Note: This is the 12th preview in our U.S. elite-team series, the “The 12.” We asked coaches to tell us what’s new and whom to look out for this season. We will be publishing Canadian training-centre profiles in the coming weeks.
Team: Far West Elite Team
Coaches: Martin Benes, August Teague
Roster: Franz Bernstein, Spencer Eusden, Wyatt Fereday, Patrick Johnson; Holly Whitney
Who’s new: Bernstein heads west after a standout career at the University of Vermont, where he was an NCAA champion in 2010. Bernstein remained in Vermont after graduating, as he pursued his MBA from UVM. With Masters degree in hand, the former member of the German Junior National Team will race in Far West colors for the first time 2012-14.
Eusden on the run this summer (Photo: Mark Nadell)
Joining Bernstein as a Far West rookie is Johnson, who wrapped up four impressive years at Middlebury College in 2012, before stepping right on to the professional circuit with the Sun Valley Gold Team. Johnson won his first SuperTour last season, and will join the Far West squad this fall after spending the summer at home in Anchorage, Alaska.
Who’s missing: Beth Taylor; Noah Brautigam, Phill Violett, Gus Johnson
All four of the above have moved on from competitive ski racing. Johnson and Brautigam are coaching, in California and Utah respectively, while Violett has shifted his focus to summer biathlon. Taylor, following a breakout season, has opted not to train full time or travel this year.
Back for more: Both Eusden and Whitney started with the Far West EliteTeam as part of the summer college training program. Obviously they found the mountains of California to their liking, and returned for more.
They attended East Coast colleges, Bowdoin and Williams respectively, and are heading into their second seasons with Far West.
The longest tenured member of the squad, Wyatt Fereday, just completed his master’s thesis at the University of Nevada, Reno, and is looking to build on strong results his third year racing out of California.
Whitney and Fereday after claiming victory on Valentines Day. (Photo: Mark Nadell)
Top results last season: Fereday placed an impressive 16th in the SuperTour Finals Hill Climb and 49th at the American Birkebeiner while consistently placing at the top in local events.
Eusden took 2nd at the Great Ski Race, 11th at the Aspen SuperTour in the 10k classic, 22nd at the Boulder Mountain Tour, and 21st in the SuperTour Finals Prologue.
The final returning member of the team, Whitney, won the local Tahoe Rim Tour and just missed the podium in the Great Ski Race, placing 4th.
Johnson did not race for Far West last season, but his results are impressive nonetheless, earning the victory at the Aspen SuperTour in the 10k classic, along with a 5th at US Nationals in the 15k freestyle, and 8th in the American Birkebeiner, where he was the top American finisher.
Bernstein, for his part, placed 8th in the Craftsbury Marathon.
Coach’s Comment: Benes is looking forward to the 2013-14 season with new faces joining the solid returning cast.
“This year’s edition of the team is definitely one of our strongest,” Benes said. “On the men’s side, adding Patrick Johnson and Franz Bernstein will be a big boost not only in training, but also by increasing the size of our travel squad.”
Both Bernstein and Fereday will be more focussed on local racing, though Fereday does plan to hit West Yellowstone, the American Birkebeiner and the Boulder Mountain Tour.
Benes expects Eusden to build off some strong results from last year, and should reap the benefits of some tough training.
“We had a big planned jump in terms of training volume last year, which combined with a move to altitude left him feeling pretty tired at times during the race season,” Benes explained. “This was to be expected, and he ended up with some big fitness gains. This year, we have leveled off his training a little and we should see payoff come winter.”
Like Fereday and Bernstein, Whitney will mainly race locally as she will also be coaching part-time after spending the summer in New England.
Johnson should be battling for top spots on the domestic circuit, and the team looks forward to his imminent arrival.
Mildly cold temperatures, partly sunny skies, and clean-cut tracks met the EISA teams this morning at the Trapps Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont for mass start 15 and 20 kilometer classic races.
