Jordan Buetow '14 placed fourth overall to lead the Bates men's Nordic team to first place in the 1.4K classic sprint race at the UVM Carnival, Feb. 1, 2014. (Ian Nesbitt/EISA)

STOWE, Vt. -- The shortest race of the EISA carnival season was right in the wheelhouse of the Bates men's Nordic ski team, who placed first among 13 teams in the men's 1.4-kilometer classic sprint Saturday at the UVM Carnival, Bates' first-ever carnival event win as a squad.

Bates' top three competitors in the men's race all placed among the top nine out of 68 skiers overall. Senior captain Jordan Buetow (Fairbanks, Alaska) placed fourth in 3:11.1, followed by senior captain Alex Hamilton (Truckee, Calif.) in a career-best sixth place at 3:11.2 and junior Nick Michaud (Fort Kent Mills, Maine) taking ninth place at 3:13.1. 

The Bates men scored a whopping 109 carnival points in the event, outpacing runner-up Dartmouth by nine. Williams, Colby and Universite de Laval all tied for third with 77.

Junior Hallie Grossman (South Woodstock, Vt.) was 18th fastest out of 69 women in 1.4-kilometer classic sprint, with a time of 4:00.3, to lead the Bates women. First-year Laurel Fiddler (Crowley Lake, Calif.) was 30th in  4:06.7 and first-year Sadie James (Avon, Maine) was tied for 31st with Vermont's Madison Keeffe at 4:07.4.

With only Sunday's women's 5K and men's 10K freestyle races left in the UVM Carnival, Bates is eighth out of 16 teams. The alpine portion of the carnival has already taken place.