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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.

Tag: Christian Shanley

  • Elite Team Preview: Ski and Snowboard Club Vail Team HomeGrown

    Elite Team Preview: Ski and Snowboard Club Vail Team HomeGrown

    Sylvan Ellefson, Noah Hoffman and Tad Elliott taking the early lead in the 50 k at Distance Nationals this spring. All three SSCV Team HomeGrown skiers are back on the squad this year.

    This is one of several previews in a quick-and-dirty series on U.S. elite teams. We asked coaches to send their 2012/2013 rosters and tell us what’s new for the coming season. We will be publishing additional reports over the next few weeks. Teams are presented in no particular order.

    Team: Ski & Snowboard Club Vail (SSCV) Team HomeGrown (Vail, Colo.)

    Coaches: Dan Weiland (nordic program director), Eric Pepper (head coach)

    Roster: Sylvan Ellefson, Tad Elliott (U.S. Ski Team), Noah Hoffman (U.S. Ski Team), Ryan Scott, Christian Shanley, Max Scrimgeour

    Who’s new: Ryan Scott (Montana State University grad), Christian Shanley (post-graduate, Vail Ski & Snowboard Academy grad), Max Scrimgeour (post-graduate, Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club alum)

    Who’s missing: Mike Vigers (was a PG last year, now an incoming freshman at CU Boulder)

    Top results last season: There are many ways to measure progress on a team: on the domestic and international stage, based on individual and team-wide performance, and from the number of athletes who notice these results and want to be part of what you’re doing. The fact that SSCV’s elite squad made gains in practically every category at some point in the 2011-2012 season speaks to the size of the leap it made. Between personal bests on the World Cup for all three returning skiers and dominant U.S. results it’s safe to say that in the three years since its founding, SSCV Team HomeGrown has unmistakably arrived.

    Team Homegrown and USST members Tad Elliott (l) and Noah Hoffman (r) leading the men’s 30 k at U.S. Nationals. Photo: Flying Point Road.

    Elliott and Hoffman were new additions to the team last year and spent most of the winter in Europe as part of the USST B-team. As a national team rookie Elliott scored his first career World Cup points with a 27th in the Davos 30 k freestyle. Hoffman broke into the top 30 with a 26th in the Otepää 15 k classic and produced the best American result at World U23 Championships with a silver medal in the 15 k.

    Ellefson’s mere presence on the World Cup was a personal best for the Vail native; he earned his first career start rights late in the season by leading the SuperTour at the end of January. Apart from an unlucky crash in the Falun prologue at World Cup Finals, Ellefson made steady progress throughout his European tour, which head coach Eric Pepper says has been a big motivator throughout this summer. On the heels of his World Cup debut, Ellefson also managed to reclaim the yellow leader’s bib to secure a ticket back in November.

    “For a lot of people going to Europe, it’s tough: they go over and get their ass kicked and it’s really hard. And he went over there and he got better,” Pepper said. “He’s just more focused, more determined. He’s learned so much being over there about that next level, he’s just ready to go again. It’s crazy; you watch people who go over there and maybe struggle, but not him though. That’s what its about: going over there and getting better, and I think for him that’s exactly what he did.”

    The trio made similar strides domestically. With a full international schedule, Nationals and Spring Series were the only two events SSCV Team HomeGrown raced as a complete squad in the U.S., but this didn’t seem to matter when it came time to suit up. Elliott, Ellefson and Hoffman looked as though they’d spent all season racing together and went 1-3-4 in the 15 k freestyle in Rumford, Maine. A few months later in Craftsbury, Vermont, Elliott took second and Ellefson fourth in the 50 k at Distance Nationals. Somewhere in between, Elliott also won a little thing called the American Birkebeiner.

    Ryan Scott, left, skiing the heats at U.S. Nationals. Photo: Flying Point Road.

    The team has added three new names to its roster this year, Scott, Shanley and Scrimgeour. Pepper and nordic director Dan Weiland are keeping the squad relatively small for the moment in order to maintain a high level of financial support to its athletes, particularly its USST B-team members.

