Bates senior Hallie Grossman, who is already one of the best women's Nordic skiers in school history based on her three NCAA Championship appearances to date, has been putting together one of the best individual carnival seasons ever by a Bobcat over the past several weeks. The first six top-five performances in Grossman's career have all occurred over her past seven individual races, all this season.
The consistently excellent captain combined with two of her teammates to make program history on Friday, in the 10K classical technique race at the Middlebury Carnival. By placing three skiers within the top 10 final finishers for the first time in team history, Bates tied a women's squad record by taking second place among 13 teams competing in the race.
Had Grossman (South Burlington, Vt.) finished one place lower than fifth, it would have cost the Bobcats at least two team carnival points and caused the Bates women to finish no higher than third in the race. Instead, Grossman outpaced the sixth-place skier, Middlebury's Stella Holt, by over 10 seconds, covering the Rikert Touring Center course in 31:55.3. Sophomore Sadie James (Avon, Maine) was a career-best eighth in 32:33.1, and sophomores Tara Humphries (North Yarmouth, Maine) enjoyed the second-best carnival performance of her career, placing 10th in 32:54.2 to round out Bates' scoring.
There was no letup from Grossman the following day in the 5K freestyle race: she covered the course in 16:22.1 to edge Vermont's Mary-Kate Cirelli by 0.9 seconds for fourth place.
