Bates senior Hallie Grossman demonstrated that she has every intention of returning to the NCAA National Collegiate Skiing Championships for a fourth and final time this year, with two top-10 finishes at the Bates Carnival last weekend at Black Mountain in Rumford.
Grossman's (South Woodstock, Vt.) seventh-place finish out of 71 racers -- her second-best finish in an EISA freestyle race to date -- led the Bates women's Nordic ski team to fifth place among 13 squads in the women's 5K freestyle race on Saturday. The day before, Grossman finished ninth among 103 skiers overall on Friday morning, leading the Bates Nordic ski team to fourth place in the women's 15K classical mass start race.
Friday's races doubled as the 2015 edition of the Chummy Broomhall Cup, Maine's collegiate Nordic ski championship, with each team's top three finisher scoring and the fourth able to act as a displacer. The Bobcats prevailed for their fourth straight Broomhall Cup, taking a 5-4 lead over Colby for all-time Cup wins since the event began in 2007. Bates won with 28 points, followed closely by Colby with 29, then Bowdoin with 39 and UMaine-Presque Isle with 79.