UVM's Caitlin Patterson, Lucy Garrec, and Amy Glen, ski the last hill to the finish line for a 1-2-3 sweep on their home course
Stacking the podium in an impressive 1-2-3, the UVM women stole the show for the first day of their home carnival. Taking the lead early and keeping a distance on the field, the trio of Caitlin Patterson, Amy Glen, and Lucy Garrec skied into the last climb together, Patterson taking the win over Glen by 2 seconds at the line and Garrec another 5 seconds back. The Dartmouth and UNH women had a close contest for 2nd place team, as Rosie Brennan and Erika Flowers shuttled in at 4th and 5th, respectively, with teammate Annie Hart placing 11th for a combined score of 109, while UNH’s Elizabeth Guiney, Natasha Kullas, and Clare Egan stacked 6th through 8th place for a score of 104.
UVM head coach Patrick Weaver was not surprised by his women’s team but he was definitely happy with their performance.
“They’re definitely all capable of doing it, just seeing them all do it in one day is pretty cool.”
Weaver was especially impressed with the performances of Caitlin Patterson and Amy Glen, who recently traveled back from Junior Worlds and U23’s in Estonia, Glen getting stuck and spending the night in the Detroit airport on her way home.
UVM also captured the individual title in the men’s race, but lost the men’s team score by 10 points to Dartmouth. UVM’s Franz Bernstein clinched his first win of the season by out-sprinting Dartmouth’s Eric Packer to the finish line. Dartmouth’s Sam Tarling and Nils Koons followed on their teammate’s heels in 3rd and 4th. In 5th place, Dimitri Luthi of Williams broke up a two minute difference before UVM’s Scott Patterson and Dylan Grald finished in 6th and 7th.
UVM's Franz Bernstein (yellow jersey) sprints ahead of Dartmouth's Eric Packer on the last climb of the men's 20km race.
Bernstein, who took first and second places at last year’s NCAA championships but has not yet won a race this year, showed with his victory today that he is coming back into form. Bernstein, however, said that it may have been the race format – he is an especially strong distance skier and does well in mass start races – and not his race legs, that enabled the win.
“I was a little surprised with how well it went today,” said Bernstein, “but maybe it’s the home course – I really love this course, it’s good for classic striding.”
The races were held on the relatively new, Morton Trails-designed and homologated 5km track situated at the Trapps Family Lodge; ski-able terrain and wide trails which loop often through the large, open stadium make for spectator-friendly and clean-run mass start races.
Coach Weaver said although not everyone on his men’s team had their best race, as a team they put forth a very solid showing.
“You always want everybody to have the best race of their lives,” said Weaver, “but when we can ski six out of the top fourteen in this league, we’re pretty happy about it.”
Last year this category posed the biggest challenge with tough decisions for both the men’s and women’s award, but 2010 posed no such problems. Both winners were very strong during the regular season and dominating at the NCAA Championships.
Collegiate Skier of the Year (women):
Antje Maempel (GER). Maempel, racing for Denver University, became the first repeat winner of this award, following up her close win last year with a dominating season. She started all eight RMISA races, winning five of them and placing 2nd in the other three.
A native of Germany and a former member of the German National Team, Maempel saved her best performances for the end, winning both NCAA races, the second year in a row that she swept the Championships.
Honorable Mention:
Ida Sargent (USA). Dartmouth College’s Sargent was dominating during the regular season, winning seven of nine starts and finishing 2nd and 3rd in the other two. Sargent helped Dartmouth to victories in every regular season weekend. She did not race well at NCAAs however, placing 20th and 24th in the two races.
Antje Maempel (DU) on the top of the podium with Rosie Brennan (DAR) in 2nd, and teammate Mari Elden in 3rd.
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Collegiate Skier of the Year (men):
Franz Bernstein (GER). Bernstein made it a German sweep for the 2010 Collegiate Skier of the Year. The UVM sophomore won four of five EISA classic races and was 2nd in the other. While not as dominating in the skate races, he still won another race in that discipline, finished 2nd in another, and his worst result was a 7th.
At the NCAA Championships in Colorado Springs, Bernstein finished 2nd in the 10km classic, and won the 20km freestyle mass start by 1.2 seconds over Martin Kaas.
The 22-year-old native of Unterthingau, Germany was on the German National Team from 2005-2008 as a junior, and raced at the 2008 World Junior Championships.
