The Bowdoin Orient

The men's cross country season came to a bittersweet end last Saturday, celebrating exciting individual highlights while also facing disappointment as a team.

In any long run, there are occasional bumps in the road, and the men's cross country team discovered just such a bump last Saturday at the NESCAC Championship at Hamilton College.

The peace and serenity of the woods behind the Bowdoin athletic fields was briefly interrupted last Saturday as runners in the 2010 Maine State Intercollegiate Cross-Country Championship blazed through in pursuit of victory.

The men's cross-country team will reach the most important juncture of its season this weekend. The runners will compete at the State Championship here at Bowdoin tomorrow.

The men's cross-country team drove home from its last race in high spirits, and, to celebrate the events of the day, first years on the team sang solo performances over the bus microphone.

It is easy to gauge the true character of a sports team by its level of performance in its final event of the season. Some teams bow to their fatigue and slip out of the season in mediocrity, while others rise to the occasion and end on a high note.

As Spring Break draws closer, the Nordic ski team is working toward its final meet of the season, the Regional Championships, which will be held at Middlebury College this weekend.

Walk into any room on campus with a television and there is a solid chance that an event from the Olympic Winter Games will be unfolding on the screen. The Games, which began last Friday, have placed a rare media spotlight on the often-overlooked sport of Nordic Skiing. The Nordic ski team will offer a taste of that Olympic excitement this weekend as it heads to the Williams Carnival at Prospect Mountain in Woodford, Vermont.

The long, snowless period that New England has recently experienced has forced ideas of outdoor winter sports out of the minds of many Bowdoin students. Not so for the Nordic ski team, however, which will compete in its fifth race of the season this coming weekend.

The start of February marked the beginning of an action-packed month for the nordic ski team. The team, which has already participated in three races this season, will be competing every weekend this month, starting this Saturday in Stowe, Vermont at the University of Vermont Carnival.

As many athletes were pursuing warmer training climates during the winter break, the Nordic ski team was embracing the snow full-force in preparation for their many races throughout the season, including the Chummy Broomhall Cup this Sunday.