    The newcombers all join the squad as native Coloradoans. Scott is from Boulder and graduated from MSU this spring. Shanley moves up from the SSCV junior competition team to take a PG year with the senior squad (he deferred enrollment at Denver University). Scrimgeour was a Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club athlete as a junior, and will also be a PG-er next year.

    All three skiers posted competitive results last winter. Scott has already begun to seriously establish himself as a senior-level sprinter; he was fourth at U.S. Nationals in the classic sprint and posted the top American freestyle sprint result at U23s with a 25th. Shanley was a J1 last season and finished seventh in the classic sprint qualifier at the Aspen SuperTour and eleventh in the 10 k a few hours later. He and Scrimgeour teamed up in March (along with SSCV junior Cal Deline) for a gold medal-winning Rocky Mountain relay at Junior Nationals.

    The team may also soon be adding a girl to its roster this season; Weiland said he is currently in the negotiation phase with a recent college graduate.

    Coach’s comment: In 2009 SSCV Team HomeGrown was founded, as the name suggests, to develop Colorado skiers. Next season could be its biggest yet, and with an all-Colorado 2012-2013 roster the team hasn’t wavered from that original intention.

    “The whole idea behind our team is Colorado-based athletes growing up and coming back after college to race for a Colorado team,” Weiland said. “That’s our selling point, and that’s what we’ll stick with.”

    Training-wise, new and returning members of the squad are all working this summer in order to do one thing: get faster. There’s a lot on the line for everyone this season, with World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy as the big target. From the work his athletes have put in so far, Pepper sees plenty of reason to look forward to the winter:

    “[Ellefson] had the opportunity to spend a week with the USST guys in Bend, and went back with our junior kids for another ten days, and he looks great. He’s in good shape; doing everything he needs to do… He’s just a totally different animal now. He’s gotten a lot faster, stronger, fitter; that was a huge jump for him last year. He was fourth in the 50 k and we considered that a disappointment. The year before he was ecstatic to be top 10, top 20 at U.S. Nationals.”

    Elliott and Hoffman will be in Vail a few times throughout the fall, but primarily they’ll be based out of Park City, Utah.

    “Tad’s doing some mountain biking too, and Noah’s trying really hard to basically get on snow every month this summer,” Pepper said. “May he was in Bend, Sognefjell in June, then Austria, and then he’s looking at a trip to New Zealand. Lots of on-snow time for him, that’s definitely one of his targets. Tad’s been hittin’ the weight room a lot harder too, taking bicep measurements.

    “[For Scott], I think it’s great to have an opportunity to make the transition to being a full-time athlete with full-time training, and not having to worry about the rigors of college. It’s an opportunity to really focus on racing, with a little more emphasis on sprinting in particular, and see how far he can take it.”

    Update July 13, 2012: This article originally stated Max Scrimgeour had yet to confirm his status with the team. Since publication Scrimgeour has officially joined SSCV Team HomeGrown.

    Returning SSCV Team HomeGrown skiers made it into the Vail Fourth of July parade as cardboard cutouts. Photo: Sylvan Ellefson.

    * * *

    Other previews: Bend Endurance Academy | Bridger Ski Foundation | Craftsbury GRP | CXC | Far West | Maine Winter Sports Center | Methow OD | Stratton Mountain School T2 Team | Sun Valley SEF | XC Oregon

  • Rocky Mountain Storms Soldier Hollow with J1, OJ Boys’ Relay Sweep

    Rocky Mountain Storms Soldier Hollow with J1, OJ Boys’ Relay Sweep

    Max Scrimgeour (Steamboat Springs WSC) celebrating Rocky Mountain’s win in the J1 boys’ 3×3 k relay at Junior Nationals. Paddy Caldwell (Stratton Mountain School) took home second for New England. Tucker McCrerey (Summit Nordic Ski Club), to Caldwell’s right, anchored Rocky Mountain’s wining OJ team.

    All 2012 Cross Country Junior Nationals coverage is brought to you through the generous support of The Memory Clinic, in Bennington, Vt., committed to caring for the mind since 1987. Currently conducting clinical research on the Alzheimer’s disease vaccine.

