Robert Saunders '05 Wins Giant Slalom at Dartmouth Winter Carnival

The Colby ski team, which received varsity status in 1986, won five Eastern Intercollegiate Skiing Association (EISA) Division II titles between 1987 and 1992. That success prompted the College to upgrade the program to Division I status in 1993. About to enter its ninth year of competition as an NCAA Division I ski team, the Colby alpine ski team is quickly becoming one of the stronger programs in the East.

The 2001-02 team looks forward to improving on last year's 21st place finish at the NCAA Division I Championships and a seventh place finish in the Eastern Collegiate Championships. The men's team returns a strong core in juniors Noah Siebeck-Smith and Thomas Richardson and sophomore Kristian Knights. These three talented athletes accounted for 70 percent of the Colby points scored last season and were all on the bubble of qualifying for the NCAA Championships. In addition, the Mules will add three strong first-year students in Warner Nickerson, Robert Saunders, and Tyler Rowe. The addition of these three athletes should help the Colby men become one of the top men's team in the East.

The women's team will be lead by senior co-captains Elizabeth Marceau and Nicole Boulanger. Junior standouts Caroline Riss and Jennifer Santini and first-year Nicole Wesson will add depth to a talented women's program.

A full-time staff, solid recruiting efforts, and a talented and dedicated group of skiers have produced one of the most competitive and successful programs at Colby. Dry-land training begins in September with off-season workouts. On-snow training is based at Sugarloaf/USA and begins the first weekend in November. The team holds a three-day Thanksgiving camp and a five day pre-Christmas camp. The strength of the Colby program is evident in January, when students participate in only one class for the month, giving athletes ample time for training and racing. The season culminates in mid-March with the NCAA Championships, the Rolex Junior Olympics and the U.S. Alpine Championships. Colby skiers also participate in USSA/FIS events as individual academic schedules allow.

Outlook

The four-year goal for the alpine program is to make Colby a top-five program in the East and to compete successfully with Dartmouth, Middlebury, New Hampshire, Vermont, and other top Division I teams.

Godomsky sees several reasons for optimism:

• Colby rests in the heart of ski country, and its home base at Sugarloaf/USA provides the program with a state-of-the-art training facility.
  
• The strong commitment of the College to the program's Division I status, illustrated by Colby's hosting of the NCAA Division I Championships at Sugarloaf in 1994, the recent inclusion of a new 500-square-foot locker room and tuning facility for the ski team at the Harold Alfond Athletic Center, and the elevation of the ski team coaching positions to full-time faculty status in 1998.
  
• The increased emphasis on recruiting championship-level student skiers to Colby, as evidenced by the solid Classes of 2004 and 2005.