Newcomers Sarah Hashami, Bridget Sinnott and Emily Bolton achieved personal goals during the season.

"One of the benefits of a small program is that we're able to teach the sport to new people," King said.

On the men's side, captain Stanimir Metchev led a small Crimson team, followed closely by junior Stan Jurga.

"Stan Jurga showed vast improvement in his second year of college racing," Bellizzi said.

Despite the best efforts of this short-handed squad, Harvard was usually found at the bottom of the scoreboard. This was not for a lack of effort, however, as the team displayed hard work and enthusiasm throughout the year.

The Nordic team trains on rollerskis in the fall off-season, travels to a Weston golf course during weekdays in the winter, and is on the road every weekend after winter finals until mid-March. The team took a Christmas training trip to Quebec to get more on-snow time, as well as an intersession trip to Waterville Valley, N.H.

"It takes a lot of hard work, training throughout the summer and fall, to be able to compete in this league at all," Bellizzi said. "I have a lot of respect for the commitment and effort that all our skiers put in."

The Alpine team also faced low numbers in 1998-99, and struggled in the highly competitive EISA. Due to poor snow conditions the team was unable to train at Blue Hills Ski Area at all during the school week.