    MIDWAY, Utah — Prior to the final day of racing at Junior Nationals, Rocky Mountain had yet to claim a gold medal. But when they win, they win in a big way, and took both the J1 and OJ boys’ titles 3×3 k relay. Both age classes started together, making for a crowded race, but at the end Rocky Mountain’s J1 anchor, Max Scrimgeour (Steamboat Springs WSC) had beaten all 47 other J1 and OJ teams to the line, clocking in at 16:43.6. New England took second, a mere 0.3 seconds behind, and the Midwest came home with the bronze (+9.3).

    Early leaders during the scramble leg of the J1/OJ boys’ relay on Saturday.

    It was a mark of just how fast the 3 k relay course was that the top boys only took five-and-a-half minutes to ski it, and the speed played to Rocky Mountain’s advantage. The distance was essentially an extended sprint, and as skiers who race on the trails at Soldier Hollow throughout the winter, Scrimgeour, Cal Deline (Ski and Snowboard Club Vail) and Christian Shanley (SSCV) were no strangers to the fast, tactical racing.

    The scramble leg was so tight that the top ten teams made the first exchange within thirteen seconds of each other.

    “For the transitions, there were so many people, so looking around for your partner was like, ‘Oh, there he is!’” said Shanley, Rocky Mountain’s middle leg.

    The winning team used words like “crazy,” “energetic,” and “super hectic” to describe the relay.

    Deline, Rocky Mountain’s scrambler, said he “didn’t get the best start,” but after moving his way through the lead group, was able to stay with them and put Shanley in the second position at the tag, less than two seconds behind Midwest 3.

    Shanley knew he had to catch the skiers in front of him, and put his head down on the climb out of the hollow to move up in the pack.

    By the time the second legs reached the bottom of Hermod’s Hill, the top skiers were all still OJs. But by the tag-off, New England’s J1 had taken the lead and sent its anchor, Paddy Caldwell, out with the entire field chasing him.

    The J1 boys’ relay podium: 1. Rocky Mountain, 2. New England, 3. Midwest.

    Scrimgeour was the third J1 at the final tag-off, and though got boxed in at the bottom of Hermod’s, a gap then opened up on the climb and he took it.

    “I just went for it,” said Scrimgeour. When he came into view of the stadium at the front, it was still anyone’s race. But he outsprinted Caldwell and his own Rocky Mountain OJ teammate to the finish.

    “I think we were definitely thinking we could win J1, but I wasn’t thinking overall,” said Scrimgeour.

    A gleeful hoard of Rocky Mountain athletes and coaches met Scrimgeour and his teammates at the finish for congratulatory high-fives. Their victory was made all the sweeter by the fact that the OJ boys’ team of Charlie Von Thaden (SSWSC), Mike Vigers (SSCV) and Tucker McCrerey (Summit NSC) had also won their class for Rocky Mountain.

    As the scramble, Von Thaden started off faster than his J1 counterpart.

    “I got off pretty fast—I was in third around the first hairpin,” he said. “Then I think the draft pushed everyone in front of me, and then it was a mad scramble up Hermod’s.”

    Race leaders tucking down the back side of the course during the final leg, just before beginning the climb up Hermod’s.

    Despite its steep pitch, the leaders all V2ed up that final wall of a climb. The relay course only went partway up Hermod’s — skiers were less tired at the top and carried incredible speed down the whale’s tail descent back down to the stadium.

    Von Thaden tagged off to Vigers, who skied the second-fastest OJ middle leg of the day. Hermod’s was again where Rocky Mountain moved up, and Vigers moved them into sixth — still right with the lead pack.

    When McCrerey took off for the anchor leg, “it was still anybody’s game,” he said. A group of about seven skiers were all within striking distance going into the final climb.

    He sprinted over the top of Hermod’s, cruised back down, and when he came into the stadium nearly lost the race.

    “I almost got tangled up again at the finish, but I was able to stay on my feet and take the win,” said McCrerey.

    Asked if they knew they could win the relay, McCrerey said the Colorado trio had been working towards it all season long, ever since they made the November trip to West Yellowstone, Montana.

    “That was the goal from the beginning,” he said.

    Complete relay results (scroll for J1/OJ boys).

    The OJ boys’ relay podium: 1. Rocky Mountain, 2. Alaska, 3. Intermountain.