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.
A glance at Lookout Mountain in Golden, Colorado, where the DU Ski Team held an uphill skate workout last month. (Photo: Mads Ek Strøm)
At the end of Mads Ek Strøm’s senior year at the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU), the 26-year-old Norwegian had some decisions to make. He started by looking for a job in the U.S., specifically in the finance industry, in addition to pursuing a master’s degree in finance.
Mads Ek Strøm of the University of Colorado-Boulder racing to a first place finish in the mens 10 k freestyle race at the 2016 NCAA Skiing Championships in Steamboat Springs, Colo. (Photo: CUBuffs/Buffzone.com)
Then the three-time National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) champion — who won back-to-back races at the 2016 championships and came 0.5 seconds from a fourth NCAA title last year — got a call from Dave Stewart, head coach of the University of Denver (DU) Ski Team.
DU’s assistant coach for the last six years, Hakon Johansen, had accepted a position as head coach of the Chinese biathlon federation, which is aiming to strengthen its snow-sports teams in advance of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Stewart explained in an email to FasterSkier.
“When I started thinking about a new coach, Mads was a top choice immediately based on his experience as a competitor, as an NCAA student-athlete and from what I know he invested in his own training and in his teammates,” Stewart wrote of the Oslo native. “I have a lot of faith in a coach who is motivated to pass on to his athletes what he learned from his own experiences.”
“I couldn’t say no when the offer from DU came along,” Strøm wrote in an email. “It’s been awesome so far and it was a great way to still be a part of the skiing community.”
Mads Strøm (r) and Linn Eriksen were FasterSkier’s Collegiate Skiers of 2016. Strøm is now an assistant coach at DU and Linn Eriksen, also from Oslo, Norway, is a senior at DU. (Photo: Curtis Snyder of the CU Sports Information Dept. and Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA photos).
His responsibilities include discussing training plans with athletes and helping them reach their goals, he explained.
“As a coach, I really hope I can help the all the athletes develop as skiers but also as human beings,” Strøm added. “Their goals are my goals and hopefully we can bring back the national championship to Denver for the 24th time. I really want to develop skiers and potentially find and help US skiing to another level.”
“Mads has hit the ground running here and has been received well by our team,” Stewart noted. “We have a very motivated and fun team this year. A few young new faces and enough experienced returners among both women and men to lead the way. As always, our goals will be to be better than we have been before both individually and as a team and win NCAA’s.”
We asked Strøm for a Wednesday Workout, and he shared one of the best ones he knows: Level 3 uphill skate intervals.
DU senior Linn Eriksen skating up Lookout Mountain in Golden, Colorado, last month. (Photo: Mads Ek Strøm)
“You get to increase your VO2 (Level 3-4) and you get lots of repetitive movement which makes you able to work on technique over a longer period of time in ‘race pace’,” he explained.
“Before the workout try to make it THE workout of the week, as the interval sessions are the ones that makes you a better skier,” Strøm wrote. “Try to create a training plan where you are rested both physically and mentally the morning of the workout. The second session of the day should be a recovery workout (double poling with core strength or just easy running for 45 minutes to an hour).”
The Workout: Level 3 6-8 x 8-minutes skate uphill
Warmup: Easy skiing for 30 minutes, some minor speed increases to make the body ready for a hard workout.
The Interval: 6 to 8 times 8-minutes uphill skate. Try to pace it so that every single interval is slightly faster. The last one should be in the form of 30/30, where you try increase the pace for 30 seconds and then rest for 30 seconds and do it 8 times; to increase speed and the tolerance for lactic acid to make it race specific.
Cool down: 10 minutes of Level 1 and 5 minutes of Level 2 to remove as much lactic acid as possible. Remember food and drink after the workout as soon as possible (protein bars, Gatorade, etc.)
DU sophomore Eivind Kvaale skating up Lookout Mountain in Golden, Colorado, last month. (Photo: Mads Ek Strøm)
Photos from the final day of the 2017 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships, with the men’s 20-kilometer freestyle mass start taking place on a 5 k loop at the Jackson Ski Touring Center in Jackson, N.H.
