Bobcat Women Win Sprint Relay
Paul Smiths College, VIC ~ Clarkson Golden Knights Invitational
The Paul Smith's College Women's ski team had a weekend of fast skiing at the Clarkson Invitational hosted at the Paul Smiths VIC. Highlighted by the women winning the final event of the weekend the team skate relay.
The Women started the weekend on Saturday in the women's 1.25k Individual Classic Sprint with all 5 women making it to the round of 30. Dolcie Tanguay ended the day 3rd, Jessie Church in 12th, Kaisa Bosek in 16th, Emily Cieslewitz in 22nd, Grace Kronick in 26th good enough for the women to take second behind the UVM women. The men had a tremendous outing in the individual sprint with 7 men finishing in the top 16 of the race! Aidan Ripp led the men in 2nd place followed by John Thompson in 6th, Logan Jensen in 7th, Diego Schillaci in 9th, Brady Miller in 11th, Gus Whitcomb in 14th, Jack Fogarty in 16th. The men had a tremendous showing placing second to Clarkson on the day.
Day two of the Clarkson Invitational found the Bobcat's still on a hot streak with the men starting the day off with a thrilling relay of Aidan Ripp, Logan Jensen, and Gus Whitcomb leading the race to the final meters where the Bobcat's finished in a sprint finish with Clarkson eventually taking 2nd. The Bobcat's second relay team of Jack Fogarty, Brady Miller, and Diego Schillaci took 5th giving the Bobcats two teams in the top 5 on the day.
The Women took the men's result and one-upped it taking the win in the team skate relay, the team of Dolcie Tanguay, Kaisa Bosek and Jessie Church yo-yo'd with the UVM women for the first few laps of the relay before Dolcie Tanguay broke the race open on her final lap and Kaisa Bosek extended the lead to 35 seconds and Jessie Church was able to keep the lead throughout the Anchor leg to bring home the win for the women.
Head Coach Matt Dougherty had this to say about the weekend "The women have been in the mix every single weekend always close to the top teams and this weekend they were able to put together some fabulous races both days. On the women's side, our league does not have one dominant team most of the top teams can win on any given weekend and it should be an exciting final three weekends of the season culminating in Nationals in Lake Placid. On the men's side, we have to hand it to Clarkson they were great this weekend we knew this year would be a boxing match with them. That being said this was the best second-place finishes you could wish for Saturday having 7 men in the top 16 is just tremendous and Sunday was a battle right to the finish just exciting to see how this plays out the rest of the season".
The Bobcat's will be a split-squad next week with most of the team headed to Rikert Nordic Center in Vermont for the ECSC Divisional Championships and many of the Team's Biathletes headed to the USA Biathlon Eastern Cup in Lake Placid.