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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: elite team preview

The 12: Stratton Mountain School T2 Team

The 2013/2014 Stratton Mountain School T2 Team (from left to right): Head coach Gus Kaeding, Andy Newell, Annie Pokorny, Eric Packer, Jessie Diggins, Sophie Caldwell, Simi Hamilton, Erika Flowers, and nordic program director Sverre Caldwell. (Photo: Annie Hart)

Note: This is the third preview in our series on U.S. elite teams, which we’ve dubbed the “The 12.” We asked coaches to tell us what’s new and whom to look out for in the coming season and will publish additional previews in the coming weeks in no particular order.

Team: Stratton Mountain School T2 Team (SMST2)

Coaches: Gus Kaeding (head coach), Sverre Caldwell (nordic program director) Senior roster: Andrew Newell (U.S. Ski Team) Simi Hamilton (USST), Skyler Davis, Eric Packer; Jessie Diggins (USST), Sophie Caldwell (USST), Annie Pokorny, Erika Flowers

Post-Graduates: Ben Saxton (Lakeville, Minn., formerly of F.A.S.T Performance Training), Mollie Hoopes (Hanover, N.H.)

Who’s new: Hamilton (formerly of Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Gold Team, Middlebury College), Pokorny (skied two seasons for Middlebury)

Who’s missing: none.

Top results last season: It starts with World Champion Diggins — who teamed up with fellow U.S. Ski Team (USST) member Kikkan Randall to win the 2013 World Championships freestyle team sprint in Val di Fiemme, Italy — and the talent doesn’t drop off from there. Half of the roster is on the national team.

Newell finished fifth in the overall World Cup sprint rankings last season. Hamilton struggled with respiratory illness after a breakthrough 2011/2012 season. Caldwell made the most of her World Cup starts and was rewarded with her first nomination to the USST.

Stratton Mountain School T2 Team Head Coach Gus Kaeding gets a lactate reading from Annie Pokorny, one of the team’s newest members, during bounding intervals last week near Stratton, Vt.

In Kaeding’s opinion, the optimal athlete-to-coach ratio is 4-to-1; 6-to-1 is pushing it. 8-to-1 is really pushing it. So the current eight-person roster is probably at its max unless a coach or two joins his staff, he said, which he doesn’t foresee in the near future.

The SMST2 squad added two skiers to the original six they debuted as an elite team with last year. Already familiar with Vermont, Hamilton and Pokorny both went to Middlebury College, a couple of hours north of Stratton.

Originally from Aspen, Colo., Hamilton, 26, previously raced domestically for the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) Gold Team. He had two top-10 finishes in World Cup sprints two seasons ago, but got sick right before World Championships last winter. “I think the biggest thing I learned while I was living [in Park City, Utah] is that for me personally, I needed to be training with other people,” Hamilton said. “Especially guys that are right around the same [ability] level.”

Born in Washington state, Pokorny, 20, cracked the top 10 twice at U.S. Cross Country Championships in January and qualified for the U23 World Championships. After two stellar years of college racing, she decided to focus on skiing full time.

“I think what’s really fun about this team and this program is that the entire summer is like one big training camp,” Pokorny said. “We have so many good people here that we don’t really need to go anywhere else.”

Caldwell made the quarterfinals in her first World Cup sprint in Quebec City in December and was the second-fastest American in the classic sprint at World Championships.

A former USST Development Team member, Davis was not renominated to the national squad despite scoring his first World Cup points in Canmore, Alberta. He placed fourth in the classic sprint at U.S. nationals.

Packer injured his foot in March, but before that, notched 40^th place in the 30-kilometer skiathlon at the U23 World Championships.

Flowers finished a career-best eighth in the 10-kilometer skate at U.S. Nationals and was fifth in the SuperTour Finals hill climb.

Coach’s comment: Two weeks ago, the entire SMST2 Team united for the first time this summer in Stratton to help out with hosting the annual Eastern REG Camp. Now, for the most part, they’re staying put. According to Kaeding, the goal is training consistency and to counter all the travel the World Cup skiers endure during the season.

“We have six returning people out of eight,” he said. “They all know how I work and I know how they work. I haven’t really had to do too much with the new members. They’ve just kind of fallen into the flow.”

