This past weekend, the men’s and women’s nordic skiing teams traveled to the Dartmouth Carnival to compete against eleven other teams.

On Friday, the men competed in the 10-kilometer freestyle, taking seventh place overall with a score of 60 points. The first finisher for the men was Jake Barton ’13, coming in 19th place overall with a time of 27:38.4. Barton has emerged as a consistent leader for the Mules this season, regularly finishing in the top 20, and he continued that trend with this race. Corey Park ’12 also had a strong race, finishing 24th with a time of 27:54.6, and John Dixon ’14 was close behind, finishing 28th in 27:58.0. Also finishing for the Mules were Levin Zars ’14 (28:25.8) in 37th, Paco DeFrancis ’14 (28:49.9) in 46th and captain Jared Supple ’13 (28:50.0) close behind in 47th. This was DeFrancis’ first race this season, having been sidelined for the past three weekends.

The women competed in the five-kilometer freestyle, taking ninth place as a team. Lizzie Anderson ’14 was the first Mule to finish, taking 30th place in 15:18.5. Captain Molly Susla ’13 was next, taking 37th in 15:43.7, followed by Olga Golovkina ’13 in 40th in 15:49.5. Missy Krause ’12 and Sarah Brockett ’14 took 44th and 45th with times of 15:58.4 and 15:58.8, respectively, and Maeve McGovern ’14 came in 51st in 16:17.4.

The Mules were back for another race the next day, with the men competing in the 20-kilometer classic mass start. They took sixth place overall despite the fact that they only had four men in the race. This was due in part to another impressive finish by Barton, who took 11th place with a time of 59:40.1. Dixon had a strong race as well, taking 21st with a time of 1:00:47.3. DeFrancis was next, taking 39th in 1:02:24.3, followed by Park, who finished in 1:04:06.9 for 47th place.

Meanwhile, the women competed in the 15-kilometer classic mass start, taking eighth place overall. Golovkina led the Mules with a strong 19th-place finish in 51:12.4. Susla and Anderson finished close together, taking 36th and 39th with times of 53:23.5 and 53:56.4. Rounding out the Mules were Brockett, finishing 44th in 55:01.1, and McGovern, who finished in 46th place with a time of 55:28.9. Next week, the Mules travel to Williams College to compete in the Williams Carnival, the last race before the postseason begins with the Eastern Championships.