From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.
The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay is hiring a Head Nordic Ski Coach to lead its men’s and women’s programs. The school’s goal is to build the premier program in the Central Collegiate Ski Association and send multiple student-athletes to NCAA Nationals each year, and it has backed that goal with scholarships, a full-time head coaching position, and graduate assistant support.
The head coach recruits, develops, and retains student-athletes, directs training and technique, and manages the program budget. The role also carries responsibility for fundraising, alumni engagement, and public relations for UW-Green Bay Athletics and the Phoenix Nordic program.
Responsibilities
Oversee the ski program budget.
Plan and run in-season and out-of-season practices, both team and individual.
Recruit and retain student-athletes in accordance with NCAA and UW-Green Bay rules.
Monitor academic performance to keep athletes eligible under University and NCAA standards.
Provide technical expertise and sound coaching methods to improve athletic performance.
Oversee the conduct and performance of the Nordic graduate assistant.
Comply with all NCAA, UW System, and UW-Green Bay rules and regulations.
Fundraise and take part in promotional and special events for the program.
Build alumni connections and engagement to generate financial support.
Promote positive public relations for the Department of Athletics.
Qualifications
Working knowledge of NCAA and Horizon League rules and regulations.
Strong interpersonal and communication skills working with a diverse community.
Sound judgment, including discretion with personal and confidential information.
Professional, sportsmanlike conduct at athletic events.
Conditions of Appointment
This is a full-time limited appointment based at the Green Bay campus, with occasional travel to the Marinette, Sheboygan, or Manitowoc campuses. The schedule varies and includes nights, weekends, and travel with the program. UW-Green Bay does not offer visa sponsorship for this position, so candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States.
Compensation and Benefits
Compensation is competitive and commensurate with qualifications and experience. The position includes the Universities of Wisconsin benefits package, which covers health, dental, and vision insurance, participation in the Wisconsin Retirement System with immediate employer contributions, supplemental 403(b) and deferred compensation options, and paid holiday, personal, sick, vacation, and parental leave.
How to Apply
Apply through UW-Green Bay’s Workday portal with a cover letter addressing the essential job functions and a resume. Applications will be reviewed as they are received, and the posting will remain open until the position is filled. Questions can be directed to UW-Green Bay Human Resources at (920) 465-2390 or jobs@uwgb.edu.
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By: Francesca Kitch
The Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) is composed of six competing schools spanning the Midwest. Each season there are four CCSA invites–weekends full of racing–and this year, these competitions are set to begin this Saturday. The first three US Nationals races in Anchorage, Alaska, also counted towards CCSA competition; the skate 10k was scored as an NCAA qualifier, while the classic sprint and 20k classic mass start served as an opportunity to accumulate points toward team standings. Although the CCSA is a small conference, it doesn’t lack enthusiasm. Spectators travel all over the Midwest–and even to Alaska–to watch their athletes race.
Across all NCAA conferences–the CCSA, Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association (EISA), and Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA)–distances and techniques are standardized. Every two years, the distance races at NCAA Championships alternate between skate and classic, and the races at the invites reflect this change. This year, the 20k mass start at NCAA’s will be skate and the 7.5k will be classic, so the CCSA qualifying races will consist mostly of 20k classic mass starts and 7.5k individual classic races. From the points earned in these races, skiers will be ranked within the CCSA, and the top 6 athletes of each gender will qualify for the NCAA Championships to compete in Hanover, New Hampshire, this March.
Women lining up for a 20km classic mass start last season. (Photo: Tryg Solberg)
The CCSA invite this weekend will be hosted by the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay. The Green Bay team has undergone an impressive transformation from 4 years ago when head coach Sam Meyers started the job. With a full roster of 3 men in 2021, Meyers has built up the program to now carry 17 athletes (9 men and 8 women) for the 2025 season. “This is the first year that we’ve had an upperclassmen-heavy roster…it feels like everyone has a really good understanding of how we operate as a team.” Meyers is encouraged to see how helpful the team captains have been in the seamless running of the team and how this has aided the overall maturity of the team. “We work really hard, we have big goals. But we also remember that skiing is fun.” Meyers adds, “One of the big things I look for in recruits is someone that just simply loves the sport of nordic skiing, and that’s a big factor in creating the culture that we like….not only good skiers but love working hard and being outside.” Meyers predicts strong performances from senior Ryan Themie and Junior Noah Erikson, the two top finishers on the men’s team from last season, finishing in 15th and 23rd, respectively, in the CCSA rankings. On the women’s side, Sophomore Lily Franzen is looking to improve on her performance from last year as the leading women’s skier for the team, and Meyers is excited to see what freshman Hedda Samuelsson has to show.
Men from Michigan Tech enthusiastically cheering on the women in a CCSA invite last season. (Photo: Tryg Solberg)
Michigan Tech Head Coach Tom Smith looks forward to another season with his team, excited by individual standouts and a promising team as a whole. Michigan Tech finished 13th at NCAA’s last year, the highest rank of the central conference, despite being hindered in the rankings by its lack of an alpine team to supplement the nordic team’s scores. “I’m proud to say we have an amazing team, and that’s because we have amazing people that make it what it is!” Smith stresses the importance of the balance between student and athlete as well as competition and fun. “We have two overarching goals for our team: to always work for improved performance…and above all, for our student-athletes to love their experience as a member of the team!” 3 time NCAA Championship qualifier Colin Freed is having a standout Senior season so far with top 15 finishes in the Cable Supertour and a CCSA win in the 10km skate race at US Nationals. On the women’s side, Smith highlighted Marie Wangen, Alice McKnight, and Greta Hansen as promising this season. Wangen skied into the semi-finals of both the skate and classic sprints at US Nationals as the top CCSA finisher and skied similarly well at the Super Tour in December with a top 6 performance. Of McKnight, Smith says she has “really made a performance jump in her senior season” with the first CCSA podium of her career in the 10km skate race at US Nationals. Hansen has been consistent all-around with CCSA podiums in distance races so far this season and finished as the 5th U23 American in the skate sprint at US Nationals.
St. Olaf’s team has come into new leadership this year with head coach Tor Hanson, a recent graduate of St. Olaf himself (‘23) who stayed on as an assistant coach last season. Hanson describes that “working from the team Brochman provided and now laying down my own foundation, I’m incredibly encouraged by the development seen amongst our team.” The team has indeed been making their mark on the local and international stage: Senior Lily Hubanks and Sophomore Amaeli Kam-Magruder are currently in Italy for the World University Games after impressive performances at the Cable Supertour. Hansen is encouraged by the incoming speed of the first-year class on both the men’s and women’s teams, and combined with the experience of older members of the team, it will be interesting to see how the season progresses.
Jason Kask, Head Coach for the College of St. Scholastica (CSS) team, started his job in the fall of 2023. “With an excellent freshman class and our veterans in great form, it’s shaping up to be a fun winter,” Kask remarks. Senior captains Chase High and Mae Whitcomb have bright seasons ahead after a great year of training and some promising early-season results. Freshman Leevi Tarjanne and junior Greta Leitheiser also look promising after the Supertour, Leitheiser coming home with multiple top 20 finishes and Tarjanne with top 30 performances. “We are excited to see their hard work in the off-season shine this winter.”
Northern Michigan University men’s team is all smiles after winning the conference title last season. (Photo: Tryg Solberg)
Northern Michigan University is consistently a top school in the CCSA, and last year their men’s team won the conference title. Sophomore Henriette Nilssen was last year’s highest-ranked CCSA woman and currently leads the standings after a CCSA win in the 10km skate at US Nationals. Her teammate, Senior Victoria Dybwad, was the third CCSA finisher last season and finished second in the 10km at US Nationals. Junior Luke Fricker was last year’s top men’s skier and finished second place in the US Nationals 10km skate. Sophomore Adrik Kraftson finished the podium off in the skate 10km at nationals in 3rd place.
St. Cloud University will also participate in these invitationals, but currently only has one member of the women’s team, and no men. Head coach Mike Schroden was unavailable for comment.
University of Alaska Anchorage freshman Hailey Swirbul races through the stadium at Birch Hill Ski Area in Fairbanks, Alaska, in the Alaska Nordic Cup on Nov 19. (Photo: Zachary Hall/UAA Athletics)
FAIRBANKS, Alaska – Scott Patterson is on a roll. The Alaska Pacific University (APU) skier has now won all of the ski races he entered this year – and over half the ski races held in this country in the 2016/2017 winter to date– after picking up wins on both days of racing in the Alaska Nordic Cup at Birch Hill Ski Area in Fairbanks, Alaska, this past weekend, Nov. 19-20.
APU’s Jessica Yeaton was also a double winner on the weekend. And in the collegiate ranks, the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) maintained its hold on the Alaska Nordic Cup against the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA).
Skiers from both universities competed with a new lease on athletic life, after learning earlier this month that the ski programs would not be cut at either UAA or UAF.
The Alaska Nordic Cup is an early season, relatively low-key (but nonetheless International Ski Federation (FIS) sanctioned) competition between Alaska’s only two NCAA nordic programs. Prior to this season, in which UAF switched its conference affiliation from the Central Collegiate Ski Association to the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA), it marked the only time outside U.S. nationals that Alaska’s college skiers might compete head to head until, potentially, NCAA Skiing Championships in March.
The Nordic Cup is held each year in November, alternating between the Fairbanks and Anchorage areas. 2016 marked the 13th annual Nordic Cup competition. The UAF Nanooks enjoy a healthy historical advantage over their southern rivals, the UAA Seawolves, entering the weekend with an 8-3-1 all-time record (eight wins, three losses, and one tie) in the first 12 years of the dual meet. Scoring is typically based on an individual race on Saturday plus a relay on Sunday. Lowest combined time wins.
But despite a strong team showing from UAF that carried the Nanooks to victory, and some standout individual performances from UAA, it was APU that owned the top steps of the podium throughout the weekend.
APU’s Becca Rorabaugh (l) and Jessica Yeaton (r) at U.S. SuperTour Spring Series in March 2016. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
In the women’s race, Jessica Yeaton, an Australian national-team member who competes for Australia internationally but lives in Anchorage and trains with APU, finished Saturday’s 6 kilometer freestyle interval start in 16:52.1, skiing smoothly in relatively cold and slow conditions. APU’s other entrant, Fairbanks native Becca Rorabaugh, finished second, 34.1 seconds back. Third went to Hailey Swirbul, 1:27 back, in the UAA freshman’s college racing debut. UAF skiers swept the next four spots, led by senior Nichole Bathe, the day’s final starter, in fourth.
Yeaton appreciated the early season racing opportunity. “It was awesome to race up here on good snow,” she wrote to FasterSkier. Yeaton added, “The conditions were thin but still provided a really good opportunity for a race effort. We are lucky to have these early races to help prepare for the Supertour in a couple weeks – the [Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks] did a great job making them happen despite the lack of snow!”
Swirbul, a Colorado native, echoed Yeaton’s praise for the venue and host club: “Thanks to Fairbanks for using their limited snow and delivering excellent (all things considered) courses and conditions for us to open our season this past weekend,” she wrote in a Sunday email to FasterSkier.
Swirbul added, reflecting on the sensation of putting on a race bib once more: “As usual, it’s an interesting feeling to return to an on-snow race scene after long summer months without one… nerves, waxing, morning jogs and stretching, race strategy, etc. I sure enjoyed being back at it this weekend! I was satisfied with my and my team’s skiing this weekend, considering it is only November, and think we have great things ahead of us. We are all revving our engines preparing for a long winter ahead, ready to establish a new name for our team with many young skiers, and meanwhile prove to the president of our university that we are more than worthy of being part of a long lasting ski team at UAA! I am very excited for what the season has to bring for UAA.”
