My last post EVER

Well, it happened, we graduated. Anders, Chris, and I are done with college. And let me tell all you underclassmen right now, it sucks. Take George Plympton's advice: when it comes time to finally leave, go back to your rooms, lock the doors, and make them force you to leave.

Anyway, one of the highlights of graduation week was the Senior Letterwinners' Dinner. The Athletic Department puts on the dinner down in the Murr Center tennis courts and it's a pretty sweet affair. Every senior from a Varsity team is invited, you sit with your teammates and their families, there's a sweet buffet dinner, and the senior awards are handed out.

Me and my dad before the dinner (note the toothpick in my mouth). I was the only one to wear his letter sweater out of everyone at the dinner.

My entire family came, along with the Moores, and the Nabels-minus-Catherine. We had two tables of just Nordic skiers and families and we all had a blast.

Anders, my dad, and Meri

As for the Awards, it's pretty sweet. For each award they ask the nominees to stand up and then they announce the winner.

Nabel was nominated for the Francis Burr '09 Scholarship, an award recognizing character and athletic achievement. Opera-singing -footballer-player Noah Van Neil was the eventual winner (Noah, I might add, is a friend of mine from when we were really little kids - we were even born on the same day just a few rooms apart at the Brigham in Boston).

Nabel and I both were nominated for the John Reardon Award, as was Apline's Matt Basilico. The Reardon Award recognized the best male scholar-athlete in the senior class. The winner was Geoff Rathgeber, the much-decorated captain of the swim team and an Olympic hopeful.

In a surprise turn-of-events I was also nominated for the William Bingham Award, given to the best male athlete. Three other Currierites were also nominated, diver Luke Sanders, track captain Alex Lewis, and crew captain Joe Medioli. Geoff Rathgeber, the swimmer, took this award as well.

All in all it was a great night and I think everyone had a lot of fun. It was cool to have so much recognition for the Nordic team. Out of three awards given to male athletes, we had four nominations. The bigger teams, like track, lacrosse, and baseball had no nominees for any of the awards. According to Coach P, Nabel and I were also both nominated for the Strength & Conditioning Award (which went to Brad Bagdis).

The senior awards dinner is definitely something to look forward to during graduation week. Hopefully the trend of Nordic skiers being nominated will continue for years to come.

Nabel and I are all smiles after the dinner

Keep it real Harvard Nordic, I'll see you all on the trails sometime.

-- O