As far as USST camps go, Diggins is headed to Eagle Glacier to meet up with other members of the USST later this month, and Newell and Hamilton are headed to New Zealand for three weeks in August. It makes for some adjustments, but Kaeding said it hasn’t been a problem.

“When you’re here, you are on the U.S. Ski Team, but you’re not any different from anyone else on the team,” he said. “It’s just a difference of what jacket you’re going to wear at some point this winter and maybe what races you’re going to do.”

***

Other previews: Craftsbury GRP | SSCV/Team HomeGrown

July 10, 2013
The 12: Ski & Snowboard Club Vail/Team HomeGrown

Sylvan Ellefson (l) and his Ski & Snowboard Club Vail/Team HomeGrown teammates enjoying some on-snow time this spring in Bend, Ore. (Photo: Eric Pepper)

Note: This is the second preview in our series on U.S. elite teams, which we’ve dubbed the “The 12.” We asked coaches to tell us what’s new and whom to look out for in the coming season and will publish additional previews in the coming weeks in no particular order.

Team: Ski & Snowboard Club Vail (SSCV)/Team HomeGrown

Coaches: Eric Pepper (head coach), Dan Weiland (nordic program director), Lenka Palanova, Kevin Hoechtl, Allison Ebbets

Senior roster: Noah Hoffman (U.S. Ski Team), Tad Elliott, Sylvan Ellefson, Ryan Scott

Who’s new: none.

Who’s missing: none.

Coach’s comment: “We are excited to be able to support these four athletes,” head coach Eric Pepper said. “With the added excitement of an Olympic year, training has been great and we are looking forward to the race season.”

Four Colorado-born skiers have Olympic aspirations with the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, just over seven months away. Hoffman, Elliott, Ellefson, and Scott will receive full support of the SSCV in Vail, Colo., and wear the colors of HomeGrown, signifying the club’s in-state requirement.

“What it comes down to for us is we want to make sure we can give top-level support to our athletes,” Pepper said about his selective elite team roster. Promising candidates have expressed interest in joining the team, but did not meet the “HomeGrown” standard, he explained.

Top results last season:

All four skiers made World Cup starts in 2012/2013. Hoffman and Elliott gained the most international experience as members of the U.S. Ski Team (USST). Ellefson’s World Cup eligibility, which carried over from being the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) SuperTour points leader in 2011/2012, expired after the December World Cup in Canmore, Alberta.

Colorado native Noah Hoffman of the U.S. Ski Team and SSCV/Team HomeGrown at the 2013 World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy

Scott, 23, filled one of the additional U.S. quota spots at the Canada World Cup after finding success at the SuperTour season opener in West Yellowstone, Mont., where he notched his first domestic win. He placed 51^st in the Canmore sprint and 60^th in the individual sprint Quebec City. A sprint specialist, Scott is currently training in Norway with a group of friends.

“That’s something he’s done a couple of times and he really feels like he’s derived a lot of benefit from it,” Pepper said.

The top-ranked distance skier in the U.S., Hoffman, 23, is coming off a strong season in which he placed 15th in the 15-kilometer freestyle individual start at World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy, and qualified for World Cup Finals. He underwent shoulder surgery this spring and has gradually added intensity and volume to his training program.

“He’s as focused as ever and looking forward to the upcoming year,” Pepper said.

Tad Elliott (SSCV/Team HomeGrown) racing for the U.S. Ski Team at 2013 World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy.

Elliott, who turns 25 today, is no longer on the USST, but the former mountain-bike racer maintains a full commitment to skiing.

“Nothing in his mind has changed one bit,” Pepper said. “Everything he’s got is going into [skiing] this year.”

Elliott anchored the Americans’ 4 x 10 k relay team to 10^th place at World Championships and scored World Cup points when he was 28^th in the skiathlon in Canmore. He and Ellefson have already put in several offseason hours on snow in Bend, Ore. Ellefson, 26, joined the USST training camp there in May and led a two-week SSCV junior camp with Elliott.

