At the Middlebury College Ski Carnival on Friday, something unprecedented happened for the Colby men’s nordic team. Under the leadership of third-place finisher and captain Wyatt Fereday ’11, the Mules took second place in the 10-kilometer freestyle technique, thereby breaking Dartmouth College and the University of Vermont’s (UVM) streak of carnival dominance. 

The Big Green and the Catamounts had either won or taken second in every carnival this year. The last time neither team finished in the top spot was at last year’s Middlebury Carnival, where St. Lawrence University took top honors. 

Fereday, who was one of four Colby skiers to finish in the top 20, covered the course in 24:58.3, while teammates Jake Barton ’13, Levin Zars ’14 and Corey Park ’12 took 10th, 12th and 16th, with times of 25:47.0, 26:11.5 and 26:44.9, respectively. Dartmouth won the meet while host Middlebury and UVM finished behind Colby in third and fourth.

“We made our goal of podium, which was sweet,” said Fereday. Molly Susla ’13 had one word for the win: “Incredible!”

On the women’s side, Colby placed fifth out of the twelve teams, with Lizzie Anderson ’14 leading the Mules in 31:27.4—good for 20th-place overall—while teammate Missy Krause ’12 finished 24th in 31:37.1. Susla (34th, 32:20.1), Emma Donohoe ’14 (43rd, 32:57.0) and Sarah Brockett ’14 (54th, 34:36.7) rounded out the scoring for Colby. The top-half result is all the more impressive considering women’s co-captain Olga Golovkina ’13 was out for the weekend with the flu.

“The women were missing [their] top skier but skied exceptionally well without her,” said head coach Tracey Cote. “One of their best weekends of the year.”

On Saturday, both teams placed sixth in a freestyle sprint relay, for which the weather was, as Susla described it, “windy as hell, and snowy and cold.” Dixon, Fereday and Barton combined for a time of 27:30.8 on the men’s side while Donohoe, Krause and Anderson put together a time of 33:27.6 for the women. 

Echoing Susla, Cote said that Saturday was “incredibly windy and cold.”

“The sprint relay was way fun though,” added Fereday.

This weekend, the Mules will compete at the Bates Carnival at Black Mountain in Rumford as they hope to qualify for the National Collegiate Athletic Association Men’s and Women’s Ski Championships to be held at Stowe from March 9-12. 

“We hope to carry the positive momentum into our races at Bates next weekend,” said Cote.