Megan McClelland '11	Brandon Cooper '10
Abby Samuelson '10	Tim Whiton '09

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- The Bates College men's nordic skiers showed terrific depth on Saturday, placing fourth as a unit in the Men's 20K Classic Mass Start race to help the Bates ski teams to a fifth-place overall finish at the St. Lawrence University Winter Carnival.

Bates' ski teams combined for 381 points, six ahead of Colby for fifth place at the carnival, the Bobcats' second straight week in fifth. Dartmouth won with 587.5 points, followed by Middlebury (555), Vermont (527.5) and New Hampshire (459).

With two proven veteran not starting in juniors Sylvan Ellefson (Vail, Colo.) and Dylan Mogk (Bozeman, Mont.), the Bates men nevertheless scored 50 points on the day. Junior Sam Evans-Brown (Gilmanton Iron Works, N.H.) led the way for the Bobcats in 15th place out of 87 competitors, with a time of 56:10.6. Junior Tim Whiton (Portland, Maine) was 21st in 56:26.6, sophomore Brandon Cooper (Aspen, Colo.) was 23rd in 56:29.3, and sophomore Harry Poole (Yarmouth, Maine) was 26th in 57:21.5.

First-year Megan McClelland (Keene Valley, N.Y.) finished first for the Bates women in the Women's 15K Classic Mass Start race, finishing 20th out of 80 competitors in 44:52.0. Sophomore Abby Samuelson (Freeport, Maine) was 25th in 45:18.3, and first-years Natalie Ruppertsberger (Plainfield, N.H.), Kristen Gill (Jackson, N.H.) and Ingrid Knowles (Cumberland, Maine) also were in the top 35, in 29th, 30th and 35th, respectively.

Friday's Action

In Friday's action at Mt. Van Hovenberg, Ellefson (Vail, Colo.), who sat out last weekend's Bates Carnival due to illness, finished ninth out of 95 men in the race with a time of 25:10.7. Four of his teammates finished 19th through 22nd, with Evans-Brown (Gilmanton Iron Works, N.H.) in 25:47.9, senior Matt Dunlap (Farmington, Maine) in 25:53.1, Mogk in 25:54.5 and Cooper in 25:54.9. Whiton also made the top 30 with a time of 26:15.1.

Knowles led the Bates women to seventh place as a unit in the Women's 5K Free Technique race, finishing 19th out of 84 competitors. McClelland was 23rd in 15:02.2, followed by Samuelson in 26th in 15:15.7, Gill in 29th in 15.21.5 and junior Haleigh Armstrong (Vail, Colo.) in 33rd in 15:25.7.

Next up for Bates is the UVM Winter Carnival in Stowe, Vt., starting on Friday Jan. 25.

Complete carnival results are posted at http://www.eisaskiing.org/BART/Results08/slu08.htm