Hindered by an ankle injury at the tail end of 2011/2012, Ellefson battled illness last fall. His season-best World Cup finish was 57^th in Quebec City, after cracking the top 50 the year before when he was 43rd in Rybinsk, Russia. In a recent interview with FasterSkier, Ellefson said he’ll attempt to climb to the top of the SuperTour points list again.

While they won’t start the season in the USST uniform, Elliott, Ellefson and Scott are among those with a legitimate shot at grabbing one of the few coveted spots on the U.S. Olympic roster. The qualifying period ends January 12, and at that time, additional team members who did not meet the objective criteria may be named based on International Ski Federation (FIS) rankings.

“It does definitely put a lot of emphasis on those early season races,” Pepper said. “We’re going to be approaching those at a higher level than we probably have previously.”

July 2, 2013
The 12: Craftsbury Green Racing Project

The 2013/2014 Craftsbury Green Racing Project team at their base in Craftsbury, Vt. From back left: Alex Schulz, Pete Hegman, Ethan Dreissigacker, Alex Howe, Ida Sargent, Hannah Dreissigacker, Liz Guiney, Caitlin Patterson, Jake Barton, Patrick O’Brien, Mike Gibson, Gordon Vermeer. Not pictured: Susan Dunklee, Clare Egan, Andrew Dougherty. (Courtesy photo)

Note: In an effort to ring in the 2013/2014 season, we’re kicking off our second-annual elite team preview – now called “The 12.” Starting with the Craftsbury Green Racing Project and proceeding in no particular order, we’ll profile 12 of the biggest powerhouses in U.S. cross-country skiing throughout the next several weeks.

Team: Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP)

Coaches: Pepa Miloucheva (head coach, 16^th season), Nicholas Brown (wax technician and assistant coach), Anna Schulz (junior coach), Jeremy Nellis (Bill Koch League coach)

Senior roster: Ida Sargent (U.S. Ski Team), Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon), Hannah Dreissigacker (US Biathlon), Caitlin Patterson, Clare Egan, Liz Guiney;

Alex Howe, Gordon Vermeer, Patrick O’Brien, Andrew Dougherty, Pete Hegman

Provisional team: Alex Schulz (Dartmouth grad), Jake Barton (Colby), Mike Gibson (University of Vermont), Ethan Dreissigacker (formerly of the US Biathlon’s junior team)

Who’s new: Guiney (formerly of University of New Hampshire, Utah Nordic Alliance/Park City Nordic), Andrew Dougherty (Denver University grad, Alaska native), Pete Hegman (UVM/Mansfield Nordic)

More on the new athletes

Who’s missing: According to Miloucheva, Midwest natives Maria Stuber and Bryan Cook are Colorado-bound, Amy Glen left the team at the beginning of last season, and Dylan McGuffin, Tim Reynolds and Nils Koons are most likely “taking a break from training and taking on different jobs.”

Ida Sargent (CGRP/USST) during a team time trial on June 13 near Craftsbury, Vt. (Photo: Sheldon Miller/CGRP blog)

Top results last season: Right on par with the rest of the career-best performances from the U.S. Ski Team (USST) women’s squad, Sargent broke through early last season with a ninth-place finish in November at the World Cup classic sprint in Kuusamo, Finland.

Two months later, the 25-year-old from Orleans, Vt., really hit her stride in Sochi, Russia, making the A-final in a freestyle sprint and placing sixth at the pre-Olympic World Cup. Two days later, she placed fifth with Sadie Bjornsen in the team sprint.

“I want to make more appearances in the finals [and] hopefully build another step towards a World Cup podium down the road,” Sargent recently told FasterSkier after being promoted to the USST A-team this season.

And the heart of her training is still in Craftsbury. “This is the perfect place for me,” she said. “I grew up near here, so I’m used to the rural lifestyle. We spend so much time on the road in the winter that having the opportunity to be at home in one place feels great.”

U.S. Biathlon’s leading woman, Dunklee placed seventh in the 15 k individual at the pre-Olympic World Cup, and Dreissigacker bumped herself up to the USBA A-team after making her first World Championships. The two turned heads at SuperTour Finals – the last events of the season in the U.S. for elite cross-country skiers – when Dunklee nabbed fifth in the skate prologue then made the A-final in the classic sprint. She ended up sixth in a discipline she hardly ever competes in, and Dreissigacker was 11^th in the 10 k freestyle and 12^th in the sprint.

