Harvard Nordic Skiing Places 9th at St. Lawrence Carnival

As wintery winds blew the calendar year from 2025 to 2026, the Harvard Nordic skiing team prepared for its first competition of the season at the St. Lawrence Carnival, with the Crimson ultimately placing 9th out of 14 Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association (EISA) teams.

Held at Lake Placid, N.Y., the event was divided into two days, with Sunday featuring the classic 10k race and Tuesday culminating in a freestyle sprint.

“We had great results this weekend, and we've had some other great preseason results before finals period,” junior Clara Lake said.

Lake, who placed 37th amongst collegiate skiers in the 10k, was joined by senior Hayden McJunkin (36th) in the top 40 of the classic, finishing with times of 34:30.1 and 34:27.5, respectively. The race’s top performer, Utah’s Erica Laven, crossed the finish line with a time of 29:14.4.

“On the 10k, you definitely want to pace yourself,” Lake said. “But still, it’s a pretty long race. You end up feeling like you’re pushing yourself the entire time, just like in pretty much any race.”

On the men’s side, no skier placed in the top 50 positions, but freshman Braden Bellizi came in 54th to lead the Crimson.

“This weekend, the course had a lot of climbing, almost two kilometers of a pretty consistent climb,” Lake added. “What goes up must come down, so we have a pretty exciting downhill on the courses here at Lake Placid.”

This weekend’s carnival only featured Nordic competition, which includes several different stretches and terrains of skiing. “We don’t exclusively go up or flat or down like Alpine, but we do a bit of everything, which is pretty fun,” she said.

On Tuesday, the team shifted to the shorter sprint, where McJunkin (15th), Lake (16th), and junior Breagh Bridge (25th) all placed in the top 30. On the men’s side of the action, sophomore Elias Soule came in 17th with a time of 2:52.48.

“In the sprint, it’s pretty tactical. It’s only about one and a half kilometers,” Lake said. “Especially the sprint course here has a big, steep climb right before sweeping downhill into the finish, I feel like that’s the kind of race where you can strategically calculate where you leave everything out there, whereas a 10k you want to approach it with more of a pacing mindset.”

“We train all fall. We run, we lift, we hillbound, which is like running uphill with poles. And we roller ski a lot, which is equivalent to skiing, but on the roads,” she added.

Although an individual competition, Lake maintains that skiing is as much of a team sport as any.

“Nordic skiing is very unique in that it seems like an individual sport when you’re racing out there, but everything that underlies it is a fall season and a winter season of training with your team and really pushing each other to your limits in a way that other sports might not.”

“I think this is leaving us very excited for the rest of the season,” Lake said.

The Alpine team returns to competition next weekend when it races at the Colby Carnival on Jan. 16th, followed by a Nordic meet the following weekend at the same venue.

– Staff writer Praveen Kumar can be reached at [email protected]