Bathe, originally from Madison, Wis., was likewise pleased by the strong first-day showing of the UAF team. “I thought today went well especially for our whole women’s team,” she wrote in an email on Saturday. “To have four women right in there is always awesome and makes us excited for the season! It’s nice to see all the summer training pay off and start getting back into race mode again.”
On the men’s side, the top-seeded Patterson took advantage of his position as the final starter to ski to the victory over several of his APU teammates, including David Norris in second.
“Snow instead of ice made coming to Fairbanks [from Anchorage] for races an easy decision,” Patterson wrote. “Although I hadn’t raced here since high school, I have always enjoyed the Birch Hill trails. During the race, I had to remember how to race a little after getting some early splits that I was even with David and knowing his fitness through the summer and fall. Overall it was a great chance to chase out some early season rust and get ready for important races.”
APU teammates and brothers Logan Hanneman (7) and Reese Hanneman (4) lead teammate Tyler Kornfield (17) during their quarterfinal of the men’s 1.5 k classic sprint at 2016 U.S. nationals in Houghton, Mich.
Patterson completed the 8.25 k skate race in 19:36.3. Norris finished 16.7 seconds behind him. Tyler Kornfield rounded out the APU podium, finishing 1:03 back of Patterson.
Patterson and Kornfield grew up in Anchorage. Norris is a Fairbanks native. Their good-natured geographic rivalry stretches back a decade or more, to when they were all competing in Alaska high school skiing. (“We hated the Anchorage guys,” Fairbanks skier Reese Hanneman told the Alaska Dispatch News “with more amusement than venom” in a summer profile. “We were like the rednecks from Fairbanks, out skiing in the woods, going up against the city boys.”)
APU skiers took the top five spots on the day, with Anchorage skier Thomas O’Harra in fourth and Fairbanks local Logan Hanneman in fifth.
The top college skier was UAF junior Max Donaldson, another Fairbanks product, in sixth, 1:37 back of Patterson. The top UAA skier was sophomore Toomas Kollo, from Estonia, 2:35 back in ninth.
At the end of the first day of racing, the combined times of the top three UAA women put them just 23.5 seconds behind the top three UAF skiers. On the men’s side, UAF created a larger gap of 2:14.2 over UAA’s combined times, giving UAF an advantage of roughly 2:38 heading into Sunday’s relays.
Sunday saw more of the same: APU took the easy win, Swirbul shined for UAA, and UAF used its depth and balanced performances to take the overall victory.
APU entered only one team in the relay, but it included the top two finishers from each of Saturday’s individual races. Unsurprisingly, the team of Patterson, Rorabaugh, Norris, and Yeaton posted the fastest time in all four legs of the 4 x 4 k skate relay, finishing in 46:57.4.
UAA skiers Hailey Swirbul (l) and Casey Wright (r), on the UAA campus in October 2016. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)
The top college team was Nanooks A (Donaldson, Sarissa Lammers, Michael Fehrenbach, and Bathe), finishing just over three minutes behind APU in 50:10.1. Donaldson and Fehrenbach posted the fastest male collegiate times of the day in their legs. Seawolves ‘A’ (Kollo, Swirbul, Marcus Deuling, and Casey Wright) was less than eight seconds behind the Nanooks in 50:18. Swirbul was again the fastest collegiate woman on the day, while Wright similarly recorded the day’s fastest anchor leg.
Nanooks ‘B’ was next, followed by Seawolves ‘B’. Ultimately, the time gaps from day one grew, and UAF finished with a 4:08 cumulative advantage over UAA, taking home its ninth Nordic Cup overall and second in a row.
UAF nordic coach Nick Crawford said in a Sunday press release, “The Seawolves had a good day today and it was very exciting to watch the race unfold. The margin between our two teams was much smaller today, so it made it that every skier had to race hard which isn’t always the case in relays. The victory was for sure a team effort today with both the men and the women putting together good races. We really enjoy the collaboration we have with our Anchorage rivals.”
UAF skier Anna Darnell expressed similar sentiments, telling the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, in light of the recent political rollercoaster of threatened cuts to both schools’ ski programs, “We feel a lot closer to the UAA team after this.”
Meanwhile, at the top of the results sheet, Patterson’s brace of victories on the weekend, combined with his easy victory at the Race to the Outhouse #1 outside Palmer, Alaska, earlier this month, meant that the APU skier has now won every single race he has entered this winter, as well as 60 percent of all the ski races held in this country this year. (The Mat-Su Ski Club held a pair of 5 k skate and classic races at Hatcher Pass on Nov. 19 and 20.)
“I’ll have to get a time turner for the coming weekends,” Patterson wrote in an email as he reflected on his current track record, “so I can continue to win every single race in the U.S.”
This particular race was slightly more competitive than the Race to the Outhouse. FasterSkier unofficially calculates the USSA race penalty (a measure of the strength of the field) for Saturday’s men’s race as an impressive 29.03, well below the USSA minimum penalty of 35 for a College Event or Regional Scored Event. (The penalty for the women’s race was unofficially a higher, but still respectable, 60.52.)
Reflecting the cosmopolitan nature of NCAA skiing, competitors in the 45-racer FIS/USSA field hailed from at least eight foreign countries, including Canada, Norway, Germany, Australia, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Estonia. They were joined by roughly 200 more skiers in the day’s other races, ranging from kindergartners in snowsuits who skied a 500 meter course without poles to the 60- and 70-year-old age brackets in the community 4 k race.
The strong community support, and college athletes who had finished their race but stayed to cheer on their teammates, combined to make the atmosphere as electric as can be found for American cross-country skiing. Dozens of spectators lined a late-race climb back up to the stadium, where racers were met by an even larger, frenzied crowd cheering them on.
The University of Alaska Fairbanks ski team poses with the trophy for the Alaska Nordic Cup at Birch Hill Ski Area in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Nov. 20, 2016. (Photo: Nick Crawford/UAF Athletics)
Conditions were, as the athletes acknowledged, undeniably snow rather than ice (as on the Anchorage trails these days), but unfortunately not that much of it. Fairbanks has seen approximately five inches of total snowfall so far this winter. The impeccably maintained trails at Birch Hill meant that racers found a base of roughly two inches of compacted snow, with some leaves and sporadic dirt showing through, but no rocks. Most skiers in the FIS race competed on their prior-generation race skis.
Although the official high for the day at the Fairbanks airport was a barely FIS-legal 1° F (-17 degrees Celsius), temperatures at the relatively elevated Birch Hill were comparably temperate, hovering around 10° F (-12 C) throughout the afternoon.
At least in the sunlit stadium. Racing at Birch Hill on clear and cool winter days can be an oddly hellish experience. Not because it is unenjoyable – far from it; the trails are a delight to ski, and the snowy birch forest is sublimely beautiful– but because it evokes the sensation of voyaging into the underworld and back again. The stadium is in the sun, and elevated, and relatively warm; many trails drop down leaving the stadium, sending the skier into the realm of dark and cold. And so one goes from light to dark, sun to shade, warmth to cold, and back again with each new trail, the stadium become a modern-day Cumae (entrance to the underworld in classical mythology) and the skier Heracles or Odysseus, re-enacting the journey between worlds.
RMISA college racing resumes early next year with the Utah Invitational at Soldier Hollow on Jan. 7.
University of Alaska Anchorage skier Casey Wright skis in the Alaska Nordic Cup in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Nov. 20, 2016. (Photo: Max Kaufman)
Alaska Pacific University skier Jessica Yeaton skis the anchor leg of the winning relay team in the Alaska Nordic Cup in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Nov. 20, 2016. (Photo: Max Kaufman)
University of Alaska Fairbanks skier Alex Eckert skis in the Alaska Nordic Cup in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Nov. 20, 2016. (Photo: Max Kaufman)
University of Alaska Fairbanks skier Alex Eckert skis in the Alaska Nordic Cup in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Nov. 19, 2016. (Photo: Max Kaufman)
University of Alaska Fairbanks skiers Sarissa Lammers (464) and Hannah Rowland (462) ski in the Alaska Nordic Cup in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Nov. 19, 2016. (Photo: Max Kaufman)
Second-place finisher Alaska Pacific University skier Becca Rorabaugh approaches the finish line of the Alaska Nordic Cup in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Nov. 19, 2016. (Photo: Max Kaufman)
First-place finisher Alaska Pacific University skier Scott Patterson approaches the finish line of the Alaska Nordic Cup in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Nov. 19, 2016, ahead of UAF skier Max Donaldson (494). (Photo: Max Kaufman)
Alaska Pacific University skier David Norris skis the third leg of the winning relay team in the Alaska Nordic Cup in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Nov. 20, 2016. (Photo: Max Kaufman)
Maria Stuber has spent the last three years coaching at the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club in Colorado. (Courtesy photo)
Ever since the College of St. Scholastica began its NCAA ski team, the face of the program has been one man: head coach Chad Salmela. Over the last decade, his squad notched its first men’s and women’s team wins and saw its first NCAA Skiing Championship qualifiers. And on the way, he changed the lives of dozens of young athletes.
Now Salmela is shifting roles at the college and will coach the cross-country running team. Taking the reins of the ski team is a new coach coach who is just as excited to build on the program’s burgeoning legacy in Duluth, Minn.
Maria Stuber, a Wisconsin native, has developed her coaching chops over several assignments, most recently in Colorado with the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club (AVSC). In three seasons with the club, Stuber increased the size of the team and worked with a variety of athletes, from those who just picked up skiing in high school to those who competed in Europe.
“At AVSC, coaches made sure we were encouraging brand new skiers to jump into the sport at any age,” she wrote in an email. “If you decided to join our high school team you get to train right alongside the best athletes in the country… This environment gives every athlete the opportunity to make a quick jump and be the best skier they can be. It can be so fun when it works, as our top male skier last year didn’t get into the sport until he was a sophomore in high school.”
Stuber (second from left) with AVSC athletes. (Courtesy photo)
That attitude seems to be a perfect match for the College of St. Scholastica (CSS), a school which sent two men to NCAA’s in 2012 and two women in 2015 – but which also has a development team and provides growth opportunities for skiers coming in with a variety of backgrounds.
“Chad didn’t really impact my ski career, he started it,” Paul Schommer, an NCAA All-American in 2014 now pursuing elite biathlon, told FasterSkier this spring.
“CSS is unique in that it has a development team serving this purpose at the college level,” Stuber wrote. “Kids with college skiing aspirations that are not quite ready to make that jump can come and work hard, get faster, and have the opportunity to reach the same level as the top junior national athletes we recruit.”
Taking athletes from those two tracks, Saint Scholastica has built teams that compete with the best in the NCAA Central division.
“CSS wants to be a competitive team in the Central Collegiate Ski Associaion conference,” Stuber explained. “In order to do that, we need to be competitive at the national level. What’s really cool about skiing in 2016 is that you need to have international ambitions to be competitive at the national level.”
Salmela used sports science and lab testing to make that happen, and it’s one of the opportunities that drew Stuber to the program. She received a masters degree in exercise science from Northern Michigan University and relishes a data-based approach.
Stuber with the rest of the AVSC staff last year. “I love these people!” she wrote. (Courtesy photo)
“I love that St. Scholastica’s training is all based on science and sound research,” Stuber wrote. “The college has an exercise science lab and the professors are willing to share the space and knowledge with coaches to give the student-athletes more opportunities for success.”
But more than anything, she is pleased to be part of a framework which will make it possible to integrate running and skiing into a cohesive college athletic career. In explaining his job shift, Salmela was clear that he wanted to see more – and smoother – crossover between the two sports at St. Scholastica, for those athletes who have dual ambitions.