At U.S. nationals in January, Howe captured bronze in the freestyle sprint. Patterson tallied two fifth-place finishes (in the 10 k skate and 20 k classic mass start), and placed third in the American Birkebeiner 52 k skate race.

Coach’s comment: “The team is doing very well,” Miloucheva wrote in an email about her 11 elite teamers. “The new members are great and are bringing new level of excitement and positive competitiveness to the team.”

This year, Craftsbury invited four of its former skiers to a new provisional team to help them transition from college. Two of the four men are nordic skiers (Schulz and Barton), and two are biathletes (Gibson and Dreissigacker).

“We don’t have any camps planned for the summer, but trying to get organized to bring CGRP, MWSC [Maine Winter Sports Center] and Stratton T2 teams together for some small training blocks,” Miloucheva explained. “In the fall we have a camp in September in Lake Placid and October in Park City.”

For more from Craftsbury’s longtime coach, check out this post-training video and others from the Craftsbury Outdoor Center.

July 1, 2013
Elite Team Preview: Callaghan Valley TC

Members of the Callaghan Valley Training Centre hike up the Haig Glacier near Canmore, Alberta, during a high-low camp in July. (Photo by Geoffrey Richards)

This is the fourth and final preview in a quick-and-dirty series about Canadian national-training centres. We asked coaches to send their 2012/2013 rosters and tell us what’s new for the coming season. Teams were presented in no particular order.

Team: Callaghan Valley Training Centre (CVTC)

Coaches: Chris Manhard (head coach), Graham Maclean (assistant/wax tech), Maria Lundgren (administrator/part-time coach), Neil Manhard (part-time wax tech)

Senior roster: Geoffrey Richards, Yannick Lapierre, Martin Schrama and Sébastien Townsend

Who’s new: Townsend and Lapierre (from Nakkertok)

Who’s missing: Colin Abbott (Yukon Elite Squad), Jeff Kerkovius (back to university), Jeff Wood (University of British Columbia), Adriene Underhill (retired), Kajsa Heyes (ankle surgery), Olivia Nesbitt (Rocky Mountain Racers)

Callaghan Valley skiers during a daily hike up to the Haig Glacier at a Yo-Yo training camp in July near Canmore, Alberta. (Photo by Geoffrey Richards)

Top results last season: Shortly after his 20^th birthday, Richards won the junior men’s 15 k skate race at Canadian Ski Nationals in Mont Sainte-Anne, Quebec, by about a minute. He had previously placed second in the junior men’s 1.4 k skate sprint at nationals, and was 16^th in the pursuit at the Junior World Ski Championships in Erzurum, Turkey.

Kerkovius notched silver at nationals in the junior men’s 10 k classic race, just ahead of Schrama, who was third.

A CVTC junior squad member, Stefan Sander-Green was the second Canadian in the junior men’s 30 k classic mass start at nationals and fourth overall after two Norwegians.

Abbott had what coach Manhard called an “excellent year as U23,” finishing ninth at nationals in the open men’s 50 k classic mass start and consistently placing within the top 20 on the NorAm circuit. Originally from Whitehorse, he’s returning to his roots in the Yukon Territory.

Coach’s comment: “New and notable seems to be a emergence of a gentleman’s club,” Manhard wrote in an email, adding, “(this term I use very loosely).”

With four men on its senior roster and five junior males, this team doesn’t have a single woman, and Manhard explained why.

“With one coach for a centre, it was very difficult balancing the boys training and social environment and the girls training and social environment,” he wrote. “With only the boys to manage it has given me more of an opportunity focus on each athlete do a better job.”

He went on to state that a smaller team has been “far more manageable this year,” and he’s pleased with the group: “[They’re] very close in abilities and they work well in training to push each other every session.”

In the program’s third year as a national-training centre (based in Whistler, B.C.), Manhard commented on how far it’s come and the struggles it has endured.

