Colby’s nordic ski team participated in its final carnival of the season this past weekend. With the Bates Carnival signaling the conclusion of their year, the Mules had one more shot to improve upon a season of work and, ideally, to qualify for one more race—the 2011 National Collegiate Athletic Association Skiing Championship in Stowe, Vt. or the Junior Olympics in Minneapolis, Minn., both to be held in mid-March. And so, at Black Mountain, Colby put wax to flake once again. On Saturday, the men took fifth place while the women captured tenth. On Sunday, both teams earned seventh place.

“There was a lot of new snow, so conditions were a bit slow and tough,” said men’s captain Wyatt Fereday ’11. “But everyone skied strong and finished off the year with great efforts.”
In the 10-kilometer freestyle race on Saturday, Fereday placed 16th overall with a time of 30:13.1, leading the Mule pack which included Jake Barton ’13 (20th, 30:18.4), John Dixon ’14 (33rd, 30:53.6), Corey Park ’12 (37th, 31:16.8), Levin Zars ’14 (41st, 31:35.7) and Jared Supple ’13 (58th, 33:35.4). On the women’s side, Molly Susla ’13 cracked the top 20, coming in 19th place in the five-kilometer race (16:30.0). Lizzie Anderson ’14 (35th, 17:01.9), co-captain Missy Krause ’12 (38th, 17:07.3), Emma Donohoe ’14 (49th, 17:43.2), co-captain Olga Golovkina ’13 (55th, 18:11.2) and Maeve McGovern ’14 (58th, 18:44.8) rounded out the top scoring. The University of Vermont (UVM), Dartmouth College and the University of New Hampshire (UNH) went one-two-three for the women’s team scoring while Dartmouth, UVM and Bates College did the same for the men.

On Sunday, the men’s team improved to fifth out of the 12 teams as Barton and Fereday performed well again in the 20-kilometer classic mass start. Barton took 15th place overall in a time of 1:04:49.0 while Fereday placed 18th in 1:05:03.5. Zars (33rd, 1:06:22.6), Dixon (40th, 1:08:32.0) and Supple (41st, 1:09:25.4) ensured every Mule finished in the top 50. Dartmouth and UVM retained the top two spots while Williams College moved up to third. For the women, Anderson and Golovkina stuck together at the finish line, taking 25th (56:24.8) and 26th (56:28.1) respectively, while Krause (35th, 58:00.5), Susla (46th, 59:59.6), McGovern (48th, 1:00:25.6) and Donohoe (49th, 1:00:48.0) edged into the top 50 as well. Powerhouses Dartmouth and UVM claimed first and second place in the team scoring while host Bates College took third.

“It was pretty sweet to see so much snow,” said Fereday. “[head coach] Tracey [Cote] and [assistant coach] Nick [Kline] did a great job waxing on Sunday. Super fun weekend. Some parents brought some really great food for afterward, so our spread was holding its own against Dartmouth and Williams,” he added in good humor.

Coming out of the weekend, both Fereday and Barton qualified for NCAA Championships at the Trapp Family Lodge from March 9-12 while Zars, Supple and Golovkina will be headed to the Junior Olympics on March 7-12.

“We've had a very good season as a team, considering most of our top skiers are either freshmen or sophomores,” said Golovkina. “We are looking forward to next year to grow as a team and really do some damage.”