The results for the Big Green varied, with the men's squad finishing in the middle of their division, in eighth place out of 16, the women finishing fifth of seven, and the Jack & Jill squad, composed of both men and women, finishing third of three. The winning teams were the Paul Smith's College men's team, the University of Maine at Orono Jack & Jill squad, and the Colby women's team, who registered the highest overall score of the weekend.
The competition began on Friday, with woodsman events occurring at Oak Hill Recreational Area and canoeing events occurring on the Connecticut River at the Dartmouth Organic Farm. Normally, canoeing would take place on Storrs Pond, but given the unseasonably cold early spring, as of Friday there was still about a foot of ice on the pond.
The change of venue did not faze the Dartmouth squads as the canoeing competitions were some of their best events; both the men's and women's teams won the singles competition for the second year in a row.
"It was a really beautiful morning and really still and so the wind and current didn't have much of an effect," Heather Lisle '07 said. "The win was unexpected because we have only practiced [canoeing] once since the river unfroze."
The packboard relay was another highlight for the Big Green. The event consists of packing and tying a considerable amount (40 pounds for men, 25 pounds for women) of equipment to an old-style packboard, and then running a relay race with individual legs of approximately 150 meters. The Dartmouth's women and the Jack & Jill team both won this event, while the men finished second by just four seconds.
On Saturday, competition moved to the Green, where numerous events took place throughout the day, from ax throwing to pole climbing. Notable among the Dartmouth woodsmen was Chris Farmer '08, who although being sick and having lost his voice completely, competed in the STIHL challenge, a three-event competition against the best woodsmen from each team. Farmer finished 7th of ten.
In forestry, each school fields multiple squads for the competition, each of which consists six competitors. Every woodsman competes in one solo event, one doubles event, one triples event, one canoeing event and five team events. The winner of each event earns 100 points for their team, and the remaining teams are scored in relation to the winner.
The Big Green entered five teams: a men's team, a women's team, a Jack & Jill, and men's and women's alumni squads who competed unofficially.
Unlike many of the other teams here for the competition, the Dartmouth Forestry team does not have any coaches and most of their forestry knowledge is passed down from alumni of the team.
"Dartmouth is unique in that it doesn't have a coach while most of the other teams do," Lisle said. "It puts quite a burden on some of the students who take on the task of running it. However, there are a small number of knowledgeable alums, who come back and give us valuable coaching advice."
Two alumni who helped tremendously were Put Blodgett '53 and Kevin Peterson '82, who both competed this weekend and unofficially won singles canoeing. Blodgett set up the course and no other team even managed to approach his time racing with Peterson.
Josh Hurd '08 directed the meet, no small task given the number of schools, competitors, competitions and spectators. Planning for the event really kicked into high gear early in Winter term, and it's safe to say that the weekend went about as well as could be hoped. Planning was aided by the fact that the forestry team has alumni who have experience setting up this event, which last took place in Hanover in 2004.
One special aspect of this event is the camaraderie the teams show.
"It was great to see how the team came together and also to see the support from the Dartmouth community," Shara Feld '07 said, "especially all those people who helped with timing, set-up and the clean-up of the events."
The top squads in each division were each given chainsaws as prizes, as was Dartmouth for hosting the event. What was more notable however were the competition axes given to the four teams that were just formed this year, an invaluable gift for a team that's trying to develop its forestry squad.
Dartmouth hopes to host this event again in 2009, when the DOC will have its 100-year anniversary.