“When I moved to Whistler, I was the first person in the athlete village (Olympic Village) and to see it now is quite amazing,” he wrote. “Creating the centre has been wonderful and stressful. There always seems to be more to add to the program and getting to know the Whistler locals has been slow so most of the time it tends to be the athletes and me.”

Team members live in athlete townhouses about 20 seconds away from Manhard’s home, making for “24-7 immersion,” he wrote.

“The rest of the training centres coaches have been very helpful and supportive in every way,” he added. “If I am having a problem with anything, I know that I can phone either the national team or training centre coaches and discuss the issues and options. I am happy where the training centre has made it to and despite a few setbacks along the way, the centre has grown tremendously and I am very happy to see where it is now.”

This season, Manhard’s especially impressed with his junior skiers and is excited to see who will lead them once racing starts.

“[Former nordic-combined skier Sebastien] Dandurand has been the skating leader in time trials and [Paul] Dupuis has been the double pole champion so far,” he wrote. “The seniors have stepped up their game, but Geoffrey continues to lead the pack in the time trials.”

However, Manhard didn’t overlook Townsend, who’s coming off an arm injury from last season and missed most of the time trials.

Extras:

The Callaghan Valley team starting their backpacking trip up Mount Assiniboine on the Great Divide of the British Columbia/Alberta border. (Photo by Geoffrey Richards)

The CVTC started its training season with a week of skiing at Callaghan Country Lodge in Callaghan Valley, B.C., according to Richards. In July, they completed two Yo-Yo sessions at lower and higher altitudes between Canmore, Alberta, and the nearby Haig Glacier. They also spent a few days backpacking and running along Mount Assiniboine on the Great Divide.

“Training so far this summer has been amazing,” Richards wrote in a message. “For me, the best season so far, Chris has really stepped this up this year and taken us to lots of cool new places to train.”

On a coaching note, when it comes to the role of Maclean (also a national-team wax technician), Manhard explained he is part-time and mostly involved with camps, early season work, and equipment management.

“He will be on the world cup for part of the winter and he is helping manage the tech side of Sochi [Olympics in 2014],” Manhard wrote. “We sit down at the beginning of the year and go over where my needs are the greatest for support and he fills in where possible.”

Lundgren could be working nearly full time next year to offset the seasonal absence of Maclean, but she recently had a child and has mostly been on administrative leave.

***

Other previews: Alberta World Cup Academy | NDC Thunder Bay | Pierre-Harvey NTC

CVTC skiers hiking out on their last day of backpacking at Mount Assiniboine on the British Columbia/Alberta border. (Photo by Geoffrey Richards)

September 6, 2012
Elite Team Preview: NDC Thunder Bay

A look at the National Development Centre (NDC) Thunder Bay 2012/2013 team (Courtesy photo).

This is the first preview in a quick-and-dirty series about Canadian 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: National Development Centre Thunder Bay

Coaches: Mark Doble (head coach); Victor Wiltmann (assistant)

Senior roster: Andy Shields, Dudley Coulter, Bob Thompson, Jimmy Gunka, Jordan Cascagnette;

Erin Tribe, Andrea Lee

Who’s new: Thompson, and according to coach Doble, he’s fitting right in.

“After having spent the previous three seasons in Canmore as a member of the [Alberta World Cup] Academy, Bob’s personal approach to ski racing is very consistent with the professional ski culture that exists in Canmore,” Doble wrote in an email. “As a result, he brings an added level of maturity and motivation which really helps to balance out the equally important mentality to enjoy every minute of what we do. “

Who’s missing: Michael Somppi, Chris Hamilton and Harry Seaton.

Somppi and Hamilton joined the World Cup Academy this year, which was a good move in terms of new training partners and competition for the coming season, Doble wrote. Seaton’s going to focus more on school and possibly race at the university level.

Erin Tribe (NDC Thunder Bay) competing at the Sovereign Lake NorAm near Silver Star, British Columbia, on Dec. 10. Tribe placed 18th in the classic sprint, and went on to record several NorAm top 10’s throughout the season. (Jesse Winter Photography/jessewinterphotography.com)

Top results last season: Lee, 21, won the 15 k freestyle mass start at a NorAm in Mont Orford, Quebec, and finished 10^th in the 30 k classic mass start at Canadian nationals. She and her teammate, Tribe, tallied several NorAm top 10s, and Tribe went on to place seventh, eighth and ninth at nationals in the skate sprint, 5 k classic and 30 k, respectively.