Denver’s Moritz Madlener (1) leading out of the start while Utah’s eventual winner Martin Bergström (at right) cuts in. (Photo: Karen Brown)
Denver’s Moritz Madlener (1) leading out of the start with Colorado’s Petter Reistad. (Photo: Karen Brown)
Denver’s Moritz Madlener and Dag Frode Trollebø leading the pack out of the start.
Up the first climb they go
Colorado’s Petter Reistad leading Denver’s Dag Frode Trollebø (11) on the first of four laps.
NMU’s Adam Martin (2) leading DU’s Dag Frode Trollebø while leading the race on the start of Lap 2, a little over 5 k in.
DU’s Moritz Madlener (1) leading NMU’s Adam Martin (2), CU’s Mads Ek Strøm (35) and DU’s Dag Frode Trollebø (far left) on the second of four laps.
Utah’s Martin Bergström skiing in sixth just behind the leaders on the second of four laps.
Michigan Tech’s Gaspard Cuenot (6) skiing ahead of Williams’s Jordan Fields (10) just behind the leaders on Lap 2.
Jordan Fields of Williams chasing the leaders on Lap 2 at the 2017 NCAA DI skiing championships.
UVM’s Juri Miosga (23), UNM’s Arnaud Guyon (15), Williams’s Eli Hoenig (16), and Dartmouth’s Fabian Stocek (3) chasing on Lap 2.
Utah’s Martin Mikkelsen leading Denver’s Lars Hannah (12) on Lap 2
Colby’s Zane Fields (8) racing at the 2017 NCAA Championships last season. This season, he became the school’s first cross-country skiing All-American.
Denver’s Moritz Madlener (1) leading a downhill on the second lap, with Colorado’s Mads Ek Strøm (35) right behind him.
CU’s Petter Reistad (7) and Utah’s Martin Bergström on a downhill on Lap 2.
Williams’s Eli Hoenig leading a chase group down a hill on Lap 2 with Utah’s Kevin Bolger, Williams’s Jordan Fields, Utah’s Martin Mikkelsen, and DU’s Lars Hannah behind him.
The start of Lap 3, with CU’s Mads Ek Strøm leading Denver’s Moritz Madlener and NMU’s Adam Martin.
Denver’s Moritz Madlener leading on Lap 3 of 4, followed by NMU’s Adam Martin, CU’s Mads Ek Strøm, and Dartmouth’s Fabian Stocek, respectively.
NMU’s Adam Martin (l) and Dartmouth’s Fabian Stocek chasing DU’s Moritz Madlener (not shown) down a hill toward the stadium near the end of Lap 3.
The start the final lap, with DU’s Moritz Madlener (l) leading NMU’s Adam Martin (2), Dartmouth’s Fabian Stocek (3), and CU’s Mads Ek Strøm (35) and Petter Reistad (behind Stocek).
Utah’s Martin Bergström (9) leading Denver’s Moritz Madlener (1) and CU’s Petter Reistad down the finishing stretch. (Photo: Karen Brown)
DU’s Moritz Madlener (1), CU’s Mads Ek Strøm (35) and Petter Reistad (7) and Dartmouth’s Fabian Stocek (behind Reistad) chasing Utah’s Bergström (not shown) toward the finish. (Photo: Karen Brown)
CU’s Petter Reistad (r) and Dartmouth’s Fabian Stocek racing toward the finish. (Photo: Karen Brown)
Petra Hyncicova of the University of Colorado-Boulder leading the women’s 15 k freestyle mass start out of the start on Saturday, the last day of NCAA Skiing Championships in Jackson, N.H., with Northern Michigan’s Nicole Schneider (2) and UVM’s Alayna Sonnesyn (3) right there with her.
JACKSON, N.H. — Two years ago, Martin Bergström quit skiing.
A month ago, Petra Hyncicova took three weeks off skiing following U23 World Championships due to a painful bursa between her Achilles tendon and heel bone.