Honorable Mention:
Martin Kaas (NOR). Kaas, a junior at UNM, was the top-ranked skier in the RMISA. He won five of eight races and was on the podium two other times. The 23-year-old Norwegian finished 5th in the 10km classic at the NCAA Championships and 2nd behind Bernstein in the 20km freestyle.
Matt Gelso (USA). Gelso, a former member of the US Ski Team accomplished the rare feat of winning a NCAA title as an American. The CU senior finished the season as the second ranked skier in the RMISA, winning two races and finishing second twice as well. He was never out of the top-10. In addition to his impressive 24 second victory in the NCAA Championship 10km, he placed 3rd in the 20km, less than four seconds out of the win.
Bernstein on his way to one of his many regular season wins (Photo: Lincoln Benedict)
The second and final race day of races at the 2010 NCAA National Collegiate Nordic Skiing Competition in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, hosted by the University of Colorado: 15 and 20 kilometer mass start skate races.
The morning was more gorgeous than expected at Howelsen Hill; with low overnight temperatures and predicted cloud cover never appearing, the sky was clear and the sun shone off fresh groomed, hard frozen track. The biggest questions on the wax techs’ minds was how quickly the temperature would raise and if the sun would transform the track from frozen ice crystals to wet mush. In preparation of predicted high temperatures in the upper 40’s, the race committee had decided to move the races one hour ahead of the scheduled 10am, so at the bright and early hour of 9am the men’s 20 kilometer mass start race was underway.
Conditions were very fast for the first half of the men’s race, after which the sun did transform the snow to make for more wet and slower conditions for the women’s race, but the track never became too soft or mushy, and combined with the many wide swaths of track around the 5km loop on Howelsen Hill, the races skied fast and fair.
After the initial sprint for position off the start of the men’s race, the pace – led by Thursday’s classic champion, Matt Gelso of CU – slowed considerably and the whole field skied together for the first of four laps around the 5 kilometer course.
Martin Kaas (1), Matt Gelso (4) lead MSU skiers Ryan Scott (30), Tyler Reinking and Bernhard Roenning with UVM winner Franz Bernstein at tail
Gelso led for much of the race. As he explained it, his plan was to be in the front pack and then push the pace on the third lap, but as he started the race and realized he didn’t feel strong he made a tactical decision to lead the pack from the start.
“ I just decided to lead the whole thing because otherwise I was gonna be yo-yoing off the back and probably not be anywhere near the top,” explained Gelso of his strategy, “so I figured if I set my own pace I’d probably be able to hang in there – and it worked out well.”
For not feeling in top form, Gelso sure didn’t slow the pace for long. The field was starting to spread out as they passed through the stadium after the second lap, and was strung out considerably by the third lap.
As race winner Franz Bernstein of UVM,explained, “ The race wasn’t that fast the first two laps, the field was still stuck together. Third lap it got a little bit faster, people dropped off a little bit and on the fourth lap, on the first steep hills, some people made a move.”
Those racers who made a move were Gelso, and Martin Kaas of Denver.
Gelso said, “I tried to kind of hammer the pace the 2nd, 3rd, and the beginning of the 4th [laps], but at the end of the 4th, right before the top of the corner at about two, two and a half K, Martin Kaas took off and I managed to cover his move somehow.”
Meanwhile, Bernstein found himself losing ground on the lead pack. “I actually dropped back a little bit and I had a gap of about 30 meters, but I was able to close on the flatter part on the top again.”
Winner Franz Bernstein, UVM, in lead on downhill after high point
Bernstein said he had more confidence about his chances of winning when it was just the three skiers left at the top of the final section of the course, a two kilometer series of downhills into the stadium.
“I knew I had a chance if I could stick with them,” said Bernstein.
Even after his second place finish in Thursday’s classic race, Bernstein wasn’t sure of his chances at topping the field on this day. “I had way better classic results this year than skating results so I was a little bit nervous; skiing at altitude and it’s a long race and especially Matt Gelso and Martin Kaas are really good skaters, I just [thought I would try] to stick with them as long as I can and maybe have a chance for a sprint and that was exactly what it came down to today.”
And that was what Gelso didn’t want to happen; when he made a move on the 4th lap he hoped to drop Bernstein for good.