Hamilton had three top-50 results at U23 World Championships in Turkey, and Somppi – who’s also on the Canadian Senior Development Team – placed third at nationals in the 10 k classic and notched several NorAm podiums throughout the season.

Coach’s comment: When former head coach Eric Bailey announced he was leaving the Ontario team after eight years, Thunder Bay knew changes were coming. They got two new coaches, Doble from Team Hardwood and Wiltmann from the North Bay Nordic Ski Club, and Doble wrote that the spring and early summer went well.

“With me being new to the team, the athletes were forced to make a transition to a new coach and a new program,” he wrote. “As such, I felt that it was important to make this transition as easy as possible for the athletes, while, at the same time, continuing to do things in the way that I wanted and in the ways that I felt were the best for each athlete.”

According to Doble, May was hectic with Wiltmann not officially starting until the end of April, but Doble used his familiarity with Bailey’s training methods to ease the process.

“I also wanted to implement certain things that I knew were going to be a big change, and it was quite a balancing act to introduce these things in the right amounts and in the right way,” he wrote. “Establishing good communication was very important for this, which I feel has gone really well.”

For example, Gunka, who first admitted he was suffering from overtraining symptoms in January, is back to full-time training and using his experiences to move forward, Doble explained.

“We are in a place now where we have a very good idea of what each individual athlete needs, which has lead to some pretty drastic differences in training programs in certain cases. Every athlete has their own weaknesses, which constantly change as we train them. The fun part is to find what those weaknesses are, and then identify a strategy to remove that limitation.”

With Tribe, 23, as the oldest member of the seven-person squad, Doble found the team’s youth exciting.

“Two of our big goals for this year are to get as many people on the U23 Championships team as possible, and also capitalize on the National group spots for the Canadian World Cups,” he wrote. “I think these two goals are very motivating for this age group, and so it is awesome to work with really motivated athletes that are willing to take some risks and yet, at the same time, be very smart about the way they are preparing.”

August 1, 2012
Elite Team Preview: Bridger Ski Foundation

Torin Koos of the Bridger Ski Foundation elite team races to a fifth-place finish in the 30 k classic mass start at the 2012 U.S. nationals in Rumford, Maine. (Photo: Flying Point Road / flyingpointroad.com)

Note: This 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: Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) Nordic Elite Team

Coaches: Dragan Danevski (program director/head coach), Tim Baucom (assistant coach/service tech), Andrew Morehouse (service tech)

Roster: Torin Koos, Leif Zimmermann, Sawyer Kesselheim

Leif Zimmermann (BSF) during a NorAm classic-sprint qualifier at the Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre near Silver Star, British Columbia. (Jesse Winter Photography/ jessewinterphotography.com)

Who’s new: Kesselheim (A native of Bozeman, Mont., and former BSF junior who will be redshirting his sophomore year at Montana State University in an effort to make the 2013 World Junior Championships)

Who’s missing: None

Top results last season: A three-time Olympian, Koos landed on the SuperTour podium early last winter, placing second in both the classic and skate sprints in West Yellowstone, Mont. At U.S. nationals in January, he defended his sprint title in the skate race and was fifth in the 30 k classic mass start. Koos then flew to Norway to live and train for three months with the Strindheim Idrettslag ski club in Trondheim. This year, he’s focused on making the World Cup races in Canada and World Championships in Italy.

Zimmermann started last season with a SuperTour victory in the 15 k freestyle at West Yellowstone and landed several other top-10 results early on in the domestic circuit. The 2006 Olympian and four-time national champ was fifth at two NorAms (15 k classic and 15 k skate) last year, and won the Owl Creek Chase 21 k skate race in Aspen, Colo., and Winter Teva Mountain Games 10 k skate in Vail, Colo.

Kesselheim returns to Bridger after his freshman year at MSU, where he consistently placed in the top 15 at Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA) races. He qualified for NCAA Championships as MSU’s fourth man, was a three-time All-American and placed third at 2012 Junior Nationals in the OJ relay.