“The biggest program draws for me at CSS are Chad & Don Olson’s (athletic director’s) vision to create a collegiate endurance sport epicenter where student-athletes can choose to pursue xc running, skiing or both at a very high level,” Stuber wrote. “Linking endurance sports together will create well rounded, big picture athletes that have the support of a bigger peer group and more coaches and resources. I think CSS is on the verge of something huge.”
Stuber has seen how a variety of teams achieve success. First, as an athlete: she captained the Northern Michigan University (NMU) ski team for three years.
“My time at NMU had a huge impact on my life path and decision to pursue a career in ski coaching,” Stuber explained. “The running and skiing coaches there, Sten Fjeldheim and Jenny Ryan, have both contributed significantly to my coaching philosophy, training methodology and personal values. They have continued to be mentors, advocates and references for me as I find my way. I will feel extremely proud to consider Sten and Jenny peers and to go up against the Wildcats in December and I hope that they feel like a part of our success at CSS. They both know me well enough to not expect any mercy from us on the trails.”
Hailey Swirbul of the Aspen Valley Ski Club races the anchor leg while guiding the American team to eighth place in the 4 x 3.3 k relay at the Junior World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in 2015. (Photo: Logan Hannneman)
After college, Stuber raced for the Central Cross Country (CXC) Elite Team and then the Craftsbury Green Racing Project. In her senior career, Stuber was a runner-up at U.S. National Championships in 2009.
But since retiring from competition, Stuber has been consumed by coaching. She began her career at Alverno College in Wisconsin, before taking over as head men’s and women’s cross-country running coach for Southern Vermont College for two years. Under her leadership, the men’s squad had their best team results ever.
At AVSC, where the roster eventually neared 200 skiers, Stuber led a team of other coaches. Every year the club sent skiers to Junior National Championships as well as to World Junior Championships or the J1 Scandinavian Cup trip.
“I will never forget our amazing coaching staff at AVSC that welcomed me to the community that they had carefully built over the past 20+ years,” Stuber wrote. “There is no other ski club in the country with the amazing mix of background, knowledge, energy, perspective and compassion. Working with this group of people will be a life-long career highlight for me… I am so proud of the club’s growing numbers and participation in Carbondale, Glenwood Springs and Aspen. The way these three communities work together towards a common goal in Nordic skiing is phenomenal.”
AVSC runs summer training programs and last season organized an end-of-winter race event called Tour de Sea which drew junior skiers from all over Colorado, as well as rave reviews.
Stuber and Cook (second and third from right) with AVSC staff at a competition this winter. (Courtesy photo)
It was difficult for her to decide whether to uproot herself from the Roaring Fork Valley, where she and husband Bryan Cook had just bought a condo. They had been “very happy” in the Elk Mountains.
“We were not feeling 100% certain that we had made the right call until Monday when the CSS announcement was made,” Stuber wrote. “For days straight my phone and email were pinging and beeping non-stop with messages from friends, family, former teammates, fellow coaches and upcoming Midwest skiers and parents from clinics past. The Midwest ski community is a truly special group of people that we are incredibly proud to be a part of. During our racing careers, we leaned on this community for support and they delivered for us big time. I think we missed the Midwest ski culture more than we knew.”
The couple will move in the first week of September and Stuber is looking forward to getting started with her new team; Cook will enter an MBA program at St. Scholastica.
And besides the general homecoming, Stuber knows that the athletes she will be working with in Duluth – as well as those on the teams her skiers compete against – embody the same characteristics of the community which is welcoming her back.
“The CCSA is definitely a powerhouse Nordic conference…. consistently dominating at the US National Championship and NCAA Championship,” Stuber wrote. “The CCSA attracts down-to-earth athletes that want to be great skiers and are willing to work hard to get there. This intrinsic motivation is a recipe for making fast cross country skiers. Midwest kids are tough and they are backed by outstanding club coaches that are looking at the big picture. I can’t imagine a better atmosphere for athlete development.”
Former St. Scholastica skiers doing a version of coach Chad Salmela’s “Death Blow” workout, running then bounding uphill without poles at their 2010 Scandinavian summer camp in Torsby, Sweden. (Courtesy photo)
This week’s workout comes to us from Chad Salmela, head coach of The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minn. Last month, Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) coaches voted Salmela Women’s Coach of the Year. While the collegiate season is on hiatus, this “Death Blow” maximal-anaerobic-output-capacity workout remains one of Salmela’s favorites.
***
The concept is an old Finnish “peaking” workout I used to do as an athlete to bring on my best performances. I believe my old coach, John Underwood, fed me the parameters of this workout when I was a junior athlete. I did this kind of workout a lot at home over Christmas before going to world team/Olympic trials events when we used to pick international teams that way.
What I love about this workout is the raw intensity and guts required while doing it. It is very challenging done right, and the psychological challenge is superb for competitive toughness while having clear physical adaptation goals. Most of all, it’s low tech with great built-in monitoring requiring no gadgets, so technology isn’t necessary for effective feedback as a coach.
As I came to understand the workout and cause-and-effect of training, I have used and continue to use this workout, adjusting it within approaches to individual athletes in my current coaching practice. Really what it does is it spurs on anaerobic power when the adaptation clearly isn’t developed to the point it needs to be for top performance. It probably isn’t applicable as much to modern elite ski racers’ models of training, but it might be in some cases.
Background:
St. Scholastica’s Paul Schommer and Joe Dubay digging deep up Spirit Mountain in the fall of 2014 in Duluth, Minn. (Photo: Chad Salmela)
The name stems from when I coached the Marshall School High School cross-country running team in Duluth in the early 2000s, coupled with my love and frequent watching of Seinfeld at the time. In one episode, Jerry and Kramer were getting fired up to go see a movie called Death Blow. Speaking in movie trailer schtick, Kramer says, “Death Blow! Not because of who you are, but for different reasons entirely!” or something absurd like that.
I wanted this workout to be our Excalibur—our weapon. I wanted this workout to have a life and culture of its own, and eventually with my running teams, it did. It became and remains the Death Blow — in how it felt, and how it effectively crept up on our competitors at the end of the season.
Marshall was not a running powerhouse, but the kids were awesome and fun. They would come in to the first practice late summer in all sorts of physical disarray save one or two fired up kids. These were not “athletes” by and large, though what kid in a singlet and shorts with their school’s name on them isn’t an “athlete” at that age?
I spent the first half of the 12 weeks I had with them, building aerobic efficiency, using every ounce of their limited physical energy just to be able to move some oxygen through their bodies at an effort that wasn’t herculean so that later, the herculean effort were wicked fast by comparison to Week 1 ability. With this approach, we would really get slaughtered in the first few races of the year, but the Death Blow took care of all that later.
Racing and an increase in controlled Level 3 (L3) intervals on a standard loop, would slowly bring the athletes to better running performances as the season progressed. But when we’d get close to the section meet to try to qualify for the state championship, we went to a cycle of death blows, and the kids would improve in two weeks so profoundly I almost never had so much fun as a coach. Almost.
If we qualified for state, it was a shocker to everyone in our section and almost to me. Almost. But with this approach, we were definitely as ready for a state meet as we’d be with any other should we surprise and qualify. The momentum worked perfectly.
Today, I use it with my skiers, who have a much more thorough training trajectories, aerobic development, and have much more comprehensive systems of bringing on their anaerobic power, primarily for athletes who have raced a bunch but still haven’t seemed to reach into their anaerobic bag of tricks fully.
St. Scholastica senior Sharmila Ahmed, one of the Saints’ best responders to the Death Blow workout, during the Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) Relay Championships on Feb. 7 at Spriti Mountain in Duluth, Minn. (Photo: Chad Salmela)
In early February of this year, I stood out on the slopes of Spirit Mountain alpine area at the crack of dawn in 0 degrees Fahrenheit before the hill opened, urging on one of my skiers to go further and dig deeper, and reeeeeach! Four reps was all she needed. That athlete raced pretty awesome after that morning and felt the bump of the Death Blow.
The Workout:
Get warmed up well, however long that takes, but be ready to throw down for real when you start the reps. Throw some L3 pickups into the warmup to open up your heart’s ability to do maximal work.
On undulating terrain, ski like you’re in a race. Use the time to ski perfectly, but ski like you’re nearing go time at the end of a 10-kilometer race. Do this for 2 minutes.
At the end of 2 minutes and continuing the rep, be at the bottom of a very tough, long uphill and have a clear mark in the snow at the bottom of that hill where 2 minutes is.
At the mark, either have a watch set for 1 minute to count down or have a coach time you for one minute. Run, bound, or ski as absolutely all out and as far up the hill as you possibly can.
At the end of a minute, mark your progress in the dirt, grass or snow, after you’ve arisen from the heap on the ground you became. That mark now becomes the goal.
Recover fully for the next repetition.
Do the exact same process after full recovery.
Mark the distance up the hill again. If you drop more than 30 meters from the original mark, the workout is over. If you are within that distance, and ESPECIALLY if you exceed it, repeat.
If you keep meeting the mark and are exhausted, stop and do the workout again in the future when you are physically ready to do it again.
In all my years and all the athletes I’ve coached, I’ve only seen one athlete do as many as eight reps with this workout and we called it after that eighth rep. This athlete was categorically put together by a lot of slow-twitch muscle fiber and only did half that the next time, showing progress.
The Analysis:
It is important not to get hung up on how many reps of this nature you can do. The goal is to ensure you have peak anaerobic output.
If you can continue to come close to the first mark even if you lose a little distance, you are not yet at your maximal anaerobic output capacity.
If your second interval is already at 30 meters back or further, STOP! And never do this workout again in that season.
More reps = less anaerobically developed at the time of the workout. Fewer reps = well anaerobically developed, and you don’t need to continue the stress. End the workout.
Without gadgetry, this workout gives me a clear picture of where we are in the spectrum of an athlete being anaerobically fit.
When to do it:
When you know your athlete(s) need some sort of strong anaerobic power boost (high schoolers who need to giddy up and go) and you’ve done about as much aerobic training as you can with the season you have left.
An athlete who takes longer than most to “come around” with racing, and you’re running out of time to “the big one.”
Advanced and elite athletes who have been racing well for a while but don’t feel like they can really “go to the well” yet.
Advanced and elite athletes coming off a re-build of base during the long race season and need very quickly to get into top race output mode again. Might only take 2 reps to be a great stimulus.
Warning:
While it sounds awesome and hard core, the Death Blow can backfire, particularly when an athlete is past peak fitness but believes they haven’t hit an anaerobic output peak yet. This workout can bury an athlete’s season in such a case. I speak from experience on this issue.
So be honest with yourself or your athlete if you are a coach trying this. Always stop after the second rep if you fall way off the mark! It’s a sign you can already do what the workout is trying to develop.
It was a double delight for hosts Northern Michigan at the CCSA Championships in Ishpeming, Mich. as the Wildcats secured both the men’s and women’s team titles on Sunday.
Behind another set of brilliant performances from in-form skiers, Andy Leibner, Martin Banerud and Erik Soderman, the Wildcat men cruised to a 24-point victory over second-place Alaska. Leibner topped the podium in both Saturday’s skate race and Sunday’s mass start classic, while Soderman continued his outstanding freshman campaign with a second-place collegiate finish in the skate race and a fourth-place result in the classic.
It was a much tighter encounter on the women’s side, however, as the Wildcats nipped UAF by the slimmest of margins: just one point separated the CCSA powerhouses. Alaska actually outscored NMU in Sunday’s classic event, but couldn’t close the four-point gap the hosts had opened up on Saturday.
The final standings weren’t the only close race of the day either. Michigan Tech freshman Malin Eriksson earned her first career win in the most dramatic of fashions, edging Green Bay’s Carolyn Freeman at the line by three-tenths of a second.