Less than a week after resuming training, Hyncicova, a 22-year-old Czech Republic native and University of Colorado-Boulder (CU) junior, raced to two National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Skiing Championships titles — the first of her career — in Jackson, N.H.
The University of Utah ski team celebrates its first NCAA title since 2003 on Saturday, March 11 at 2017 NCAA Skiing Championships in Jackson, N.H. (Photo: Flyingpointroad.com)
Bergström, a 25-year-old Swedish freshman at the University of Utah, did the same, winning both nordic races at 2017 NCAA Championships and leading the Utah Ski Team to its first team title since 2003.
Then on Saturday, with temperatures hovering just above the legal racing limit of -20 degrees Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) and winds ripping across the field that served as the stadium, the two international skiers completed their championships sweep with wins in the women’s 15 k and men’s 20 k freestyle mass starts.
“When the season started, I figured that I was in really good shape this year,” said Hyncicova, whose previous best NCAA Championships result was second in the skate race last year in Steamboat Springs, Colo. “I was hoping that I could be on the podium again at NCAA’s and maybe hoping that I could win the skate race, but after winning the classic race and after the injury and everything I can’t believe it. It’s insane for me.”
“Two years ago, I quit skiing back in Sweden and I took one year of just studying,” Bergström said. “And then a friend of mine was on the [Utah] team, and he said there were spots open and that I should try a different environment of skiing and studying and that I could come over here. So I talked to the coaches, and eventually went for this trip and have had so much fun and made many friends. I’m just so happy I came here.”
On Saturday, Bergström led three Utah men in the top 10, with Martin Mikkelsen placing eighth and Kevin Bolger 10th. The three scored 84 points and their women’s team emerged as the second-highest scorers in the second race of the day to give the Utes a 16.5-point win over Colorado (CU) to end the championships.
Reflecting on his win on Saturday, before the women’s 15 k, Bergström anticipated it would be a tall order to win the team title.
“It’s been amazing, and it’s an amazing team,” he said of his season with Utah. “All the training we’ve done and the work we’ve put in this fall and winter. I’m just so happy. Hopefully there’s a slim chance the girls can pull off an amazing race. We’ll see.”
Utah Director of Skiing Kevin Sweeney later explained just how difficult it was to come from second place on Friday to take the win over CU and Denver University (with Denver finishing third, just one point behind Colorado). In the last decade of NCAAs, Colorado has placed first or second seven times, according to a press release. Denver is next in line with six top-two finishes (including five titles) since 2008.
“We’ve been crunching numbers and have been able to beat Denver and Colorado by about 30 points on a really good showing during the RMISA [Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Skiing Association] season, but didn’t know if we could do it in the championships,” Sweeney said, according to a Utah press release. “Bergström was skiing at a whole new level this week, and Mikkelsen had stepped it up, and I knew Kevin Bolger could get top 10. I was also confident in the women, who have been skiing awesome, so I felt good there. It’s awesome to be able to take this new trophy back to our new ski building.”
Bergström’s Late Move
The men’s 20 k came down to a five-way sprint to the line, with Bergström taking the win by 0.5 seconds over Mads Ek Strøm, CU senior and two-time 2016 NCAA champion.
Utah’s Martin Bergström (9) leading CU’s Mads Ek Strøm (35) and Petter Reistad (7) and DU’s Moritz Madlener (behind Bergström) down the finishing stretch of the men’s 20 k freestyle mass start at 2017 NCAA Skiing Championships on Saturday in Jackson, N.H. (Photo: Karen Brown)
After Denver’s Moritz Madlener led most of the race, Bergström moved to the front on the start of the fourth and final lap. With 5 k remaining, six men remained together: Bergström, Madlener, Strøm, Adam Martin of Northern Michigan University (NMU), Fabian Stocek of Dartmouth College, and Petter Reistad (CU). On the final lap, the group began to string out and Bergström opened up the narrow lead he needed to win at the finish, crossing in 46:02.8 minutes.
