Waterville, Maine - The Colby Nordic Ski Team will open the 2026 season this Sunday, January 4th at Mt. Van Hoevenberg for the St. Lawrence Carnival. The Mules will compete in the 10k classic Sunday followed by the 1.3k freestyle sprint on Tuesday, January 6th. 

The team will be looking to back or improve on last years performance of qualifying three skiers for the NCAA Championship, one of which graduated last spring in Jack Young. The 2025 season marked the fifth consecutive year the Nordic team has qualified at least three skiers for the NCAA Championships and will look to make it six straight in 2026. 

The Mules are led once again by Tracey Cote, now entering her 29th year as the Head Coach of Colby Nordic Skiing. She is assisted by Justin Fereshetian in his third season with the team. 

"We are excited to start our 2026 race season at US Nationals and the St. Lawrence Carnival which are combined as one event this year for the Nordic Team," said Cote. "We had some strong early season racing results with first year James Underwood already mixing it up with our strong returners including Ben Lewis, who won some early season races, and Andrew DeFor who qualified for the NCAA Championship last year.  On the women's side, we still have an extremely young team and we will be missing Maddie Hooker who spent the early winter with Team Australia on the World Cup circuit and is currently in contention for an Australian National Team Olympic spot.  Lola Villafranco, Natalie O'Brien, Lydia Kraker, and Jodie Maguire had some strong early season results and are hoping to continue that momentum into the carnival season as this young team continues to develop." 

Fans can follow alongside the action of the St. Lawrence Carnival using the live result link as well as check out the schedule tab to catch the Mules when they come to a location near you. Colby will host their home carnival on January 23rd and 24th at Quarry Roads here in Waterville.