“It was exciting to see Malin win,” Michigan Tech coach Joe Haggenmiller said. “She was in the lead pack, but actually fell back a bit in the second lap. She was able to fight and claw her way back up there, and it was great to see her be able to pull it out in a sprint at the end. Everyone on our team is pretty happy for her.”
Fresh snow and oscillating temperatures on Sunday made for tricky waxing ahead of the classic race.
“Today was definitely a day it would have been better to have a skate race,” Haggenmiller said. “I think everyone had some kind of frustration with their skis.”
Regardless, plenty of NMU skiers overcame the ski trouble and shot to the top of the leaderboard. Banerud followed closely behind teammate Liebner to finish his 20K in 57:55.1, good enough for second place.Alaska’s John Parry took third in 58:20.2, followed by Soderman in fourth.
Michigan Tech’s Mikko Harju, who has become a model of consistency for the Huskies, earned fifth-place finishes in both Saturday’s 10K skate as well as Sunday’s classic.
“Mikko has been a really nice addition to our team,” Haggenmiller said. “He is a really laid back leader. He knows how to keep the mood relaxed, but also knows how to get things taken care of when they need to be done.”
Alaska’s Ray Sabo and Alex Morris took sixth and seventh, respectively, while St. Olaf’s Tom Jorgenson, who seems to be getting stronger as the year goes on, took eighth in 59:27.7.
Gustavus skier Jens Brabbit (ninth) and MTU’s Matt Dugan rounded out the top ten.
On the women’s side, Erikkson topped a five-skier lead pack that included Freeman, Alaska’s Theresia Schnurr and Raphaela Sieber and Northern’s Christina Turman. Second-placed Freeman crossed the line just five seconds ahead of Schnurr, while Turman took fourth ahead of Sieber.
Northern’s Marie Soderman took sixth with a time of 50:38.2 over the 15K race, while Alaska’s Rebecca Konieczny turned in one of her best races of the season, placing seventh in 50:48.1.
The Wildcats’ third scoring skier, Monica Markvardsen, took eighth in 51:17.0, edging MTU’s Alice Flanders by just seven-tenths of a second. Northern’s Libby Ellis rounded out the top ten.
In the men’s final standings, Northern’s 173 points over the two-day event gave them a comfortable advantage over Alaska’s 149 points. Michigan Tech took third with 125, followed by College of Saint Scholastica (114), Gustavus (103), Green Bay (85), St. Olaf’s (79) and Saint John’s (60).
The women’s final standings saw NMU finish with 152 points, while Alaska earned 151. Michigan Tech captured third with 140 points, followed by Green Bay (114), St. Olaf’s (98), Gustavus (77), Saint Scholastica (73), College of Saint Benedict (57), and Saint Cloud State (56).
Next up, the CCSA skiers head to the NCAA Central Region Championships, hosted by Michigan Tech, in Houghton, Mich on Feb. 18-19.
A day after a dominant performance in the classic races, Alaska once again were top dogs at U.S. Nationals, though a number of CCSA skiers turned in outstanding performances in the freestyle events at Maine’s Chisholm Ski Club.
The Nanooks again swept the association’s top spots, with Raphaela Sieber and Lex Treinen finishing as the top CCSA skiers in the women’s 20K and men’s 30K races, respectively. Green Bay’s Carolyn Freeman and NMU’s Christina Turman also had outstanding races on the women’s side, while Alaska’s David Norris and the Wildcats’ Andy Liebner round out the top three CCSA skiers on the men’s side.
“Our region looks like we are reasonable strong against other regions,” Michigan Tech head coach Joe Haggenmiller said. “I am really impressed with the guys UAF and Northern [Michigan] have, and both those teams have some outstanding women too.”
“Our team may not be competing with them right now, but we are here with a really young team. They are racing hard and competing well and getting some good experience for the future. We are all finding out how much faster we need to get.”
It was a bit of an unusual day for CCSA skiers, as their ranks were nearly divided by skiers participating in the senior events and those taking part in the junior (under 20) races.
Likewise, thin snow conditions forced the race to be held in multiple laps (11 for men, 7 for women) over a 2.5K loop, making for a dizzying affair for skiers and coaches alike.
“I thought the course held up really well today,” Gustavus head coach Jed Friedrich said. “It didn’t get sugary or anything.”
For the women, the Nanooks’ Sieber finished nearly a minute ahead of her closest CCSA competitor; the German carving through the 20K course in 53 minutes and 16.7 seconds: good enough for 13th place overall.
Freeman, however, showed the form that carried her to the NCAA Championships a year ago with a brilliant race of her own, taking 15thoverall with a 54:11.0. Turman, also an NCAA competitor, took 22nd with her 55:23.8.
Alaska’s Theresia Schnurr and Northern Michigan’s Marie Soderman finished off excellent weeks of their own by taking fourth and fifth place among CCSA skiers. Schnurr completed the course in 55:56.1 for 27th place overall, while Soderman took 30th in 56:37.8.
Fellow Wildcat Ingrid Fjeldheim bounced back from a difficult classic race on Wednesday to take 35th overall and sixth in the CCSA. Her time of 57:04.1 put her just in front of Michigan Tech’s Malin Eriksson, in 36th place overall.
Erikkson’s teammate, Alice Flanders, had the result of the day for the junior girls, finishing as the CCSA’s top skier with a 14:33.0 in the 10K skate.
A pair of NMU racers were neck and neck for the conference’s second spot, as Libby Ellis (14:44.7) nipped Jordyn Ross (14:44.8) by one-tenth of a second for 18th place overall. Green Bay’s Kailey Mucha took 21st overall, followed by Alaska’s Heather Edic in 22nd.
On the men’s side, Treinen bested his second-place CCSA performance on Wednesday by taking the top spot Thursday with a seventh-place overall finish in 1:11:39.6. Teammate David Norris just missed out on his second straight top-ten overall spot, coming in 11th despite a crash and a broken ski: the freshman making a positive impact in his first CCSA competition.
After taking fifth in the CCSA and 32nd overall in the classic event, NMU’s Andy Liebner continued his fine start to the season by skating to 25th on Thursday. The junior’s time of 1:14:22.6 was the third fastest in the CCSA.
Another Wildcat, Martin Baanerud, placed 30th with a 1:15:07.3, while Ray Sabo was Alaska’s third scoring skier with his 1:15:57.9 – good enough for fifth in the CCSA and 34th overall.
Northern Michigan’s Erik Soderman led a trio of CCSA skiers in 39th through 41st place, respectively. Soderman’s 1:16:34.4 pushed him just ahead of Alaska’s John Parry (1:16:53.3) and Gustavus’ Jens Brabbit (1:16:57.8).
“I thought Jens had a pretty good race today,” Friedrich said. “He looks like he’s a contender again for an NCAA spot, and that’s all we can ask for. I think he is getting to where he needs to be.”
In the junior’s boys event (also a 10K skate), Alaska’s Tyler Kornfield rose to fourth with his time of 25:32.1. – a time that secured the sophomore into a spot on the U.S. Ski Team roster for the World Junior Championships.
Saint Scholastica’s Jeremy Hecker also turned in an outstanding performance, taking seventh in the junior race with an excellent 25:55.5. Green Bay’s Edward Gurney took 31st overall, while CSS’ Scott Johanik and Kasey Bacso finished 34th and 37th, respectively.
The CCSA programs now head to Duluth, Minn. for the CSS Invite on Jan. 15-16.
For more information on the CCSA, including a detailed breakdown of each of its 11 member schools, please visit www.ccsaski.com.
The CCSA got its competitive season off to an impressive start at the Chisholm Ski Club on Wednesday, as the association’s skiers landed a podium spot, four top-10, and six top-20 finishes in the classic races at U.S. Nationals in Rumford, Maine.
In both the men’s 15K and women’s 10K events, the story of the day belong to Alaska. The Nanooks placed four skiers in the top 10 and five in the top 20, landing five of the six CCSA podium spots. Freshman David Norris turned in the CCSA’s top finish of the afternoon, taking third in men’s race, while Alaska teammate Raphaela Sieber led the women with a ninth-place result.
“It was a good day for the Nanooks,” head coach Scott Jerome said. “From top to bottom, I was pleased with the team. It’s one of our better days at U.S. Nationals since I’ve been here.”
On the men’s side, Alaska swept the CCSA podium and saw three skiers crack the overall top 10, led by Norris’ outstanding performance. In sixth place at the midway point of the race, the freshman turned it over the final kilometers to earn a podium spot on his collegiate debut.
Fellow newcomer Lex Treinen wasn’t far behind, finishing fourth overall with his 44:19.6 time, while Tyler Kornfield capped off a fine day for the Nanooks with a 10th-place finish in 44:48.4.
“David, Lex, and Tyler just had amazing races,” Jerome said. “They were all somewhere between seventh and 13th going into the final 2.5K lap, and just put on the gas. It was great to see a final lap like that.”
Northern Michigan’s Martin Baanerud, back for his senior season after a redshirt year in 2010, took fourth place in the CCSA and 23rdoverall with a solid 45.50.8. Wildcat teammates Andy Liebner and Erik Soderman came in fifth and sixth, respectively, with their times of 46.10.4 and 46.22.8 good enough for 32nd and 35th overall.
Alaska John Parry, an NCAA competitor a year ago, took 36th overall and seventh in the CCSA with a time of 46:25.3, followed by teammates Erik Soederstroem (43rd) and Ray Sabo (51st).
Michigan Tech’s Luke Gesior (11th CCSA, 69th overall), Saint Scholastica’s Kasey Bacso (12th CCSA, 84th overall) and Gustavus’ Jens Brabbit (13th CCSA, 84th overall) all scored the top spots on their respective teams.
On the women’s side, Nanooks skier Raphaela Sieber dominated the CCSA field. Sieber completed the 10K course in an impressive 33:26.6 for a ninth-place overall finish. The German native finished just a mere eight seconds out of the top five, and earned the second highest-finish of any collegiate skier (Colorado’s Eliska Hajkova took eighth).
Teammate Theresia Schnurr capped off a solid day for Alaska by coming in second among CCSA skiers, and 14th overall. Schnurr stayed in the top 15 in each of her four splits, finishing with a time of 34:44.0.
“Raphaela and Theresia just had great races for us today,” Jerome said.
Northern Michigan’s Marie Helen Soderman and Green Bay’s Carolyn Freeman both rallied late to take third and fourth place, respectively. Both racers moved up 15 spots from their first split to the finish line; Soderman finishing the course in 35:08.5 (20th overall), Freeman in 35:16.4 (24th overall).
Northern Michigan’s Christina Turman rounded out the CCSA top five on the women’s side (33rd overall), crossing the line just ahead of Alaska’s third scoring skier, Rebecca Konieczny (6th CCSA, 34th overall).
St. Olaf’s top skier, Emma Lee, turned in a solid performance to take seventh with her 35:58.0 time, the sophomore finishing just behind Konieczny and in 37th place overall.
Michigan Tech’s Sarah Daniels earned her team’s top spot with a 45th place finish in 36:21.4, finishing ahead of teammate Malin Eriksson in 48th. NMU’s Monica Markvardsen rounded out the CCSA top ten with her 36:28.0.
After a lack of snow wreaked havoc on the sprint races and forced the classic races to be postponed, the course conditions seemed to hold up on Wednesday.
“Conditions were thin, but they did a good job at the venue,” Jerome said. “There were some stones and rocks, but overall it was not too bad.”
The CCSA skiers now face a quick turnaround, as they head back out to the course Thursday for the women’s 20K and men’s 30K freestyle events, starting at 10:00 a.m. Originally schedule for a mass start race, the two events are now likely to be individual starts due to course conditions.
For more information on the CCSA, including a detailed breakdown of each of its 11 member schools, please visit www.ccsaski.com.