“I just went for it,” Bergström said. “Tried to check who still had power in the legs. Moritz just answered when I upped the tempo, and he continued my push in the second lap, and I knew I was faster in the finish than Moritz, so he had to make his move before the sprint. As an old sprinter, I feel pretty comfortable making a pass. I can maneuver pretty efficiently. I was just happy too see that it was a high-tempo, pack finish, and with the wind and everything, I think it was smart to go a little before the final stretch.”
On the final lap, Strøm, the defending champion who won both races at last year’s NCAAs, tried to position himself near the lead going into the first climb out of the stadium, just in case someone attacked.
“They went kind of fast up there, but not too fast, and I was in fourth and I felt pretty good,” Strøm, a 25-year-old Norwegian, said. “Adam Martin caught me sleeping, and gave a gap, so I had to pass him.”
With about 2 k to go, Strøm said about four men remained in the front group before his teammate, Reistad, pushed to latch back on.
“Petter came back up, and I was like, ‘Come on dude, just use the speed and try to move up and take the lead,’ and he did,” Strøm said.
On the pivotal last A-climb at the top of the course, Strøm found himself in third and unsure of his next move.
“I wasn’t sure how strong the people in front of me were,” he said. “I should have done something sooner, over the last hill of the race. It’s kind of short, the last stretch of the race. I felt pretty good so I’m a little disappointed in second.”
Saturday stood as Strøm’s second skate race of the season. He had appendix surgery in January.
“I hadn’t raced much this year,” he said. “At first, I felt pretty good, actually.”
He started Thursday’s 10 k classic in bib 1 and double poled to eighth place.
“We decided on double poling and I started bib 1, and I got pretty screwed by that because I had to plow all the snow out of the way,” Strøm said. “I knew the shape was good, and today I was just… I mean second place is OK, but I wanted to win.”
Just 0.1 seconds behind Strøm on Saturday, Madlener, a 23-year-old German senior who placed second and third at NCAA’s last year, achieved his first podium of the week, 0.6 seconds out of first.
Reistad finished fourth (+1.2), Stocek fifth (+1.9) and Martin, who was in podium contention until the final lap, sixth (+18.7).
Asked what his skiing plans are now, Bergström wasn’t sure.
“I started a civil engineering program back home, and I have two years of eligibility here, but I don’t know,” he said. “I took a chance, and came here, but I haven’t decided if I’m going to stay or not, but we’ll see.”
Hyncicova Goes For It
Petra Hyncicova (University of Colorado-Boulder) celebrates her second-straight 2017 NCAA Skiing Championships title on Saturday after winning the women’s 15 k freestyle mass start at the Jackson Ski Touring Center in Jackson, N.H. (Photo: Flyingpointroad.com)
Two-time 2017 women’s champion Hyncicova, who broke away from the pack with the University of Vermont’s (UVM) Alayna Sonnesyn halfway though the women’s 15 k, said coming to the U.S. was one of her best decisions.
“I’m so glad I went to the U.S. Every year I’m more and more glad,” she said. “This year was actually supposed to be my last year. I have one more year of NCAA eligibility so I applied for a master’s program so I can be here next year also and I’m so excited.”
She raced to a 21.1-second victory over Sonnesyn on Saturday in 39:21.6. The next-closest finisher, Hyncicova’s CU teammate Christina Rolandsen, crossed 17.8 seconds later in third (+38.9).
“Starting with bib 1, it’s easy to be first out of the start,” Hyncicova said of leading out of the start.
After setting the pace for the first 5 k, she tucked behind Rolandsen, a Norwegian sophomore, to start the the second lap.
“I was trying on each lap to make a little bit smaller group, and I saw my teammate Christina so I was trying to get her in the group [so] we could go together,” Hyncicova added.
When she noticed Rolandsen tiring on the second lap, she surged back to the front.
“Then I took off a little bit,” Hyncicova said. “It wasn’t intentional, but Alayna stuck with me, so I was like, ‘OK, we can do it together. It will be nice to go just in two.’ ”
Sonnesyn, a junior from Minnesota, led the two-woman breakaway for roughly four kilometers, up until the final A-climb of the race.
