 07.Feb.2017

Ida Sargent has been tantalizingly close to the World Cup podium before with a fifth place classic sprint finish in Ruka, Finland in 2014, and a seventh the following year in the same event. This weekend in Pyeongchang, South Korea, she reached the podium not once, but twice, in both the classic sprint and freestyle team sprint. The pre-Olympic test event weekend was also a successful one for GRP women Caitlin Patterson and Liz Guiney, who had career best finishes in several events. The field was smaller than a usual World Cup, because many European skiers opted not to make the long travel to Korea, so it was a good opportunity to score World Cup points while previewing the Olympic courses for next year.

On Friday the skiers raced a classic sprint, and all three women made the top 30 in qualification, with Ida Sargent in 5th, Caitlin Patterson 22nd, and Liz Guiney 25th. Both Guiney and Patterson ended their day in the quarterfinals, finishing 5th and 6th, respectively in their heats, good for 24th and 27th on the day. For both, it was their first time skiing heats on the World Cup. Sargent, however, powered through to the A Final, winning her quarterfinal heat and taking second in a photo finish in her semifinal. After leading her heat in the first half of the A Final, she used a strong double pole finish to take 3rd place, behind Slovenia’s Anamarija Lampic and Norway’s Silje Oeyre Slind.

The following day Patterson and Guiney competed in a 15k skiathlon, 7.5k classic then 7.5k freestyle. Patterson had a career best finish of 4th place, moving up during the freestyle leg from 7th at the transition. Guiney also had a career best 13th place, after hitting the transition from classic in 12th place. 

Finally, on Sunday Sargent teamed up with her USST teammate Sophie Caldwell in the freestyle team sprint, while Patterson skied with Liz Stephen on the USA II team. Both teams won their semifinal heats, Sargent and Caldwell in the first semifinal Patterson and Stephen in the second. The two teams went head to head with each other and 8 other teams in the final, and ultimately Sargent outsprinted Stephen in the finish. USA I took 3rd place, with USA II in 4th. Full results from the weekend’s race can be found on FIS-ski.com. Sargent will race next in Otepaa, Estonia, two weekends from now, while Patterson and Guiney head back to the States for the Ishpeming, MI SuperTour February 18.

UVM Carnival
The remainder of the GRP skiers competed closer to home at the UVM Carnival in Stowe, VT at the Trapp Family Lodge. On Friday, Kaitlynn Miller, Mary O’Connell, and Ben Lustgarten raced freestyle sprints. Miller took 3rd in qualification and 4th in the A Final, while O’Connell placed 27th in qualifying and 20th in the heats. In the men’s race, Ben Lustgarten was 8th in the qualifier but moved up to 2nd in the A Final by the end of the day. The following day, both women and men raced 10k classic individual, and Miller and Lustgarten both took the overall win for their gender, while O’Connell was 13th. Results from the UVM Carnival are available on BartTiming. Some of the GRP skiers will compete in the Dartmouth Carnival at home in Craftsbury this weekend, and then travel to Ishpeming for SuperTours. Ben Lustgarten is headed overseas to join Sargent at the Otepaa World Cups, then on to Lahti, Finland for World Championships.
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