Yet another collegiate ski program is on the chopping block.
Due to budget shortfalls in Minnesota, the St. Cloud State University cross-country ski program could be shuttered by the 2011-2012 season. The closure of that program is included in one of three cost-cutting measures being considered by university administrators, who will make a decision by December 6th.
“After the last couple of years, when a bunch of schools out west have gone down, it’s not what we want to hear,” said Head Coach Jeremy Frost.
Due to the economic downturn, collegiate programs have lost varsity-level funding at the University of Nevada and at Whitman College, in Washington, over the past two years. Both of those schools were members of the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association, which now includes just seven members.
St. Cloud’s ski team is part of the 11-member Central Collegiate Ski Association, and it is women’s-only: The program was added a decade ago as part of a gender-equity move, Frost said.
Its elimination is included in one of three proposals before the school administration, as part of an effort to close a $552,000 budget deficit for the 2011-2012 fiscal year.
The first proposal would leave all the university’s teams intact, instead relying on a combination of fundraising, administrative cutbacks, and increases in student fees to make ends meet.
A second option would eliminate the school’s football team, while the third proposal would cut the ski program, along with men’s golf, men’s swimming and diving, and men’s tennis.
According to documents released by the university, closing the ski program would save roughly $32,000 in 2011-2012—$25,000 in operating costs and $7,000 in scholarships. By comparison, cutting the football team would net the school $303,000.
As a full-time employee of the university, Frost coaches for half the year, and spends the rest of his time teaching health and physical education courses. He said his contract runs through the 2011-2012 school year, which leaves his job secure until then, regardless of the status of the ski team.
In an interview, Frost said that the program’s fate likely hinges on two factors: decisions by the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) and the St. Cloud student body.
Football is required for a school to be part of the NSIC, Frost said, and since St. Cloud is a member, the proposal to cut the football team would require the conference to amend its by-laws. The NSIC is currently examining those rules, Frost said, and it will make a decision on whether to change them by mid-November.
Any increases in student fees—which are included as part of all the plans—have to be approved by a student referendum, according to an article in the St. Cloud Times. That vote would also happen in mid-November—if it is authorized by the student government.
The final decision, though, is up to the St. Cloud administration, and Frost said he thought that their preference was to close the budget gaps without cutting any sports.
“I really believe that that’s the way they would prefer to proceed,” he said. But, he added, “it’s up to the students, [and] it’s also potentially affected by what the conference says.”
The Central Collegiate Ski Association released its coaches and athletes of the year last week. The honors were voted upon by a coach representing each school to reward successes in the 2009-10 ski season. Santiago Ocariz of Wisconsin-Green Bay was the recipient of Male Athlete of the Year, and Northern Michigan’s Laura DeWitt was his counterpart, taking home Female Athlete of the Year. The male coach of the year was Butch Reimer, Ocariz’ coach at Wisconsin-Green Bay, while Northern Michigan head coach Sten Fjeldheim and assistant coach Jenny Ryan took female coach of the year honors.
Ocariz, a senior from the small town of Spooner, Wisconsin, capped off a stellar Central Region career with consistent and impressive finishes this season. He had won several races in his junior campaign, but turned in an even stronger set of results for his final collegiate winter. Ocariz’ top-notch results began with performances at U.S. Nationals in January, at which he was the top collegiate skier, and extended through the CCSA’s regional season—during which time he won a majority of the races and finished as the top points-getter on the All-CCSA team.
The leadership role and key to team success did not go unnoticed by his coach, Butch Reimer, who credited Ocariz with a strong body of work throughout his seasons in Green Bay. “Santi skied very well at the end of the season and was very consistent throughout the year,” he said. “I think [he] had higher goals, but the NCAA Ski Championships are very tough.” Indeed, while Ocariz may not have finished as high as he wished at what were his 4th NCAA’s, he cracked the top 10 in the 20k freestyle to earn All-American honors with the best race in Phoenix history.
On the women’s side, Laura DeWitt was the CCSA’s skier of the year for the second season in a row. The Northern Michigan senior, out of Rhineland, New York, was part of a fearsome Wildcat attack that dominated the women’s ski scene and dominated several Central Regional competitions. Among these was the Central Regional Championships, at which NMU women swept the podium in both disciplines.
DeWitt qualified for her 3rd NCAA championships under the direction of coach Sten Fjeldheim, who could not be reached for comment. Although her results in the 2008-9 year weren’t up to her high standards, she improved on those this year with a 12th-place freestyle finish and an 8th-place classic race. Her classic result earned her All-American honors for the 2nd time in her career. The senior captain was the top CCSA woman in each of the NCAA races to cap off an impressive career.
Fjeldheim earned women’s coach of the year honors for the second straight winter as well and shared the honors with assistant coach Jenny Ryan. Fjeldheim began coaching at Northern Michigan in 1986 and, after leaving the team temporarily in 1994, returned to the Wildcat staff in 1997. Also a cross-country coach at the school, Fjeldheim has coached some singular talents including a host of nationally competitive collegiate skiers, some of whom have continued on to the Olympics.
While NCAA results may not have clearly reflected it, this was another extremely strong year for a fast group of Wildcat women. A full squad of DeWitt, Christina Gillis, and Monica Markvardsen qualified for NCAA’s, and Marie Helen Soderman joined these three on the All-CCSA team. Fjeldheim, native to Norway, and Ryan, from Burnsville, Minnesota, work together on the cross-country running teams as well as Nordic ski teams, and if the past few years are any indication, have done so with great success.
Butch Reimer is in the 4th year of his second stint with the Phoenix. He also coached the team from 1988-1998. He brought the Wisconsin-Green Bay program to some prominence in the 80’s and saw his team succeed this year based on the results of senior leader Santi Ocariz and a squad eager to gain experience. “It means a lot to me and to the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay,” Reimer said of the award. Carolyn Freeman also qualified for the team from the womens’ side. Reimer and his team battled to keep up with the powerhouses of Northern Michigan, Michigan Tech and Alaska throughout the year and managed to hang pretty close in a couple races, especially during the best performances from junior Nick Maki, who may return next year as one of the fastest Phoenix.
And although Reimer deemed the 2009-10 campaign a “successful year,” for his program and for the region, he is already looking forward to next season. “We will be back with a stronger regional team next year,” Reimer said. “Our coaches will work even harder to make our region stronger. We have very good coaches in this region and they will have their skiers ready to go.” He continued with an optimistic outlook for his own team. “We will have depth on the women’s team but we will be young on the men’s side. Overall, both teams will be even better next year,” he ended hopefully. Reimer is assisted by Steve Teclaw, who is in his first year with the team.
Fifteen of the Central Collegiate Ski Association’s fastest men and women skied in Thursday’s classic event at the NCAA Championships. The Steamboat Springs, Colorado setup was 5 kilometers for women and 10 for the men. It was the first day of Nordic competition at the championships, and the CCSA skiers were looking to prove themselves against the country’s top collegiate competition. In the women’s race, 3 CCSA skiers finished in the top 15. Although winner Antje Maempel (16:03) of the University of Denver may as well have been skiing a different course in her 47 second victory, the results tightened up for the rest of the top 20. Laura DeWitt led all CCSA women with an 8th-place result and received All-American status in the process. The Northern Michigan senior was just 12 seconds off the podium. Alaska teammates Aurelia Korthauer and Theresia Schnurr were next across in 11th and 15th, respectively. The duo led the Nanooks to a 7th-place team effort in the women’s portion of the race, the best such result for the CCSA. Monica Markvardsen of Northern Michigan was 24th, helping the Wildcats into 8th place with 52 points for the race. Henna Riikonen-Purtsi was 28th for Michigan Tech in the 39-racer field. Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Carolyn Freeman represented the Phoenix from 32nd. Christina Gillis, the CCSA’s top points-getter this season, took 37th for NMU to round out the women’s scoring. The University of Denver, with two women on the podium—Maempel and Mari Elden—was the top team in the race with 121 points. Rosie Brennan from Dartmouth took 2nd to round out the top 3. The CCSA men had a more disappointing result. University of Colorado skier Matt Gelso claimed the men’s title in 29:25, a commanding win of almost 25 seconds. Santiago Ocariz of Wisconsin-Green Bay was 13th on the 10-kilometer course, but no other conference skier cracked the top 20. John Parry of Alaska, who claimed the CCSA’s final qualifying spot, took 22nd, while teammate Tyler Kornfield took 25th. Right behind the Alaskans was Northern Michigan skier Kevin Cutts in 26th. His teammates George Cartwright and Chris Bowler, who have taken turns as the top Wildcat skier all year, were 28th and 30th, respectively. The 3 NMU skiers put the men in a CCSA-best 10th place for the race. Oskar Lund of Michigan Tech snuck between the NMU skiers in 29th. Jens Brabbit of Gustavus Adolphus was 34th, rounding out the conference skiers. The University of Colorado was the top team for the race with 111 points behind Gelso’s victory and another skier in 4th. University of Vermont’s Franz Bernstein was 2nd in the race, while Nevada’s Charlie Smith took 3rd. The University of Denver was in 1st after 2 days of competition, one of Alpine and one of Nordic, and had 420 team points. Northern Michigan was the top CCSA team, in 12th place of the 21 teams. Alaska-Fairbanks was 13th. The 15/20k freestyle race will wrap up NCAA championship competition on Saturday, March 13th. For complete results see ncaa.com.
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo.—Given the length and variability of ski racing, any coach or racer will tell you it is important not to put too much emphasis on a single event. With that said, though, the Central Collegiate Ski Association may have slightly more than usual riding on this week’s NCAA Championships. The events for this year’s championships run from March 10-13 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, with the Nordic events on the 11th and 13th at Howelsen Hill. The first event is the classic race, 5 kilometers for the women and 10 kilometers for the men, while the freestyle races are 15 and 20 kilometers.
The reason this year’s results carry so much meaning for the CCSA is because last year’s races did not go according to plan. In the classic race, the CCSA had just 3 top-15 finishers and no All-Americans in the men and women’s races combined. Michigan Tech’s Jesse Lang picked up an All-American eighth-place finish in the freestyle race, but only one other man (NMU’s Martin Banerud, in 11th) joined Lang in the top 20. No female CCSA competitor placed in the top 15 in the skate race.
As a result, the number of qualifying spots available was slashed from 20 to 15. CCSA women sent 11 competitors to Rumford, but can send just 7 this year to Steamboat Springs, while the men’s number dropped from 9 to 8. “We got thumped at NCAA’s last year as a region,” acknowledged University of Alaska-Fairbanks coach Scott Jerome entering this season. “We now know what we need to do better. We all need to be better.”
Still, all signs point toward better results this season. Of last year’s top competitors, many have returned and still others have emerged as threats on not just regional but national levels. The U.S. Nationals races in Anchorage Jan 2-8 were a step in the right direction, as some of the nation’s top collegiate finishers were CCSA skiers.
Now, though, the region’s 15 representatives have a chance to erase last year’s underperformance with what looks to be a good year for the conference. Skiers from 5 schools will represent the region.
Northern Michigan University is sending a full squad of 3 women, women who will be representing a strong team that finished 1-2-3 on each day of the Central Region Championships. Laura DeWitt and Christina Gillis were the region’s 2 top qualifiers, and teammate Monica Markvardsen could be near the top of the results page as well. Alaska qualified 2 women for NCAA’s, Aurelia Korthauer and Theresia Schnurr. Korthauer could contend in either race, and also brings experience, as this is her 3rd trip to NCAA’s. Schnurr, meanwhile, produced top-5 results at U.S. Nationals to show she can also rub elbows with the nation’s best. Michigan Tech’s Henna Riikonen-Purtsi, her school’s top skier in every race this year, will represent the Huskies. Carolyn Freeman, a junior from Wisconsin-Green Bay, will ski for the Phoenix in her second NCAA competition.