“Then Bernstein caught us right before we started going downhill,” said Gelso, “and I was pretty nervous about that because I knew he was a good sprinter and that was exactly who I didn’t want to get in a sprint with.”
Gelso had a right to be worried, as Bernstein sprinted to the front and challenged Kaas, neck and neck, down the final stadium stretch to the finish line, where Bernstein edged Kaas but just over one second at the line.
Gelso finished third, 2.7 seconds behind Kaas.
Martin Kaas (UNM) and Franz Bernstein (UVM) sprint for win, Matt Gelso (CU for third
As he does not feel he is much of a sprinter Kaas said he was happy to have been so close at the line. He felt good about his race because after a great start to his season he then experienced several weeks leading up to the championships where he did not feel in top form.
When confirming that he was a junior in school this year with one year of eligibility left Kaas replied with a grin, “Yes, and next year I will win!”
Kaas will have to contend again with Bernstein, who is only a sophomore, but not with Gelso, who is a senior. Gelso remarked about his race and the championships, “With how I felt I am super psyched to be up there, I had a good weekend, my last NCAA’s. . . a national championship and third place, I think I can end my career on a good note.”
And by career he means college career. Though he is not positive what he will do next year (and, of course, everyone is asking him this question) he would like to keep his options open, “There’s a big chance I’ll take one more year of skiing and see what I can do, but who knows. . . .”
To wrap up this season Gelso may compete at the Gold Rush in California, but after that he’ll take a break from the Nordic scene . “I’m gonna go kayaking and have fun!”
The most impressive team showing in the men’s race came from the trio from Montana State, who skiied much of the race together and ended the race together as well, with a 5th-7th place sweep: Bernhard Roenning 5th, Tyler Reinking 6th and Ryan Scott 7th.With bib numbers 37, 19, and 30 (bib number denotes ranking in a mass start race) the men put on inspiring performances.
Maria Graefnings (CU) leads Antje Maempel(DU), Elena Hajkova (NEV), Alexa Turzian (CU) and Rosie Brennan (DAR)
The women’s race played out a bit differently than the men’s race. As is usually the case in women’s mass start events, the pace was kept high from the sprint off the start until the sprint to the finish line.
The race was led by a pack of women who soon separated themselves from the rest of the field. The lead pack consisted of Thursday’s classic champion, Antje Maempel from Denver University, Colorado’s Alexa Turzian and Eliska Hajkova, Nevada’s Maria Graefnings, and Dartmouth’s Rosie Brennan, who was runner-up in the classic race.
Maempel led a good portion of the race but said that the other women took turns pulling the lead as well. Starting the last lap, however, the lead pack was whittled down to three racers: Maempel, Turzian, and Hajkova.
Antje Maemple (DU) leads CU skiers Alexa Turzian and Aliska Hajkova in beginning of third lap
Then, Turzian pushed the pace. She knew, from having lost last year’s 15km skate in a sprint to the finish with Maempel, that the Denver skier had a fast closing speed. Trying to avoid another sprint finish and gunning for the win, Turzian planned to try and gain ground over Maempel before the last kilometer. But Maempel proved too strong a competitor, closing the gap on Turzian and pulling away in the final stretch to capture the win by six seconds.
Even with Turzian trying to gap her before the finish, Maempel said she was confident in her ability to take back the lead. “I’m a pretty good sprinter and I was coming from behind, which is always kind of an advantage.”
Antje Maempel, DU, wins the women's 15km skate (photograph: Curtis Snyder)
Turzian would have loved to take the victory, but said she was happy with her own race because she had executed her strategy as planned and though it did not result in the win she could have done nothing more.
Maempel was, of course, pleased with the race and jubilant about the double NCAA victories. She said that before the race she “felt pretty confident and I knew from our guys’ team that we had really good skis, so that helped.”
“It was actually pretty fun today,” Mempel continued, “I thought it was going to be really chaotic, as it usually is in the women’s races, but it was pretty relaxed. . .”
Maempel is a junior, but may graduate early and therefore not ski for Denver next season. She is already planning on graduate school and said that she probably will not continue ski racing, as skiing in Denver has been a great experience for her and the racing is “much more fun than I had back in Germany.”
