04/06/2008
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Morning Sentinel staff photofrom the Kennebec Journal
BUDGET CUTS ORDERED
Many happy returns in Richmond
Tax woes land on Whitefield
Rapist denied new trial
AUGUSTA MINDING A MINE
SPORT OF KINGS Falconry a blend of dedication and commitment
COLLEGE HOCKEY: Maine rallies but falls short against Boston College
COLLEGE ROUNDUP: Colby women win season opener at home tournament
All of today's:
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from the Kennebec Journal
from the Morning Sentinel
WEDDING BURGLAR JAILED
Youths talk Turkey Day
Plenty of free Thanksgiving meals available
Turkey prices make for happier holiday
Kennebec County Superior Court
POLICE
COLLEGE HOCKEY: Maine rallies but falls short against Boston College
COLLEGE ROUNDUP: Colby women win season opener at home tournament
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
It was the match light game, an old-time woodsmen's event on display this year at the Colby College Woodsmen's Team's Annual Mud Meet.
"We're trying to light matches with a hatchet," she said. "I did it in practice for an hour yesterday and lit my very first match on my very first strike, then didn't get it again."
In her seventh or eighth try again Saturday morning, she did it again -- lighting a wooden match to full flame by striking it with the sharp, hatchet blade.
Her one word reaction was simply put: "What?" she said.
The match light game was just one of many Saturday during the mud meet that lived up to it's name.
There were competitions in wood chopping, hand-sawing, ax throwing, chain-sawing, burling or log rolling, pole climbing, log toss, fire building and others, all resurrected competitions from the burly days of yesteryear.
Teams from Colby, Unity College, University of Maine, Dartmouth, University of New Hampshire and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry vied for the top spots in every category.
"This is a great program, it's a lot of fun, the kids have a lot of fun, a lot of camaraderie," Colby College President William "Bro" Adams said from the competition grounds. "It's a really important part of the student culture here and we have a very good team and always have had."
This year, organizers said, the competition was a "Jack and Jill" affair, meaning each team had to have equal numbers of men and women competitors.
Jamie Poster, a music major from Los Angeles, Calif. and the female senior captain for the Colby Woodsmen Team, said the events are aimed at traditional woodsmen's skills from 100 years ago.
Competitors use peavey hooks and traditional hand saws, axes, hatchets and their own brute strength to show their prowess.
Poster said she would be competing in the fire-build race, in which teams pack dry wood in a race to the end, where a fire is built and the can of water is boiled -- first to a rolling boil, wins.
"You get a pack, a blanket, a rope, three matches and a piece of wood ... then you run through the woods," she said. "It's a big spectacle, it's our favorite event."
Nearby, in the pancake or disc-stack, wood-sawing event, Wayne Vetre, a Unity College sophomore from Guilford Conn., said participants use a chain saw to slice an upright log into cookies or discs without toppling the stack.
"What you have to do is whip the saw out at the end to stack discs on top of each other and pancake them." Vetre said. "That way the blade comes out fast enough so the pancakes just fall on each other. It's either a new chain or a hot chain, which is sharpened."
In the pole climb, Sasha Bogdan, a forestry major from Wayne, Maine, used boot gaff hooks to scramble up a 60-foot pole, where she rang the bell at the top and scrambled back down.
Strength, she said, gets one to the top.
"Definitely your legs," she said. "The object is to go up as fast as you can and hit the bell by sticking the gaffs right into the wood."
The Colby team will compete is eight such woodmen's meets this season, said David Smith, Colby's Woodsmen's Team coach.
Doug Harlow -- 861-9244
dharlow@centralmaine.com
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