Coach’s comment: The elite team may be in various parts of the country and world – Koos is in Salt Lake City working toward his Master’s degree and Zimmermann recently spent two weeks in Peru leading a running trip up the Inca Trail – but they unite when needed. Koos joined the group in June during a 10-day on-snow camp in Bend, Ore., and he’ll return to Bozeman for several training blocks, according to coach Tim Baucom.

Torin Koos working out at a Bridger Ski Foundation training camp in Bend, Ore., in June. (BSF photo)

In an email, Baucom pointed out that Koos was recovering from shoulder surgery this time last year, unable to rollerski with poles and work on his upper body until the end of the summer.

“Right now he is well ahead of where he was last year, and we expect him to not only contend all major sprint events, but the distance events as well,” Baucom wrote. “Leif has been a major presence on the SuperTour for many years and if he stays healthy we expect to see him contending for the SuperTour distance title.”

The main focus for both Koos, who turns 32 next week, and Zimmerman, 28, will be the Canadian World Cups and 2013 World Championships, he added.

“For Sawyer, gaining experience at the national level is crucial for his development,” Baucom wrote. “He will still be a junior, and World Junior Championships are definitely a major goal.”

In late July, BSF heads north for a dryland camp in Canmore, Alberta.

***

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

Related: Koos Hitting the Books, Logging the Hours

July 11, 2012
Elite Team Preview: Far West Farm Team

Far West Farm Team veteran Phil Violett competing in the 2011 Auburn Ski Club (ASC) Summer Biathlon National Championships in Soda Springs, Calif. Violett won the men’s pro title. (Far West/Mark Nadell photo: www.macbethgraphics.com)

Note: This is the sixth preview 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: Far West Farm Team

Coaches: Ben Grasseschi (head coach), August Teague, Martin Benes

Roster: Phillip Violett, Wyatt Fereday

Who’s new: No one – yet. However, the team is looking to fill four spots on it senior Farm Team and will be sending out criteria and applications in September. Stay tuned to fasterskier.com and farwestnordic.org for more info.

Who’s missing: Elias Bucher (recently graduated University Nevada-Reno with a degree in health ecology), Gustavo Johnson (2011 University Nevada-Reno grad, English literature major), Kara LaPoint (training for Xterra triathlons) Michael Collins (according Grasseschi, moving on to the “real world.” Head nordic coach at Incline High School on Lake Tahoe).

Wyatt Fereday competing in February 2012. (Far West/Mark Nadell photo: macbethgraphics.com)

Top results last season: Bucher was the top overall skier at U.S. Collegiate Ski Association Championships (USCSA) in March, winning the 8.5 k race and placing second in two other events. He was 16th at the Boulder Mountain Tour and tallied multiple local wins or podiums, including the Sierra Ski Chase title.

Fereday finished fifth in the West Yellowstone Rendezvous 50 k, notched multiple local podiums and was 33^rd at the Boulder Mountain Tour. Violett ranked in the top 20 of U.S. biathletes last season. He placed second at the 10th Mountain Division Biathlon and posted several top-10 finishes in US Biathlon races.

Collins was 127th in this year’s American Birkebeiner skate race, and Gustavo Johnson ranked 43rd in the Boulder Mountain Tour and second to Bucher in the Sierra Ski Chase. LaPoint placed second in the Sierra chase and tallied multiple local podiums. A Team LUNA triathlete, she earned All-American Triathlete honors in 2011.

Coach’s comment: Head coach Grasseschi wrote in an email that the team was excited to welcome “a new crop of Farmers” in 2012/2013. He hoped applications would come out of the Far West College Residency Program in its second summer. According to Grasseschi, a few recent college grads were on the radar: Beth Taylor (Bates College), Spencer Eusden (Bowdoin College) and Noah Brautigam (Middlebury College).

“We have an amazing training venue here in sunny, beautiful Tahoe/California region and we also have a top-shelf coaching staff,” Grasseschi wrote. “Together, we hope to take this grassroots Farm Team to the major leagues!”

Other previews: Bend Endurance Academy | Craftsbury GRP | CXC | Maine Winter Sports Center | XC Oregon

June 27, 2012