Part of the fun, of course, is not only earning an individual victory, but helping your team to a victory as well. With Maempel’s win, Denver took the overall team championship title (which combines alpine and nordic results) for the third year in a row, with 785.5 points. Denver was one of four teams who had a full roster of 12 competitors (6 nordic and 6 alpine) in the championships, the other teams being Colorado, who placed second with 714 points, Utah (placing 4th) and Dartmouth. The University of Nevada, with one participant short of a full team, took third place in the team standings.
1st place team: University of Denver (alpine combined with nordic)
Colorado's Matt Gelso races to his first NCAA title (photo: Curtis C. Snyder)
Where East Meets West: The West took both individual titles with Colorado’s Matt Gelso and Denver’s Antje Maempel, while the East took runner-up titles with Vermont’s Franz Bernstein and Dartmouth’s Rosie Brennan.
– Led by Matt Gelso, Americans take three of six podium finishes on first day of NCAA Nordic Skiing Championships –
It was an unassumingly beautiful, 30 degree, wintry day at Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, but for racers and coaches of the first 2010 NCAA Nordic championships races, the tensions were high. Though the snowfall may have been picturesque to a tourist, there were 5 and 10 kilometer National Collegiate Titles on the line, and the difficult waxing conditions made for quite an agitated morning melee of coaching staff and assistants, frantic to find the perfect base cover combination for classic skis.
The snow started falling heavily Wednesday afternoon and continued sporadically during the night, delaying the grooming until just several hours before the races were held on Thursday morning. And the snow kept falling – through the entire women’s race and right through the men’s warm-up – until 10 minutes before the men’s start.
The fresh snow layered over large granular ice crystals, a product of warm and sunny daytime temperatures throughout the week, and accumulated as powder base in some parts of the track while glazing in others.
Denver’s Antje Maempel bests women’s field by 47 seconds
The women’s race started promptly at 9:30am with 30 second individual start intervals, and in 20 minutes the entire field was on course. After a quick one-lap race the victor was decided – and the name was no surprise to anyone who had been following the Western Regional races this season. University of Denver ‘s Antje Maemple, who was the 2009 NCAA champion in both classic and skate races, was also a dominant factor at her western region races this year – winning seven and taking second in the remaining three. Twenty-six years old, Maemple is from Stuetzerbach, Germany and is currently a junior at Denver who is pursuing a business degree. Maempel may have been the only one unsure of her strength this morning as she commented after the race,“I was actually really scared – I didn’t feel that great the last couple of days.”
But though she didn’t feel sure out of the start, Maempel was able to ski into her race form quickly and by the time she heard the first split times from her coaches she was well on her way to winning the race, giving her the boost she needed to finish strong.
“When I heard the first split times I thought ‘yeah, well, it’s going to be a good race’, and once you know that the time is good you kind of feel better,” Maempel explained.
An all-around skier who likes to race skate just as well as she does the classic technique, Maempel is now looking forward to Saturday’s mass start skate race.
“Yeah, I feel better,” Maempel said, adding, “I’m much more confident now.”
Rosie Brennan (DAR) in second, Antje Maempel (DU) in first, and Mari ELden (DU) in third for the women's NCAA 5km classic race (photo: Curtis Snyder)
Rosie Brennan, a junior from Dartmouth who has had a solid ski season on the east coast and even took time off to race at the January U23 Championships in Germany, came into these championships unsure of her health but hoping for the best. Dealing with a painful knee injury (a torn posterior cruciate ligament in her left knee which is slated for surgery this spring), Brennan felt fortunate to not only make it through today’s race, but to finish an impressive second place on the podium in a very competitive field.
“I was a little nervous,” described Brennan of her last-minute race preparations, “we were testing skis and nothing really felt that great so I didn’t really have enough time to test my race skis, but I trusted [Dartmouth coaches] Cami and Ruff and it worked really well, we had really good kick. My skis were a little slow on the downhill but I think having kick was good for this course because it was 3 kilometers uphill to start with.”
Though she goes to college on the east coast, Brennan grew up in Park City, Utah, and therefore she is no stranger to the feeling of racing at altitude. Still, it had been awhile since she had experienced that different sort of pain, and Brennan said of the thin air, “I definitely felt it – I got up the first hill and went ‘Oh, god, this is what it feels like, I haven’t done this in so long!’ and so I was actually kind of nervous, but I just tried to keep that pace and it didn’t get worse so I was like, ‘okay, I’m good, I’ll be fine’.”
