While it was a sleepy weekend for most on campus, one group of students was fired up. On Saturday, the Woodsmen team hosted the Mud Meet, their annual home meet. 16 teams from seven schools (University of Maine, Maine Maritime Academy, University of Connecticut, University of Vermont, University of New Hampshire, and Dartmouth) competed, including four current Colby teams and a team of Colby alumni.
The meet features a variety of classic timbersports events, such as the pole climb, axe throw, chain throw, standing block chop, obstacle course, underhand chop, and x-cut saw. All the events are based on the traditional forestry and logging industry.
The College swept the field, winning both first and second place. While there is little surprise that the College’s A team got first, it speaks to the strength of the group overall that the College’s B team got second, beating six other A teams who were favored over them.
The A team placed in 12 out of 16 events, including winning four out of five team events. Rebecca Wagner `25 won the axe throw with 11 points, almost doubling second place’s score of six. Sophie Hausleden `27 won the chain throw. Hausleden, Lily Rogers `27, and Connor Ransom `25 won the quarter split, leading to a decisive victory where the A team won with over 300 points between them and second place. The average distance between the rest of the teams was 100 points.
The A team was not the only team from the College that enjoyed victory. Anna Gerner `25 and Daniel Sweeney `25 won the obstacle course for the B team, and Tristan Hunt `27 won the disc stack for the D team. Overall, the College’s A team came in second and B team came in third for this event. Every team from the College had a few really good events, and the meet ran smoothly overall.
Ransom is co-captain of the team in his fourth year at the College, but he initially only joined because of his sibling.
“My older sibling was on the Dartmouth team, so I wanted to check it out here. I stayed with it because I love the family the team cultivates. Everyone is super supportive, and it’s a great way to get outside and relieve some stress.”
Ransom wasn’t the only person inspired by a sibling. Hausleden’s older sister, Hanna Hausleden `22, was on the College’s team and passed the torch to her sister.
“I joined Woodsmen because I saw my sister compete at her senior mud meet, and I knew I had to try it. But I stayed for the people. It is very cool to know how to operate a chainsaw or use an axe, but the welcoming community made me a Woodsman,” she said.
Lanna Antebi `28 is new to the team, having just joined this year.
“I joined Woodsmen because I had some experience in high school with trail work and forestry and was interested in finding out what competitive woodsports were. It turned out to be an incredibly nerdy yet physically challenging environment where I’ve made my closest friends. I came for the weird wood chopping and stayed for the community,” she said.
However, you don’t have to have any experience to join the team. In fact, most people know nothing when they come to their first practice.
“Woodsmen is a lot of fun, a great community, and a great way to learn new skills. No one really has experience with this stuff coming into the team, so we teach each other how to do everything,” Ransom said.
“I love that I get to hang with the team while learning new events and using tools like axes, large saws, chainsaws, etc., that I would have never even known about before,” Hausladen said.
“I have met so many lovely people through the team that I may not know otherwise, and it has generally just been an awesome space to learn new things,” Ella Hiebert `25 said.
While the Woodsmen team focuses on competitions, going as far as Canada for meets, their main focus will always be their community.
“The community of the team is like no other. There is a large effort among the whole team to be inclusive and welcoming, and you really feel it,” Rogers said.
“Everyone on the team meets you where you are and supports you in and out of the team. You are welcome to participate as much or as little as you want, and everyone is an equal there. The best part for me is the friends I’ve found. I can go to the field and be myself. I can fail, do well, be upset, or be happy, and everyone is right there cheering me on. I do the same for them. Woodsmen is just a space for everyone to be themselves and to be loved,” Hausladen said.
Coach Dave Smith has led the team for the past 36 years.
“He’s a huge reason we’re able to do everything we do!” Ransom said.
“As this is highly specialized, our coach, Dave, is really crucial for our success and safety. He has so much knowledge about the sport. We would not be able to do what we do without him,” Hausladen said.
For Antebi, the juxtaposition between her school life and her Woodsmen life adds to the allure of the team. She loves that being part of the team gives her a break from rigid academia.
“It’s just hilarious to me that I can come out of an English class or a Geology lab and go straight to the woods to chop a tree in half and run on a spinning log. I firmly believe this is one of the best places to make weird college dad lore. You’re probably never going to get the opportunity to be an actual lumberjack for the rest of your life, much less have access to the (very high quality) wood, axes, and equipment our team has. Woodsmen is the most welcoming environment I’ve found on campus, especially as an anxious freshman, and I’m very grateful for this weird and lovely community,” she said.
Rogers encourages everyone to visit the Woodsmen field, which is across the street from the Hillside parking lot, regardless of whether they’re involved with the team or not.
Everyone should come at least once in their Colby career to check out the field. The woodsmen field feels very different from the rest of Colby’s campus, and it allows you to escape the hustle and bustle for a couple of hours. We practice year-round and always make an effort to welcome visitors and prospective teammates,” she said.
Anyone interested in joining a new community or throwing some axes should go visit the Mud Meet reigning champions. You may just find your people. And possibly learn how to strike a match on your teeth.
~ Mairead Levitt `25
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