Gracie Wright notched her second top-15 finish in as many days in the 5K freestyle race at the Bates Carnival on Jan. 17, 2015 in Rumford, Maine. (File photo by Ian Nesbitt/EISA)

RUMFORD, Maine -- Senior Hallie Grossman's seventh-place finish out of 71 racers led the Bates women's Nordic ski team to fifth place among 13 squads in the women's 5K freestyle race on Saturday at Black Mountain, as the Bates Carnival drew to a close.

Bates' combined Nordic and alpine ski teams placed seventh out of 16 teams at the Bates Carnival with 433 points. The Bobcats trailed Colby by only seven and edged St. Lawrence by 13 points. The University of Vermont won the carnival with 914 points, with Dartmouth the runner-up with 854.

Grossman (South Woodstock, Vt.), Bates' captain and three-time NCAA Championship competitor, recorded her second-best career result in a free technique race, finishing the course in 14:29.6. Sophomore Gracie Wright (Rutland, Vt.) placed 15th in 14:58.6 and sophomore Tara Humphries (North Yarmouth, Maine) came in 22nd at 15:16.5.

Racing the 10K freestyle, Bates men's Nordic team saw its top three performers all finish in the 33rd- to 37th-place range among 77 competitors overall to place ninth among 13 squads. Senior captain Nick Michaud (Fort Kent Mills, Maine) led the way in 33rd place at 26:17.9, followed by first-year Parker McDonald (Wolcott, Colo.) 36th at 26:26.5 and sophomore Nathan Moreau (Falmouth, Maine) 37th in 26:27.2. Junior Corky Harrer (Minneapolis, Minn.) was close to scoring for the Bobcats, in 39th place (26:31.6).

Bates Nordic competes at the UVM Carnival next weekend at Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vt., starting with freestyle races on Friday morning.

Friday Recap

Hallie 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 at the Bates Carnival at Black Mountain. 

Grossman finished in 49:59.1, edging Middlebury's Kelsey Phinney by 3.6 seconds and leading the Bates women's team to fourth place among 14 competing squads. 

Close behind Grossman was Gracie Wright, who came in 13th in 51:13.8, while Tara Humphries rounded out the women's team scoring in 18th place at 51:58.7. Sophomore Britta Clark (Ripton, Vt.) didn't score but still placed 24th overall in 52:44.7, while sophomore Sadie James (Avon, Maine) was also inside the top 30, in 29th place at 53:06.1.

Nathan Moreau led a young Bates men's squad in the men's 20K classical, placing 38th out of 89 skiers overall in 1:03.34.7. Close behind him in 40th place was first-year Connor Gray (Whitefish, Mont.), with a strong collegiate debut at 1:03.49.1. Sophomore Max Millslagle (Bend, Ore.) was 47th in 1:04.25.4 to round out the squad's scoring, while Parker McDonald was 50th in 1:04.35.0.

Meanwhile, Bates captured a state title as well. The 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 its 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.

The Bates women's team claimed seven of the 10 available "Maine Team" awards, while the Bates men won four spots. Winning Maine Team nods for the Bates women were Grossman, Wright, Humphries, Clark, James, first-year Halie Lange (Brattleboro, Vt.) and first-year Amy Katz (Durango, Colo.). Bates men on the Maine Team included Moreau, Gray, Millslagle and McDonald.

2015 Chummy Broomhall Cup Results