More than fine, Brennan finished a solid 17 seconds ahead of third place, Maempel’s Denver teammate, Mari Elden. From Nandalseid, Norway, Elden is a 22 year old freshman at DU. After steadily improving her finish places all the way through regionals, Elden came into these championships ranked 8th in the region and continued stepping up the results list by finishing with a season’s best on the podium today.
Colorado’s Matt Gelso: “It was good to come out and do what I wanted to do.”
After a solid start to his season on the West, University of Colorado’s Matt Gelso caught fire just before regionals, winning both races at the Nevada Invitational on his home course near Truckee, CA, and blazing on to win both regional races two weeks ago at Howelsen Hill. Despite his recent wins, Gelso was nervous coming into this competition.
“I was a little tired in training this week and I was a little worried I had done too much volume in training after skiing so well at our last college season meet and then at our region championships, but I definitely felt strong today and was confident, and it was good to come out and do what I wanted to do.”
One thing Gelso wanted to do was prove to the Nordic world that Americans could keep contest for NCAA titles. Since 1976 only four American men have held the college national title, including Northern Michigan University’s Chris Cook who won the 20km classic race in 2003 and Dartmouth’s Glenn Randall who won the 10km skate in 2008.
Showing his promise as a junior racer, Gelso was lauded with high praise in 2007 from head U.S. Development Coach Matt Whitcomb who pronounced Gelso to be “arguably the most talented racer in the country,” adding,”If Matt can learn to balance life at CU with the demands of racing at the elite level, he will find himself quickly among the best in the country.”
Now 22 and a senior at CU, Gelso is proving good on those words.
Gelso contributes much of today’s success to the pacing of his season, but also says his focus on today’s specific race preparation was a key factor.
“I definitely felt good off the start, because I made sure I was super warmed up – I charged hard out of the start and was able to hold on through the whole race.”
Did this race give him reason to believe he could achieve another top result in the final skate race? “Yeah, this is confidence for Saturday,” Gelso replied with a grin, “historically I’ve skied well in skate races. I’m just going to enjoy it and – last college race – I’m gonna have fun.”
Today’s runner-up in the men’s race, University of Vermont’s Franz Bernstein, described why his pre-race ski preparation was a bit nerve-wracking.
“It was snowing all day long and then all of a sudden it stopped – the sun came out a little bit, the course got a little glassy – and it’s just really hard to find the right kick for that condition.”
Bernstein was thankful to his coaches that he ended up on “great skis”, and as a bonus he started with bib #38 (out of 39 racers), a great position from which to keep track of his competitors. A strong classic skier to begin with, Bernstein could enter the championships with a good deal of confidence after netting a top Eastern ranking with his victories in both Regional races.
“I had a pretty good season so far and I definitely hoped to be up there,” said Bernstein, who tried to chase down Gelso with the splits he received from his coaches.
“It was pretty tight for one and a half laps – [we] were back and forth a couple seconds, then in the end he made a move and I couldn’t follow him,” said Bernstein, concluding, “but I’m happy I got second.”
Not only were the conditions challenging, but Bernstein describes the test of racing above 2000 meters by saying, “At some point on the course – at the highest point – I wished I had an oxygen tank.”
Bernstein explained the difference in competing at a different height above sea level, “It’s difficult here to be at altitude – at home we can just start out really hard and go into the course with all you have, and here you have to change your tactics a little bit, ski easy in the beginning and try to make it through the course – I was a little nervous about that, but it ended up well.”
The big surprise of the day was third place in the men’s race: Nevada’s Charlie Smith. Smith is a sophomore from Bend, Oregon, who spent a good part of last year dealing with ski-race-burnout by trying a different sport: surfing. When he realized he missed the nordic sport, he came back to Nevada’s ski team, and though he started out the season with average results, he placed sixth at this year’s Regional 20km classic, a result which only gave a slight preview toward today’s podium result.