“Coming through this field, it’s so windy, no one wanted to be up front,” Sonnesyn reflected. “I knew that she didn’t want to take the lead, I could tell, but I thought that if I sat back and didn’t take the lead either, the other girls were gonna come back and catch us and I didn’t want that to happen.
“I kind of knew what was going to happen,” she added of Hyncicova’s game-changing move on the last hill. “She made a really great move up one of the hardest hills up to the high point and I was so impressed with how fast she could ski. I wanted to stay with her, but I just couldn’t. … I mean, she just took off. It was impressive.”
While the women’s race included several downhill crashes on a hard-packed course, including a close one from Sonnesyn while she was leading on the second lap, Hyncicova said she wasn’t afraid to send it.
“I love downhill skiing on nordic skis, so for me, it was really fun,” Hyncicova said. “I’m not scared and I enjoyed it.”
For Sonnesyn, second place marked her second podium of 2017 NCAAs after placing third last Thursday. In two NCAA appearances before that, she had yet to crack the top 20.
“I am so happy with the way things went,” Sonnesyn said on Saturday. “I definitely had some high goals for this week. I haven’t had the best luck with my NCAA experiences in the past and so I knew I could be competitive this year, but I didn’t know how competitive I could be.”
She made a point to focus on how she was feeling and not worry about anyone else, both in Thursday’s individual start and Saturday’s mass start.
“It’s tough to break away on this course, so I knew that if someone was going to break away I didn’t want to be the one to do it, but I wanted to be with them,” she added. “And that’s kind of exactly how it happened. I’m just so happy with the way things went this whole week. … I feel like I’ve improved so much over these last few years with Patrick Weaver as a coach. He’s helped me so much just to become a better skier. I love the sport and I’m just so excited for next year.”
After Anika Miller of Montana State University (MSU) placed fourth (+44.0), Utah took fifth and sixth with Merete Myrseth (+1:01.5) and Guro Jordheim (+1:16.1), and was the only women’s team with all three in the top 14 with Natalia Müller in 14th (+1:32.1). In all, the Utah women scored 73 points (behind Colorado with 77) to help their program notch its 11th NCAA Skiing title.
“The turning point of today is when Guro broke a pole, and she was back in the 20’s, and she and Natalia were skiing together,” Sweeney said, according to the press release. “We told them that they had to go and they busted out and made a big move. The men’s results were tremendous, but whether or not we were going to win was based on those guys making the move. It was exceptional athleticism and gutsy performances.”
Behind Utah with 541.5 points, CU (525) and DU (524) in the top three, Dartmouth placed fourth (400), UVM fifth (355), and MSU sixth (320) in the four-day alpine-nordic, season-ending series.
The University of Utah ski team celebrating its first NCAA title since 2003 on Saturday at 2017 NCAA Skiing Championships in Jackson, N.H. (Photo: Jason Clay/Colorado)
NCAA Skiing Championships (Jackson, N.H.): 15/20 k freestyle mass starts
On the final day of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Skiing Championships in northern New Hampshire, the University of Utah pulled out a 16.5-point victory over the University of Colorado-Boulder (and finished 17.5 points ahead of the University of Denver) in the team standings, and the two previous NCAA champions from Thursday’s 5/10 k classic races, Martin Bergström and Petra Hyncicova, achieved their second-straight titles in as many nordic races this week.
On a frigid Saturday morning in Jackson, N.H., with temperatures just below zero Fahrenheit for the start of the men’s 20 k freestyle mass start, Bergström, a Utah freshman from Sweden, outlasted the University of Colorado’s (CU) Mads Ek Strøm, a Norwegian senior and two-time 2016 NCAA champion, by 0.5 seconds to win his second-straight race in 46:02.8 minutes. Moritz Madlener, a German senior at Denver University (DU), placed third (+0.6). Just behind him CU’s Petter Reistad, of Norway, finished fourth (+1.2), and Dartmouth College’s Fabian Stocek, of the Czech Republic, placed fifth (+1.9).
