The Plymouth State ski teams competed in their last two Winter Carnivals of the regular season since last issue, and produced some mixed results in the past two weeks. The teams met in Dartmouth on the 6th and 7th, and the highlight of the weekend was junior Max Martin (Salt Lake City, Utah) finishing 16th out of 86 skiers in the Giant Slalom, posting his best time of the season and Plymouth State’s top finish of the weekend. Sophomore Charlotte Lemgart (Vaerloese, Denmark) had the women’s top finish of the weekend, placing 30th overall in the giant slalom. The men came in 8th in GS, and 7th in the slalom event, and the women came in 12th and 13th in the events. Last weekend, the ski teams traveled to Middlebury for the final Winter Carnival. The men got off to a strong start; every qualified racer paced in the top 50%. Takehiro Watanabe (Sapporo, Japan) recorded his second highest placement of the season in day one, finishing 19th out of 77. The men finished 6th in slalom, their highest placement since Sunday River. The women however had a rough weekend, and with only one racer competing, finished last in both events.
The women’s swimming and diving team are currently in a sticky situation, as they have competed in two of the three days of the annual New England Championship at RIC before last Sunday’s events were canceled due to a snow storm. The team has already had to cancel once due to a bus breakdown, so this isn’t necessarily anything new for the team, whose record was 3-4 headed into last weekend. They collectively placed 14th out of 20 both days, with a big first day from sophomore Katia Wyman (Portsmouth, NH) swimming into 10th place in the 200-yard medley, and erased five seconds off her previous career high, recording 2:26.06. On Saturday, Megan Farmer (Plainville, VT) and Sam Carberry (Shrewsbury, PA) were the top finishers of the day. Farmer beat her career-best time, posting a 15th place finish in the 50-yard butterfly in 28.96. Carberry posted her season best time in the qualifying round of the 100-yard backstroke, a 1:04.14, and placed 16th with a time of 1:05.69. Freshman Julia Donahue (Hampstead, NH) also contributed with a top 15 finish, recording a 2:01.33 in the 200-yard medley. As of right now, Keene State in in the lead with 1146.5 points, and Roger Williams University is closing in, sitting in second with 998 points. Plymouth, who has 189 overall points, will return to the University of Rhode Island this Saturday for the final day of the New England Championships, where they will be looking to find a way into the top 12.
The Plymouth State wrestling team has been on the steady incline, losing against two of the top four ranked teams on February 7th, but placing first out of seven at Southern Maine in the North Atlantic Championships meet last Saturday. Junior Chris Perreault (St. Johnsbury, VT) has been on fire this year, and recorded two more wins on the 7th at PSU’s tri-match against Johnson & Wales (ranked 2nd) and Springfield College (ranked 4th). Perreault is ranked 3rd in New England, with a 21-5 overall record this season and a 64-24 record here at PSU. Senior Ray Welch (Rochester, NY) won the individual title after getting a first-round bye and a major decision, before tapping our his freshman teammate Nick Simeti (Pearl River, NY) who won his two bouts to finish second overall. Plymouth State heads to Roger Williams University for the NCAA tournament on the 28th and will be looking for big wins from Perreault and company.