The Northern Michigan men also qualified a full team of 3 skiers. First-year George Cartwright leads the team and is backed by Kevin Cutts, a sophomore, and Chris Bowler, a redshirt freshman. Cartwright, winner of the freestyle race at the Central Region Championships, should be especially competitive in the 20k. The three Wildcat underclassmen also show impressive promise for the future. Alaska was the only other school to qualify more than one male skier, with Tyler Kornfield and John Parry traveling to Steamboat to represent the Nanooks. Kornfield was the sprint champion at U.S. Nationals and has impressive speed to go along with Parry’s strong classic ability.
The top CCSA threat may be Santiago Ocariz of Wisconsin-Green Bay. This will be the fourth NCAA Championship for the Phoenix senior, who was the top collegiate skier at Nationals and is the top-ranked freestyle and classic male from the Central Region. Michigan Tech qualified Oskar Lund and narrowly missed qualifying 2 more skiers, the first and second alternates. Lund, the winner of 4 races this season, gives the Wildcats potential near the top. Jens Brabbit rounds out the team as the lone representative from Gustavus Adolphus. The junior was the fourth overall qualifier on the men’s side. Complete list of qualifiers is below:
HOUGHTON, Mich — The Northern Michigan Nordic ski teams used dominating performances on the men’s and women’s sides to take home top honors at the NCAA Central Regional Championship on Sunday. The Wildcats were in control after Saturday’s classic race and used Sunday’s 10/15k freestyle to ensure they remained in first. George Cartwright delivered a victory to lead the men, while Christina Gillis claimed top honors for the women.
Cartwright’s win was the first in the first-year’s young collegiate career and came on a big stage. He completed the 15k skate loop in 39 minutes, 42 seconds to beat Wisconsin-Green Bay runner-up Santiago Ocariz by 15 seconds. Spots 3-8 were just 5 seconds apart in the tight men’s competition, and NMU skiers Chris Bowler (40:06.6) and Kevin Cutts (40:06.9) completed the scoring from 6th and 7th place to put the Wildcat men in 1st with 79 points on the day.
Behind NMU, though, the men’s team competition was extremely tight in Sunday’s freestyle. Michigan Tech didn’t have a skier in the top 8 but swept places 9-11 behind the efforts of Oskar Lund (40:16), Jesse Smith (40:38), and Jesse Lang (40:51). This solid display put the Huskies in 2nd place on the day with 63 points.
Right on the heels of Michigan Tech was the College of St. Scholastica with 62 team points. Mason Bacso and Waylon Manske each cracked the top 10 for the Saints, as Bacso’s time of 40:06.6 was good for 5th and Manske (40:07.8) took 8th. Kasey Bacso (42:04) rounded out the team’s scoring from 21st. Alaska suffered a bit of a drop-off from Saturday’s classic race, but junior John Parry snuck into 4th as the Nanooks held on to 4th place on the day with 60 points. Parry (40:04.3) was backed by Tyler Kornfield (41:16) in 13th and a trio of Alaskans—Henri Soom (41:58.3), Ray Sabo (41:58.6), and Alex Morris (42:02.6)—in spots 18-20.
Gustavus Adolphus junior Jens Brabbit continued to cement his position as one of the league’s top skiers with a 3rd-place finish. Brabbit (40:02.5) was the first Gustie across the line, but teammate Anders Bowman scored (41:42) as well in 14th to help give GAC 5th place with 56 points on the day. Santiago Ocariz took a familiar spot on the podium as the race’s runner-up, crossing the line in a time of 39 minutes, 57 seconds to lead Wisconsin-Green Bay to a 47 point day, good for 6th place. St. John’s took 7th with 44 points behind Grant Cook (41:44) and Bob Gerten (41:57) in 15th and 17th, respectively. Tom Jorgensen (41:55) led St. Olaf from 16th place.
The NMU women put together a dominant showing and 1-2-3 finish for the second day in a row to post another perfect score of 87 team points. This time it was junior Christina Gillis who snagged the individual victory, skiing the 10k course in 30 minutes, 20 seconds. The women’s race was even tighter than the men’s, with the top 9 skiers separated by less than 25 seconds. Monica Markvardsen (30:25) was right on the heels of Gillis, while Saturday’s winner Laura DeWitt (30:26) was also in the mix in 3rd.
The Alaska women were in 2nd with 74 points in Sunday’s freestyle race. Aurelia Korthauer (30:27) led the team from 4th place, and was supported by 3 more teammates in the top 10. Nanooks Julia Pierson (30:42), Anna Coulter (30:44) and Theresia Schnurr (31:02) grabbed spots 8-10. Michigan Tech was 3rd as a team with 57 points in the skate race. Henna Riikonen-Purtsi (30:40) continued to be the fastest female Husky, coming in 7th. Kristen Monahan was next to finish for MTU and ended up in 19th.
The College of St. Scholastica was the 4th-place team Sunday behind 2 top-12 performances. Eleanor Magnuson (30:33) was 6th and Julia Curry (31:18) was 12th. The College of St. Benedict women finished 5th on the day, buoyed by Christi Nowak (31:34) in 14th. Megan Smith (31:38) was 17th for the Blazers to help give them 49 team points. Erica Hett (32:07) led Gustavus Adolphus with an 18th-place finish to help give the Gusties 45 points and 6th place in the freestyle race. Carolyn Freeman (31:05) was the top UW-GB finisher in 11th place. The Phoenix were 7th on the day with 42 points. St. Cloud State’s top finisher was Hannah Sanborn (32:53) in 28th. Emma Lee (32:26) led St. Olaf in 21st.
For the weekend, Northern Michigan was tops in both the men’s and women’s divisions. Michigan Tech was 2nd for the men with 139 points, 20 behind NMU. Alaska was 3rd with 132. St. Scholastica used a strong freestyle race to snag 4th with 118 points, just ahead of Gustavus Adolphus (110). St. John’s (92), Wisconsin-Green Bay (74), and St. Olaf (64) rounded out the men’s scores.
The NMU women posted a perfect score of 174 points, well ahead of 2nd-place Alaska’s 145. Michigan Tech was 3rd with 122, ahead of St. Benedict with 102. They were followed by St. Scholastica with 99 points, Gustavus Adolphus (89), Wisconsin-Green Bay (84), St. Cloud State (53), and St. Olaf (46).
For the weekend, Northern Michigan had the high combined team score with 323. Alaska was 2nd with 277, just ahead of Michigan Tech with 261. Below are the complete team scores.
HOUGHTON, Mich—Michigan Tech’s Oskar Lund and Northern Michigan’s Laura DeWitt were the individual winners on day 1 of the NCAA’s Central Regional Championship on Saturday. The 5/10 kilometer classic race was held at Michigan Tech’s trails in Houghton, Michigan as part of the CCSA’s final NCAA qualifying weekend. The Northern Michigan women and men were each in first place as a team after the first day of competition.
Laura DeWitt (NMU)
A sweep of the women’s podium put NMU leaps and bounds ahead of its competition Saturday. Laura DeWitt, Christina Gillis, and Monica Markvardsen took places 1-3, respectively, for the Wildcats. In an incredible display of speed as well as depth, the three finishers were separated by less than 3 seconds. DeWitt finished in 16 minutes, 59 seconds and her team finished with the best possible score of 87 points.
Christina Gills (NMU)
Alaska’s top skier, Aurelia Korthauer, was undefeated in CCSA competition until this race, but an early tumble derailed her hopes at first place in this race. Korthauer nevertheless finished in 5th in 17:10, just 11 seconds off DeWitt’s winning pace. Theresia Schnurr (17:28) in 7th and Anna Coulter (18:04) in 12th completed the scoring for the Nanooks and put the women’s team in 2nd place with 71 points.
Henna Riikonen-Purtsi (17:08) took 4th place to lead Michigan Tech into 3rd place. Elizabeth Quinley (18:03) was 11th and Jenna Klein (18:21) was 18th to give the Huskies 65 points. The St. Benedict women’s team put their depth on display, placing 3 skiers in the top 20. Megan Smith (18:19) in 14th, Katelyn Engel (18:21) in 17th, and Christi Nowak (18:26) in 20th put the CSB women in 4th with 53 points.
Eleanor Magnuson (17:37) led the College of St. Scholastica with an impressive 8th-place finish. Julia Curry (18:27) was the next teammate across the line in 21st, and the Saints sat in 5th after day 1. Carolyn Freeman (17:41) took 9th to pace Wisconsin-Green Bay. Erica Hett (17:57) was just behind in 10th as the first Gustavus Adolphus finisher across the line. St. Olaf skier Emma Lee was 24th in 18:36. Hannah Sanborn (19:13) led St. Cloud State from 33rd.
Oskar Lund (MTU)
Oskar Lund continued a strong season with a 15-second victory on Saturday’s 10k course. His time of 29:43 bested runner-up Chris Bowler (29:58) and led Michigan Tech to a close 2nd-place team finish with 76 points. Lund’s finish was backed by Jesse Lang (30:29) in 7th place and Jesse Smith (30:36) in 9th. Bowler, meanwhile, led the NMU men to their spot in 1st. George Cartwright (29:59) was just .3 seconds behind his teammate and took 3rd, while Kevin Cutts (30:32) was the final scorer in 8th.
Tyler Kornfield (30:01) was 4th as the top Alaska racer and finished just 3 seconds out of 2nd place. John Parry (30:20) was 6th and Ray Sabo (30:58) 11th to put the Nanooks in 3rd with 72 points. Jens Brabbit (30:18) tore through the classic loop to finish 5th as Gustavus Adolphus’ fastest skier. Anders Bowman (31:35) was 18th to help the Gusties into 5th with 54 points. Just ahead of them was the College of St. Scholastica with 56. Kasey Bacso (30:36) was 10th, Waylon Manske (31:09) was 14th, and Mason Bacso (31:21) was 17th for CSS.
Grant Cook (31:03) put in a strong finish for St. John’s, leading the team for 12th place. Teammate Bob Gerten (32:05) was 22nd. Brandon Piechowski (32:52) paced the St. Olaf men with his 29th-place finish. Wisconsin-Green Bay, notably without Santiago Ocariz, got their top result from Jeff Cook in 39th.
The CCSA named its men’s and women’s first and second all-conference teams Wednesday. The All-CCSA teams recognize season-long achievement and were based on points given out in each race. The top 20 finishers received Super Tour Points (points were awarded in each race by a 30-25-21-18-16-15-14… pattern) for each race and the points were added up to get the teams. The top 5 points-getters made the first team, while the next 5 were named to the second team.
The Northern Michigan women had two skiers, Christina Gillis and Laura DeWitt, named to the first team. Alaska’s Aurelia Korthauer, Michigan Tech’s Riikonen-Purtsi, and Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Carolyn Freeman rounded out the squad.
NMU also had two skiers on the men’s first team. Wildcats George Cartwright and Kevin Cutts made the team, joining top points-getter Santiago Ocariz (Wisconsin-Green Bay), Michigan Tech senior Oskar Lund, and Gustavus Adolphus’ Jens Brabbit.
The women’s all-CCSA second team displayed the depth of both Northern Michigan and Alaska. Monica Markvardsen and Marie Helen Soderman represented NMU while Theresia Schnurr, Julia Pierson, and Anna Coulter were named for the Nanooks.
Michigan Tech’s Jesse Lang and Jesse Smith each represented the Huskies on the men’s second team. They were joined by Tim Cook and Chris Bowler of NMU, and Alaska’s John Parry finished out the team. Complete individual point totals are listed below.
