WATERVILLE, Maine --- After heading all the way to Montana last year, the Colby College alpine and Nordic skiers can be home in Maine for the NCAA Skiing Championships this season.

The NCAA meet begins Wednesday with giant slalom competition at Sunday River in Bethel. Nordic skiing will get going Thursday at Black Mountain in Rumford. Alpine finishes up Friday with the slalom run and Nordic will end Saturday with the mass start race (full schedule below).

Lucy Garrec (Freeport, Maine) and Kathleen Maynard (Jackson, N.H.) will ski for the Colby women’s Nordic team. Meanwhile, Emily Colin (Santa Fe, N.M.) heads to the meet for the women’s alpine squad. Vincent Lebrun-Fortin (Montreal, Quebec) and Josh Kernan (Shelburne, N.H.) will both ski again at nationals for the men’s alpine team.

Garrec has been the most decorated skier of this season for any of the Colby ski teams. The first-year skier has six top-three performances, including the Nordic program’s first-ever ski carnival victory. Garrec is ranked fourth of NCAA qualifiers among EISA skiers after finishing fourth in points in free technique and fifth in classical racing.

Maynard and Garrec are the first Colby women’s Nordic skiers heading to the NCAA meet since Jenny Lane Townsend went in 1998. After sending three men to the NCAA meet a year ago, head coach Tracey Cote will have two women going for the first time. Maynard, a senior, was 13^th overall during the season and was 14^th in free technique and 15^th in classical.

Colin had a flair for the dramatic by finishing seventh and 10^th at the Colby Ski Carnival/Eastern Championships at Sugarloaf to end the season. The junior was 17^th combined this year among EISA skiers, finishing 17^th among giant slalom skiers and 18^th in the slalom. Her strong finishes at Sugarloaf likely got her into the NCAA meet.

Lebrun-Fortin, an All-American in the slalom and giant slalom at the NCAA meet last year, was 11^th combined and ninth among NCAA qualifiers from the EISA. He was sixth this season in the slalom and 14^th in the giant slalom. Lebrun-Fortin was an All-East selection and the EISA Rookie of the Year last season.

Kernan heads back to the NCAA meet for the third straight year after being the seventh NCAA qualifier. He also was seventh combined in taking fifth in the slalom and 12^th in the giant slalom among league skiers.

Wednesday’s schedule

9 a.m.: women’s giant slalom (run to completion)

12:30 p.m.: men’s giant slalom (run to completion)

Thursday’s schedule

10 a.m.: men’s 10-kilometer classical

Noon: women’s 5-kilometer classical

Friday’s schedule

9:30 a.m.: men’s slalom (first run)

10:15 a.m.: women’s slalom (first run)

12:15 p.m.: men’s slalom (second run)

1 p.m.: women’s slalom (second run)

Saturday’s schedule

10 a.m.: women’s 15-kilometer freestyle (mass start)

Noon: men’s 20-kilometer freestyle (mass start)