Curran	Poole
Taylor	Evans-Brown
Ruppertsberger	Mogk

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. -- The Bates College Nordic teams competed in their final events Saturday at the Middlebury Carnival at the Rikert Touring Center in Ripton, Vt. Both the men and women competed in the 3 x 5km freestyle relay.

The Bates women's teams finished eighth and 11th out of 19 teams. First-year Caitlin Curran (Waitsfield, Vt.) and Beth Taylor (Norwich, Vt.), along with sophomore Natalie Ruppertsberger (Plainfield, N.H.) made up the 8th-place team finishing in a time of 52:43.3, just .3 seconds behind the 7th-place team. Junior Abby Samuelson (Freeport, Maine) and sophomores Megan McClelland (Keene Valley, N.Y.) and Kristen Gill (Jackson, N.H.) made up the 11th-place team who finished in a time of 53:30.5. 

The Bobcat men also competed in their own 3 x 5km freestyle relay. Junior Harry Poole (Yarmouth, Maine) and seniors Sam Evans-Brown (Gilmanton Iron Works, N.H.) and Dylan Mogk (Bozeman, Mont.) teamed up for an 8th-place finish out of twenty teams with a time of 43:44.4.

The combined Bates Nordic and alpine ski teams finished the Middlebury Carnival in seventh place out of 11 teams, with 508 points, just ahead of St. Lawrence (501).

The Bates Nordic and alpine teams compete next weekend at the Colby Carnival, which is also the EISA Eastern Regional Championships.

Friday Recap

Natalie Ruppertsburger continued her stellar season by placing third out of 61 competitors Friday in the 10K Classic Freestyle race at the Middlebury College Carnival.

Ruppertsburger led the Bates women's Nordic team to a second place finish out of 11 teams in the event, covering the course in 31:41.2. It is her fourth top-10 finish of the carnival season and her best to date.

Caitlin Curran placed 13th for the Bobcats in 33:14.8, and Abby Samuelson came in 14th in 33:16.7 for Bates' third and final scoring mark. Beth Taylor and Megan McClelland also had solid finishes at 20th and 24th respectively. The women finished second only to Dartmouth of out of 11 competing teams in the event, possibly the Bobcats' best team finish ever in a carnival event, according to 16th-year head coach Becky Woods '89.

On the men's side, Sylvan Ellefson (Vail, Colo.) continued his success claiming another top-ten finish with a sixth-place finish (27:05.7) out of 58 competitors in the men's 10K Classic Freestyle. Sam Evans-Brown finished 13th in a time of 27:40.5. Senior Tim Whiton (Portland, Maine) and Harry Poole finished 24th and 25th respectively with times of 28:48.5 and 28.50.4, less than two seconds apart. The Bates men secured fourth-place out of 11 teams after the first event.

View complete carnival results at http://www.eisaskiing.org/BART/Results09/mc09.htm.