ISHPEMING, Mich. — Day two of the CCSA championships brought more excitement and a shuffle in results. The 15/20k freestyle competition took place for the second consecutive day at the Al Quaal Recreation Area in Ishpeming, Michigan. Alaska’s Aurelia Korthauer was an individual winner for the 2nd consecutive day to lead the female Nanooks to a strong team performance. Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Santiago Ocariz continued his dominance in freestyle events by winning the men’s race. The Michigan Tech men and Northern Michigan women were the champions for the weekend.
In the women’s 15k race, Alaska senior Korthauer (38:19) skied away with another victory and was the first of four Alaska women in the top 6 to take top team honors on the day. Anna Coulter (38:46), Julia Pierson (38:47), and Theresia Schnurr (38:59) took spots 4-6 for the Nanooks, who scored 83 points on the day. NMU was 2nd on the day with 80 points behind a 2nd-place finish from Monica Markvardsen (38:35) and Saturday’s runner-up Christina Gillis (38:45) in 3rd. Marie Helen Soderman (39:19) in 9th was the third Wildcat scorer. Henna Riikonen-Purtsi (39:02) in 7th was the top skier for 3rd-place Michigan Tech. Jenna Klein (41:20) in 16th and Jaclyn Pribyl (42:06) in 20th brought the MTU women a total of 61 points on the day.
Eleanor Magnuson (39:17) led the College of St. Scholastica from 8th place. Julia Curry (40:32) in 13th helped bring CSS into 4th place on the day. Carolyn Freeman (39:31) of Wisconsin-Green Bay was 10th to lead the Phoenix, while teammate Lindsey Marshall (41:13) was 15th. Christi Nowak (41:43) led the College of St. Benedict from 18th. Erica Hett (42:25) of Gustavus Adolphus was in 22nd to lead the Gusties. Emma Lee (42:46) was the first St. Olaf skier across the line, finishing in 26th. Hannah Sanborn (43:17) of St. Cloud State led her team from 27th.
If the women’s race was one dominated by two teams near the top, the men’s race was the very picture of parity, with each of the first 6 finishers coming from a different school. Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Santiago Ocariz was dominant in the 20k freestyle race, finishing 80 seconds ahead of runner-up Oskar Lund. Ocariz, a senior at UWGB, completed the course in 48 minutes, 42 seconds. Lund (50:02), a senior at Michigan Tech, was Saturday’s winner and led the Husky men to 2nd place on the day and 1st on the weekend. Kevin Cutts (50:56) was the top Northern Michigan skier and 3rd overall finisher. Teammates George Cartwright (51:18), yesterday’s runner-up, was 7th, and Chris Bowler (51:31) snagged 10th to lead the Wildcats as the top men’s team on the day with 73 points.
Mason Bacso (51:04) was the best College of St. Scholastica skier on what was a phenomenal day for the Saints with a 5th-place finish. Waylon Manske (51:26) was 9th and Jeremy Hecker (52:05) 12th to put CSS in 3rd place on the day. Jens Brabbit (51:02) was 4th, leading Gustavus Adolphus, which also received a 14th from Anders Bowman (52:17). John Parry (51:15) was tops for Alaska, finishing in 6th, while teammates Alex Morris (52:15, 13th) and Henri Soom (52:34, 15th) also cracked the top 15.
Grant Cook (53:02) posted a strong result, 17th, for St. John’s, who also put Trevor Drake and Jared Sundstrom in the top 30. St. Olaf’s skier Tom Jorgenson (54:19) was 21st to pace his team.
For the weekend, Michigan Tech was the top men’s team with 155 points, led by Oskar Lund with a 1st and a 2nd. Second was Northern Michigan with 150 points behind the efforts of a strong group of underclassmen, including George Cartwright and Kevin Cutts. Alaska snagged 3rd with 124 points, holding off the College of St. Scholastica, whose strong freestyle race jumped them into 4th with 116 points. Santiago Ocariz powered UW-GB into a close 5th (112 pts) ahead of Gustavus Adolphus (100), St. John’s (68), and St. Olaf’s (63).
The Northern Michigan women took first with 162 points, buoyed by Christina Gillis and her two top-3’s, a leader on a team that is both strong and deep. Alaska put 3 in the top 5 and was the top women’s team in Sunday’s freestyle race, but fell just shy of the top spot and was 2nd with 158 points. Michigan Tech followed in 3rd with 120 points, ahead of Wisconsin-Green Bay (110), College of St. Scholastica (100), College of St. Benedict (92), Gustavus Adolphus (70), St. Olaf’s (52), and St. Cloud State (50).
Combined team results put Northern Michigan in 1st for the weekend with 312 points. Alaska was 2nd with 282, and Michigan Tech was 3rd with 275.
Complete team results are listed below.
Men’s Teams 10k Classic 20k Freestyle Total
1. Michigan Tech 83 (1) 72 (2) 155
2. Northern Michigan 77 (2) 73 (1) 150
3. Alaska 65 (3) 59 (4) 124
4. St. Scholastica 49 (5) 67 (3) 116
5. Wisconsin-Green Bay 56 (4) 56 (5) 112
6. Gustavus Adolphus 48 (6) 52 (6) 100
7. St. John’s 32 (8) 36 (7) 68
8. St. Olaf’s 34 (7) 29 (8) 63
Women’s Team 5k Classic 15k Freestyle Total
1. Northern Michigan 82 (1) 80 (2) 162
2. Alaska 75 (2) 83 (1) 158
3. Michigan Tech 59 (3) 61 (3) 120
4. Wisconsin-Green Bay 56 (4) 54 (5) 110
5. St. Scholastica 45 (6) 55 (4) 100
6. C. of St. Benedict 47 (5) 45 (6) 92
7. Gustavus Adolphus 42 (7) 28 (7) 70
8. St. Olaf’s 29 (8) 23 (9) 52
9. St. Cloud State 24 (9) 26 (8) 50
Combined Team Score 5/10k Classic 15/20k Freestyle Total
ISHPEMING, Mich.—Michigan Tech’s Oskar Lund and Alaska’s Aurelia Korthauer were the individual winners on day 1 of the Central Collegiate Ski Association’s championships. The 5/10 kilometer classic race was held at the Al Quaal Recreation Area in Ishpeming, Michigan. The Northern Michigan women and the Michigan Tech men were the team winners after the first competition.
Lund outdistanced the field by 30 seconds in the men’s 10k race, finishing in a time of 26 minutes, 39 seconds. Sophomore teammate Petter Sjulstad (27:26) was close behind in 4th, while classmate Jesse Smith (27:39) finished another place back in 5th. Three skiers in the top 5 contributed to a banner day for MTU that put the men’s team in first. George Cartwright (27:09) was the second collegiate finisher. The Northern Michigan freshman was followed by NMU sophomore Kevin Cutts (27:42) in 6th and redshirt freshman Chris Bowler (27:47) in 8th to put the Wildcats in 2nd place as a team. The Alaska men’s team didn’t put a skier in the top 6 but packed in 5 of the next 7 finishers to place 3rd as a team. Sophomore Alex Morris (27:46) led the team from 7th and was followed by sophomore Erik Soederstrom (27:52) and juniors Ray Sabo (27:56), Einar Often (27:58), and John Parry (28:01) in places 10-13.
Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Santiago Ocariz (27:10), a season-long mainstay near the top of the men’s competitions, rounded out the podium in 3rd, less than a second behind the runner-up Cartwright. Nick Maki (28:38) was the next Phoenix finisher in 19th. Gustavus Adolphus skier Jens Brabbit (27:47) was the other skier in the top 10, finishing in 9th to lead the Gusties. Anders Bowman (28:24) followed him in 16th. Kasey Bacso finished in 28:19 to snag 15th place to lead the College of St. Scholastica men. Tom Jorgenson (28:52) was the first St. Olaf skier in 22nd. Grant Cook (29:11) led St. John’s University from 25th.
Senior Aurelia Korthauer of Alaska (14:29) was the women’s classic champ, edging out NMU junior Christina Gillis (14:35) by 6 seconds on the 5k classic course. She led the Nanooks to a 2nd-place team finish. Sophomore Theresia Schnurr (14:59) in 6th and senior Julia Pierson (15:34) in 12th rounded out the scoring for Alaska. Gillis led the Northern Michigan women to a first-place team finish. Senior Laura DeWitt (14:45) in 4th and Sophomore Marie Helen Soderman (14:58) in 5th made three NMU women in the top 5 for a league-best 82 team points. First-year Henna Riikonen-Purtsi (15:06) led Michigan Tech from 8th place, followed by Jenna Klein (15:38) in 15th and Christina Mishica (15:56) in 20th to put the Huskies in 3rd as a team.
Junior Carolyn Freeman of Wisconsin-Green Bay (14:44) matched male teammate Santiago Ocariz with her 3rd-place finish. Lindsey Marshall (15:39) backed her in 16th to put the Phoenix in 4th as a team with 56 points. College of St. Benedict skier Megan Smith (15:22) finished 9th to lead the Blazers to 5th place. Gustavus Adolphus was led by Erica Hett (15:27), who finished out the top 10 as the first Gustie across the line. Eleanor Magnuson of the College of St. Scholastica (15:31) was in 11th and was followed by Julia Curry (15:48) in 19th. Sarah Fleming (16:12) was the top St. Olaf skier in 26th. Jenny Beckman (16:17) was first across the line for St. Cloud State in 29th place.
Saturday’s 5/10k classic was to be followed by a 15/20k freestyle event to round out the CCSA championships on Sunday, February 14th.
CABLE, Wis–Michigan Tech’s Henna Riikonen-Purts grabbed her first individual victory of the year, while Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Santiago Ocariz continued his stellar year with another trip to the top of the podium. The 10/15k freestyle event was held as a part of the Central SuperTour in Cable, Wisconsin. Brian Gregg and Rebecca Dussault were the overall winners at Telemark Ski Resort, but a strong field of CCSA skiers was there as a part of the conference’s third NCAA qualifying weekend.
Riikonen-Purts collected the victory by a margin of 12 seconds on the 10-kilometer course, finishing in a time of 30:52. She led the Michigan Tech women to a 2nd-place finish, as she had done in Saturday’s classic race as well. Jenna Klein (32:34) and Elizabeth Quinley (32:57) finished in 10th and 12th, respectively, to round out the scoring for MTU. It was the Northern Michigan women, then, who took top team honors for the second day in a row. Laura DeWitt (31:04) and Monica Markvardsen (31:27) went 2-3 for an NMU team that placed 5 skiers in the top 9. Marie Helen Soderman (32:14) was the third scorer in 6th place, and Ingrid Fjeldheim (32:26) and Christina Gillis (32:31) finished 8-9, exhibiting the impressive depth of NMU.
Wisconsin-Green Bay placed 2 skiers in the top 7 and finished as the 3rd-place women’s team. Carolyn Freeman (32:00) was in 4th after a strong classic race the previous day, and Lindsey Marshall (32:24) in 7th added a strong second skier for the Phoenix. St. Scholastica’s Eleanor Magnuson (32:13) improved on a strong classic result and finished 5th to lead the Saints. Julia Curry (33:01) posted a strong result in 13th to contribute to a 4th-place finish for CSS.
Megan Smith (33:15) and Christi Nowak (33:31) led the St. Benedict women in 14th and 15th, respectively, for a team result of 5th. Erin Eppler (33:56) in 18th was the top woman for the 6th-place Gustavus Adolphus team. One spot further back in 19th was Hannah Sanborn (34:04) who led St. Cloud State into 7th place. Emma Lee in 31st led St. Olaf.