While temperatures warmed up to about 1 degree for the women’s 15 k freestyle mass start and the wind picked up to about 15-20 miles per hour, the women raced three laps around the Jackson Ski Touring Center’s race loop and navigated even faster downhills that caused a few crashes.
Hyncicova used her love for downhills and skate races to capture her second consecutive NCAA title, breaking away with University of Vermont (UVM) junior Alayna Sonnesyn on the second lap. The Czech Republic native and CU junior attacked on the A-climb at the top of the course and won by 21.1 seconds in 39:21.6. Sonnesyn, of Minnesota, bested her third place from Thursday’s 5 k with a second-place finish on Saturday. CU’s Christina Rolandsen, of Norway, finished third (+38.9), ahead of Idaho native Anika Miller of Montana State University (MSU) in fourth (+44.0).
Utah took fifth and sixth with Merete Myrseth (+1:01.5) and Guro Jordheim (+1:16.1), and had two other men in the top 10 (Martin Mikkelsen in 8th and Kevin Bolger in 10th) to achieve the alpine-nordic team title.
In the women’s race, the Utes were the only team with all three women in the top 14, with Natalia Müller in 14th (+1:32.1).
“The turning point of today is when Guro broke a pole, and she was back in the 20’s, and she and Natalia were skiing together,” Utah Director of Skiing Kevin Sweeney said, according to a team press release. “We told them that they had to go and they busted out and made a big move. The men’s results were tremendous, but whether or not we were going to win was based on those guys making the move. It was exceptional athleticism and gutsy performances.”
The NCAA team title was the 11th for Utah and its first since 2003.
“I am stunned with the win today,” Sweeney added. “In all my years of coaching, it was one of the most challenging four days of competition. I say that because the weather was incredibly cold and windy, and challenging from both a waxing perspective, as well as visibility and conditions. I know all the teams had to deal with it, but it really beat us up. It took a lot of perseverance and gutsy performances for us to win. We struggled a little bit in the slalom, but they were going for it and came up short.
“We’ve been crunching numbers and have been able to beat Denver and Colorado by about 30 points on a really good showing during the RMISA season, but didn’t know if we could do it in the championships,” he continued. “Bergström was skiing at a whole new level this week, and Mikkelsen had stepped it up, and I knew Kevin Bolger could get top 10. I was also confident in the women, who have been skiing awesome, so I felt good there. It’s awesome to be able to take this new trophy back to our new ski building.”
As for those earning All-American status on Saturday with a top-10 finish, Utah had five (Bergström 1st, Myrseth 5th, Jordheim 6th, Mikkelsen 8th, Bolger 10th), Colorado had four (Hyncincova 1st, Strøm 2nd, Rolandsen 3rd, Reistad 4th), Denver had two (Madlener, Dag Frode Trollebø 7th), MSU had two (Miller 4th, Johanna Talihärm 7th), Dartmouth had two (Stocek 5th, Luke Brown 9th), UVM had one (Sonnesyn 2nd), Northern Michigan University (NMU) had one (Adam Martin 5th), the University of Alaska-Fairbanks (UAF) had one (Sarissa Lammers 8th), UNH had one (Lizzie Gill 9th), and Bowdoin had one (Hannah Miller 10th).
Stay tuned for a more in-depth report with quotes and photos from Saturday’s skate mass starts.
USSA Cross Country Junior Championships (Lake Placid, N.Y.): Freestyle team relays
The 2017 U.S. Junior Nationals Alaska Cup winners, New England, at the awards ceremony on Saturday in Lake Placid, N.Y. (Photo: XCJuniorNationals2017/Facebook)
[UPDATED] For the final day of 2017 U.S. Junior Nationals in Lake Placid, N.Y., regional divisions formed three-racer teams for the U16, U18 and U20 freestyle relays.
