River Valley Today

The Colby alpine ski team delivered a superb, if not improbable, result on Saturday for the GS portion of the Williams carnival. The Colby women last won a carnival in 2014, but their effort on the day was enough to break the drought, defeating some of the best skiers in the nation, including multiple Division 1 teams filled with foreign athletes. Off the backs of a podium from Junior Ella Spear, the first from a Mule since 2020, a superb effort from Lydia Riddell in fourth and two clean runs from Molly Mueller added a 13th place to the tally.

The quality of the surface meant racers could charge from the back, and racers at the front of the pack could be ambitious. In the words of Colby assistant coach Sam Pelletier, "it was a blank canvas on which the athletes were able to paint their masterpiece." While some could do so, others lost their line and ended up on the wrong side of the hundredths that decided the day.

After the first run, the women were sitting pretty. Spear was within striking distance of the podium in fourth, and Riddell sat in 8th. The Mules put five of their six skiers in the top 30, which freed the top-placed skiers up to ski with high intensity.

The men were also remarkably well placed with a season's best five skiers in the top 30 after the first run, lead by Patrick Coughlin in 18th. Just behind Coughlin sat Topher Davenport in 23rd and a trio of Mules right next to each other. Brooks Reed, Chauncey Morgan, and Cam Owens were all within seven one-hundredths of a second of each other.

As the NCAA qualifying picture started to come into view, the women understood that just a top-10 finish would do little to help their chances, a top 6 would be needed. The result was high-intensity skiing from athletes in the top 30 that made margins even closer. "In order to reach our season goals, we had to really go skiing to finish in the top 10 isn't going to help us," said Spear. She certainly did not 'ski to finish.' Riddell came down in the lead and was sitting second when Spear flipped the wand. Spear mastered the short and difficult hill at Jiminy Peak to come down in second. Both she and Riddell saw off challenges from the second and third-placed skiers on the first run before finally being defeated by the first-run winner.

In the midst of all the celebrations, it was easy to forget that the men still had their second run. Looking to back up the women's result, Chauncey Morgan flashed some of the speed that gave him a fourth-place result earlier in the season. Morgan moved all the way up to 14th on the day and was fourth on the second run. Reed and Coughlin rounded out the scoring lineup in 23rd and 24th, respectively.

The result by the Mules alpine team is the culmination of years of hard effort and a demonstration of the team's progress. "Our team has reached a new level this year," said Spear, "last year at this time, any of us would have been pretty happy with a top 20, now that placed doesn't feel the same." She added we expect more of ourselves and each other, and feel there is a lot more to come.

The women finished the day with an impressive 112 points, 12 points clear of Dartmouth and a whopping 24 points ahead of third-placed rivals Middlebury. Also of importance is the results of Spear and Riddell further helps their campaign to earn a birth to the NCAA Championships in three weeks' time. The Mules will look to qualify more skiers when the final carnival race of the season kicks off this Thursday with the makeup GS from Saint Michaels and then the Saint Lawrence carnival. All races will take place at Whiteface Mountain. 

Original source can be found here