Santiago Ocariz of Wisconsin-Green Bay has made a habit of claiming the top spot in CCSA races this season. Sunday was no different, as he completed the 15-kilometer freestyle course in 39:09 to better 2nd-place finisher George Cartwright by 22 seconds. Cartwright led Northern Michigan to a 2nd-place team finish. Tim Cook (40:52) and Chris Bowler (40:59) finished 8-9 to complete the scoring for Northern Michigan. Michigan Tech claimed top honors on the men’s side behind 3 finishers in the top 7. Oskar Lund (40:02) was 3rd, Jesse Lang (40:39) was 6th, and Jesse Smith (40:48) was 7th, giving the MTU men 77 points to 74 for NMU.
The St. Scholastica men were 3rd as a team behind the 5th-place finish of Waylon Manske (40:25) and the 10th-place finish of Mason Bacso (41:03). Nick Maki in (42:14) 18th place contributed to Ocariz’ win and put the UWGB Phoenix in 4th. Jens Brabbit 40:20) posted a season-best 4th place for Gustavus Adolphus and Anders Bowman (41:33) was 12th to put the Gustie men in 5th place. The finishes of Jared Sundstrom (42:00) in 15th and Bob Gerten (42:11) in 17th put the St. John’s men not far behind in 6th. Tom Jorgenson posted a very strong result, finishing in 14th to lead St. Olaf. Ben Noren was 32nd to lead Gogebic Community College.
In the team results, the Northern Michigan women triumphed with 166 points on the weekend. Michigan Tech was 2nd with 150. Wisconsin-Green Bay took down 3rd with 115 points, just ahead of St. Scholastica with 111. On the men’s side Michigan Tech edged out Northern Michigan, 155-154, for the men’s victory. St. Scholastica snagged 3rd with 131 points. The Green Bay men were 4th with 117. Combined, the team scores put Northern Michigan in 1st, Michigan Tech in 2nd, and St. Scholastica in 3rd. Complete team results are below.
CABLE, Wis–Michigan Tech’s Oskar Lund and Northern Michigan’s Laura DeWitt each grabbed their second individual win of the year in the USSA Central Super Tour race at Telemark Ski Resort in Cable, Wisconsin. The 5/10k classic event was the start of the CCSA’s third qualifying weekend. Northern Michigan was sitting in first place on the men’s and women’s side after the first day of competition.
In the men’s race, Oskar Lund triumphed on the 10-kilometer course handily in a time of 29:28, nearly a minute ahead of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Santiago Ocariz (30:27). The Michigan Tech men were solid behind Lund, with senior Jesse Lang (30:46) in 5th followed by Jesse Smith (31:36), Luke Gesior (31:37), and Petter Sjulstad (31:40) in places 9-11. The Huskies were in second place after day 1 with 78 points, just 2 behind Northern Michigan. NMU put 3 in the top 6 behind a 3rd from freshman George Cartwright (30:28), a 4th from Chris Bowler (30:29), and a 6th from Kevin Cutts (31:04). The College of St. Scholastica sat in 3rd in the team competition with 67 points behind a 7th-place result from Waylon Manske (31:07) and an 8th from Kasey Bacso (31:31). The UWGB men were 4th with 59 points on the back of Ocariz and his 2nd-place result. Nick Maki pitched in from 22nd and Jeff Cook in 28th to round out the scoring. Jens Brabbit (31:50) in 13th led Gustavus Adolphus to the team’s 5th-place finish with 46 points, backed by Anders Bowman (33:56) in 27th. The St. John’s men tied for 5th behind a 20th from Trevor Drake and a 23rd from Grant Cook. Tom Jorgenson led the St. Olaf’s team from 24th and the top Gogebic Community College skier was Ben Noren in 40th.
The women’s team results resembled the men’s near the top. Laura DeWitt’s (17:30) first-place campaign on the 5-kilometer course was backed by Christina Gillis (17:40) in 3rd and Marie Helen Soderman (17:49) in 5th, allowing NMU to take the day 1 lead with 84 points. Michigan Tech’s 75 points put them in 2nd. The Huskies were led by Henna Riikonen-Purts (17:44) in 4th and solidified by Elizabeth Quinley’s (18:05) 6th and Jenna Klein’s (18:28) 9th.
Carolyn Freeman (17:38) equaled the 2nd-place result of male teammate Santiago Ocariz with a 2nd of her own to lead Wisconsin-Green Bay. Lindsey Marshall (18:50) posted a solid result in 12th to help the Phoenix into 3rd place. Eleanor Magnuson led the St. Scholastica women with one of the strongest results in program history, as she finished in 8th. Teammate Julia Curry (18:52 also posted a strong result to push the CSS women into 4th with 56 points, just 3 behind UWGB.
Megan Smith’s 15th (18:59) and Christi Nowak’s 19th (19:19) led the St. Benedict women to 5th place with 50 points, also within striking distance. The Gustavus Adolphus women, led by Erica Hett (18:55) in 14th, were another team point behind, sitting in 6th placewith 49 points. Jenny Beckman (19:21) cracked the top 20 to lead St. Cloud State and was supported by a 24th from Hannah Sanborn (19:47). Sarah Fleming led the St. Olaf’s women from 34th.
Rebecca Dussault won the overall women’s title, while Brian Cook took down the men’s race. Sunday, January 31 is day 2 of the SuperTour weekend and Telemark will again host, this time a freestyle race. The Alaska men and women’s teams were not in attendance for the SuperTour.
MINNEAPOLIS – Michigan Tech’s Oskar Lund and Alaska-Fairbanks’ Aurelia Korthauer were the individual winners in Saturday’s freestyle race. The Central Super Tour event was held at Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the CCSA teams were out in full force as a part of the conference’s second NCAA qualifying weekend.
Korthauer’s first place finish was strongly supported by three other UAF skiers in the top 10. She placed 3rd overall on the 5-kilometer course in a time of 12:54, just three seconds ahead of Northern Michigan’s Christina Gillis. UAF and NMU each put four skiers in the women’s top 10, with Korthauer receiving support from senior Julia Pierson (6th), sophomore Theresia Schnurr (9th) and senior Anna Coulter (10th). NMU’s Gillis, meanwhile, was closely followed by Marie Helen Soderman in 3rd place as well as Laura DeWitt (7th) and Monica Markvardsen (8th). Junior Ingrid Fjeldheim was just outside the top 10 in 12th place for Northern Michigan.
A domineering performance by the Nanooks and Wildcats, though, did not overshadow strong performances from several other schools. Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Carolyn Freeman was 4th, just 2 seconds off the podium, and Lindsey Marshall also posted a strong performance for UWGB with a 15th-place finish. Michigan Tech’s Henna Riikonen-Purts rounded out the top 10 finishers with her 5th-place result to lead the Huskies, who also received a 13th and an 18th from seniors Elizabeth Quinley and Jenna Klein, respectively.
Eleanor Magnusson led the College of St. Scholastica with her 11th-place finish. The College of St. Benedict got a 17th from senior Christi Nowak to lead her team. Hannah Sanborn made it into the top 25 to lead St. Cloud State, and Erica Hett in 27th was the first Gustavus Adolphus finisher. Sarah Fleming led the St. Olaf women.
For the men, Michigan Tech’s Oskar Lund managed a 12-second victory over Green Bay’s Santiago Ocariz. Lund completed the 10-kilometer course in 23:24 to lead his Huskies to a strong day. Senior Jesse Lang, an All-American last year, finished in 4th, while Jesse Smith’s 14th finished up the MTU top 3. Ocariz posted some impressive results at the U.S. Nationals races in Anchorage earlier this month and led the UWGB Phoenix from 2nd place.
No one team dominated the top of the leaderboard in the men’s race, though, with six different schools placing an individual in the top 10. Northern Michigan freshman George Cartwright led his squad with a 3rd-place finish and was helped by Tim Cook (8th), Chris Bowler (13th), and Kevin Cutts (15th). Jens Brabbit completed the top 5, leading the Gustavus Adolphus team.
Although UAF did not place a skier in the top 5, the Nanooks took 4 of the next 6 spots. Junior John Parry took 6th place and was closely followed by Henri Soom, Ray Sabo, and Alex Morris in places 9-11. Mason and Kasey Bacso (7th and 12th) led the College of St. Scholastica to an impressive display of depth, as the team placed 5 skiers in the top 20.
Bob Gerten led St. John’s from 18th place, and Tom Jorgensen of St. Olaf was not far behind in 22nd. Anders Bowman in 26th was the top Gustie.
The overall race winners were Matt Liebsch and Rebecca Dussault, each of CXC Vertical limit. Sunday brings another day of racing in the form of the Super Tour’s classic race, another NCAA qualifying race for the CCSA schools.
![University of Alaska Anchorage freshman Hailey Swirbul skis through the stadium at Birch Hill Ski Area in Fairbanks, Alaska, in the Alaska Nordic Cup on Nov. 19, 2016. (Photo: Zachary Hall/UAA Athletics)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/11/TFDHVHVXEZLSQJV.20161121003626.jpg")
![(Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/03/DSC_2682copyW.jpg")
![APU teammates and brothers Logan Hanneman (7) and Reese Hanneman (4) lead teammate Tyler Kornfield (17), Welly Ramsey (Mountain Endurance Sports) and Fredrik Schwencke of Northern Michigan University (far left) during their quarterfinal of the men's 1.5 k classic sprint on Saturday at U.S. nationals in Houghton, Mich.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/01/IMG_9354-e1452411312711.jpg")
![University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves skiers Hailey Swirbul (l) and Casey Wright (r), photographed on the UAA campus in Anchorage, Alaska, in October 2016. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/10/Hailey-Swirbul-Casey-Wright-UAA.jpg")
![The University of Alaska Fairbanks ski team poses with the trophy for the Alaska Nordic Cup at Birch Hill Ski Area in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Nov. 20, 2016. (Photo: Nick Crawford/UAF Athletics)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/11/IMG_0502-e1479712020649.jpg")
![Maria Stuber has spent the last three years coaching at the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club in Colorado. (Courtesy photo)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/08/Maria.jpg")
![Stuber (second from left) with AVSC athletes. (Courtesy photo)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/08/Maria-AVSC-Kids.jpg")
![Tuber with the rest of the AVSC staff last year. "I love these people!" she wrote. (Courtesy photo)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/08/Coaches-Thank-You-Photo.jpg")
![Hailey Swirbul of the Aspen Valley Ski Club races the anchor leg while guiding the American team to eighth place in the 4 x 3.3 k relay at the Junior World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in 2015. (Photo: Logan Hannneman)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/02/IMG_7227.jpg")
![Stuber and Cook (second and third from right) with AVSC staff at a competition this winter. (Courtesy photo)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/08/Staff-CB.jpg")
![Former St. Scholastica skiers doing coach Chad Salmela's "Death Blow" workout, running then bounding uphill without poles at the Saints 2010 Scandinavian summer camp in Torsby, Sweden. (Courtesy photo)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/04/unnamed-22.jpg")
![St. Scholastica's Paul Schommer and Joe Dubay digging deep up Spirit Mountain in the fall of 2014 in Duluth, Minn. (Photo: Chad Salmela)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/04/deathblow-1.jpg")
![St. Scholastica senior Sharmila Ahmed, one of the Saints' best responders to the Death Blow workout, during the Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) Relay Championships on Feb. 7 at Spriti Mountain in Duluth, Minn. (Photo: Chad Salmela)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/04/ccsa-relays-16.jpg")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2010/02/n21_107-2097_LauraDeWitt.jpg" "Laura DeWitt (NMU)")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2010/02/n21_107-2099_ChristinaGills.jpg" "Christina Gills (NMU)")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2010/02/n21_107-2593_OskarLund.jpg" "Oskar Lund (MTU)")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2010/02/n21_107-2877.jpg" "CCSA")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2010/02/n21_107-2872.jpg" "CCSA")