Men's 10km top 5: Vegard Kjoelhamar (CU) in 4th, Franz Bernstein (UVM) in 2nd, Matt Gelso (CU) in 1st, Charlie Smith (NEV) in 3rd, Martin Kaas (UNM) in 5th (photo: Curtis Snyder)
Team Scoring
Considered to be an “individual” sport by the NCAA governing body, ski racers qualify for the national collegiate championships via their individual results at regional qualifying races. Because of this, only a small portion of the teams represented at NCAA’s are able to fill a full squad of 3 men and 3 women. There is, however, still pride in the team rankings which are combined with alpine results in order to determine the overall team title. Currently, Denver sits in first after the first of two races in both nordic and alpine have been contested.
Next Up: The second of two NCAA nordic races: 15 and 20 km mass start skate, to be held on Saturday, March 13, at 9 and 11am, at Howelsen Hill.
Dimitri Luthi (WIL) and Franz Bernstein (UVM) lead the mass start race at 1km
Due to insufficient snow cover at the Dartmouth Cross Country Ski Center, the Carnival weekend has been moved back to the site of last weekend’s races: the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, VT.
The cold temperatures, wind chill, beautiful tracks, and blue skies with sunshine are also a repeat. But the icing on the déjà vu cake: Franz Bernstein of the University of Vermont and Ida Sargent of Dartmouth were again the classic champions.
Dartmouth's Rosie Brennan, Ida Sargent and Sophie Caldwell lead the women's mass start race out of the stadium
This time though, the classic races were mass start 15 and 20 kilometer distance races. Today’s is the only NCAA points race of the weekend, as tomorrow’s events will be 3x5km team relays.
Natalie Ruppertsberger of Bates (photo: Lincoln Benedict)
The women raced first, and the top three were no surprise: Sargent, wearing the yellow bib, proved she deserved the honor by winning with a decisive 24 second lead over UVM’s Caitlin Patterson. Sargent and Patterson both pulled their teams into the 1-2 positions as well. For the Dartmouth women, who have won every team event this season, the win was no surprise. Rosie Brennan, who has been a consistent top-3 racer all season, took third and teammate Katie Bono took 5th. UVM did put up a good fight however; Patterson’s teammates Jennie Bender and Caitlin Curran finished in 4th and 7th for their overall second place team score, just 8 points off first.
The only non-Dartmouth/UVM racer in the top nine was Natalie Ruppertsberger of Bates, who has had a stellar season so far and proved again today – taking the race lead for nearly a third of the race – that she has the speed to challenge her competitors on the podium. With Ruppertsberger’s result, Bates women took third.
The top 15 finishers in the men’s mass start 20 km race completed the three-lap course in under an hour. With one lap to go, Bernstein surged to a lead that his competitors could not follow, and he finished with a 14 second cushion. The surprise performance of the men’s race went to Saint Lawrence University’s Benjamin Knowles. Knowles made his move during the second half of the race, skiing just off the pace of Bernstein, in second, for the last kilometers of the race. Meanwhile, Patrick Johnson who also held on to the lead pack, fought his way up to third place and ended his race with a sprint to the finish with Knowles, who edged Johnson at the line by just seven tenths of a second.
Ben Knowles (SLU) leads Patrick Johnson (MID) into the finishing stretch
Knowles led his teammates Zach Weatherell and Eric Wolcott, who finished in 11th and 12th, to a second place team score. Knowles, Weatherell, and Wolcott are all seniors, and are closely contesting for NCAA spots. They have consistently finished in the top-10 and top-15 all season, and as a team they have had continually stronger results. Placing third at the St Michael’s classic relays, they tied Middlebury for second at last weekend’s UVM carnival and now promise to be contenders for the top finish in tomorrow’s skate relay races.
Knowles said he didn’t want to the jinx the team by talking about tomorrow’s relays, but he has confidence in the team’s fitness and their ability to have a good result. Though the three are proficient at both techniques, Knowles thought they might even prove stronger at a skate relay, since Weatherell has had his best results in that technique. Knowles doesn’t take his competition lightly, however, pointing out that there are really five teams in contention for the relay win.
Speaking of his own results, Knowles said that taking the fall semester off school – living and training at home – was a definite advantage. Speaking to his team’s results, Knowles points to good, consistent training, and says that the past two weekends of success have created a “momentum” for the trio.
Though Dartmouth did not have a podium winner in the men’s race today, they did stack places fourth through seventh for the top team score. Patrick O’Brien, Nils Koons and Eric Packer had a combined score of 117 points. In second was SLU with 106, and the third team with 102 points was Middlebury.
The close team scores in today’s races bode for exceptionally competitive relays tomorrow, complete with exciting scrambles, nerve-wracking tag zones, and photo finishes. If you are in the area you won’t want to miss it! The men race at 9 and the women at 10am.
They were ideal conditions for a classic race. Cold – but not too cold, blue skies, sunshine, and precision cut tracks. Luckily, these were also the type of conditions that could withstand a lot of racing traffic, as the college carnival was also combined with an Eastern Cup and the total number of participants numbered more than 450.
Designed by Morton Trails, the race venue at Trapps Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont is in the process of FIS homologation certification. The course is skiable but challenging, and all races were run on a tough 5km loop that starts on a downhill and ends on an uphill: one lap for the women and two for the men.
Ida Sargent winning the 5km classic (photo: Lincoln Benedict)
The women’s race was run first, as the sun was just starting to warm the air. Dartmouth’s Ida Sargent and Rosie Brennan, back from a successful trip to Germany for the U23 Championships, reasserted their place in the college carnivals by placing first and third. With a 4th place finish from teammate Katie Bono, the Dartmouth women were ensured a team victory.
Also just back from Germany, Caitlin Patterson of UVM placed second, right next to the women who were her teammates overseas and are now her competitors on the eastern circuit. Patterson led her team to a second place finish, aided by a 6th place from UVM teammate Jennie Bender.
Furthering his team’s success, UVM’s Franz Bernstein dominated the men’s race by finishing the 10 kilometer course in a time of 29:29.7, exactly 33 seconds ahead of his closest competitor.
Bernstein didn’t wake up feeling he could take on the field, but a home course and home crowd advantage can never be underestimated.
“In the morning I didn’t feel that great, I had a sore throat,” explained Bernstein, “but I felt really well into the race and right from the start I had the feeling that I could win today.”
“Until the last half of the second lap I was still in second, and on the last uphill I got into a really good striding. It was pretty close until the end, but after the last hill I felt still strong and I finished well.”
Bernstein agreed that being at home had its benefits. “We skied here so many times – it definitely helps,” said Bernstein, “and the home crowd is just awesome.”
With Bernstein’s win the UVM men took 6th, and overall – combined with alpine scores – the team is leading the scoreboard into tomorrow’s last event of nordic skate races. Bernstein is hopeful of his team’s continuing success, but not ready to make predictions.
“ [Tomorrow] is just another day here at the UVM Carnival and hopefully we can end up as well as we did today.”
Continuing their momentum from their sprint relay win at St Michael’s, the Middlebury men stole the thunder from Dartmouth today, putting six men inside the top fifteen. Dylan Grald placed third, just one second behind 2nd place Nils Koons of Dartmouth. Grald’s teammates Patrick Johnson and Doug Debold provided the final two team scores with their 6th and 7th place finishes.
![Eusden on the run this summer (Photo: Mark Nadell)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/09/drifter-tt-aug13_eusden-s-web.jpg")
![Whitney and Fereday after claiming victory on Valentines Day (Photo: Mark Nadell)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/09/tdxc-valentines2013_whitney-f.jpg")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2011/02/IMGP2875.jpg" "IMGP2875")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2011/02/IMGP2887.jpg" "IMGP2887")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2011/02/IMGP2929.jpg" "IMGP2929")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2011/02/IMGP2910.jpg" "IMGP2910")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2011/02/IMGP2953.jpg" "IMGP2953")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2010/03/IMG_6996-1.jpg" "Rosie Brennan (DAR) in second, Antje Maempel (DU) in first, and Mari ELden (DU) in third for the women's NCAA 5km classic race (photo: Curtis Snyder)")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2010/02/franz-bernstein-yellow-jersey-photo-Lincoln-Benedict.jpg" "Franz Bernstein (UVM) keeps the classic yellow jersey (photo Lincoln Benedict)")
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/2010/04/Medal-2010.jpg" "FasterSkier Awards 2010")