Intermountain swept the U16 team events with Lane Myshrall, Skylar Patten and Johnny Hagenbuch winning the U16 boys’ relay by 3.6 seconds over the Midwest’s James Schneider, Alexander Nameth and Peter Moore in 23:00.4 minutes. Another 1.1 seconds back, Alaska reached the podium in third (+4.7) with Eli Hermann, Zander McMullen and George Cvancara.
Intermountain’s U16 girls’ team of Sarah Morgan, Annabel Hagen and Sydney Palmer-Leger posted a 53.7-second victory over New England’s Charlotte Ogden, Anna Lehmann and Abigail Streinz, winning in 26:21.4. The Pacific Northwest finished 18.1 seconds later in third place (+1:29.9) with Fiona Max, Gretta Scholz and Annie McColgan.
Alaska won the U18 boys’ relay with Luke Jager, Canyon Tobin and Gus Schumacher finishing in 21:42.9, 7.5 seconds ahead of New England’s Elliot Ketchel, Adam Glueck and Ben Ogden in second. The Midwest’s Anders Sonnesyn, Patrick Acton and Luc Golin rounded out the podium in third (+22.2).
Rocky Mountain topped the U18 girls’ relay with Katja Freeburn, Ezra Smith and Maddie Donovan crossing first in 25:47.3. Just 5.8 seconds back, Intermountain’s Brooke Dunnagan, Anna Gibson and Sofia Schomento placed second, and the Midwest secured third (+16.7) with Margaret McCollor, Luci Anderson and Anja Maijala.
The U20 men’s relay title went to New England, with Kam Husain, Koby Gordon and Daniel Streinz pulling out a 1.3-second win over Alaska’s Tracen Knopp, Logan Mowrey and Hunter Wonders in 21:53.1. Intermountain followed in third (+8.8) with Eli Jensen, Peter Wolter and Nathan Wells.
The Midwest came up big in the U20 women’s relay, with Abby Jarzin, Hannah Rudd and Margie Freed finishing 10.1 seconds ahead of New England’s Alexandra Lawson, Mary Kretchmer and Mackenzie Rizio in 25:41.4. Another 1.1 seconds back, Intermountain’s Leah Lange, Maddie Morgan and Marin Coletta placed third (+11.2).
New England won the Alaska Cup with 325 points, the same point total as Intermountain in second. Alaska placed third in the overall team competition with 295 points, just five points ahead of the Midwest in fourth.
Left to right: Finland’s Iivo Niskanen, Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Russia’s Alexander Bessmertnykh after placing second, first and third, respectively, in the Holmenkollen World Cup men’s 50 k classic mass start on Saturday in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: FIS Cross-Country/Twitter)
In a historic Holmenkollen, Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby took his second 50 k win in a row, claiming this year’s title in a time of 2:02:59.7 (he won last year’s Holmenkollen in a time of 2:08:41.9).Sundby is now the only male skier towin two consecutive World Cup Holmenkollen 50 k competitions.
Crossing behind Sundby in second was Finland’s Iivo Niskanen, 9.9 seconds back from the race winner’s time. In a three-way photo finish, Russian Alexander Bessmertnykh bestedNorwegians Niklas Dryhaug, and Sjur Røthe in the lunge to the line, with Bessmertnykh taking third (+1:15.2), Røthe fourth (+1:15.2) and Dryhaug fifth (+1:15.2).
Canada’s Alex Harvey was just two tenths of a second behind the three-way lunge, finishing in sixth (+1:15.4). Norway’s Christer Hans Holund crossed 2.2 seconds later in seventh (+1:17.2). Three more Russians rounded out the top ten, with Sergey Ustiugov finishing in eighth (+2:35.0), Andrey Larkov two tenths of a second behind in ninth (+2:35.2) and Sergey Turyshev in tenth (+2:42.2).
The top U.S. skier for the day was Scott Patterson (Alaska Pacific University), earning World Cup points in 28th (+7:18.8). Canada’s Devon Kershaw crossed 33rd (+2:11:59.1) and American David Norris (Alaska Pacific University) finished 35th (+9:56.4).
Two more Americans competed in Saturday’s Holmenkollen, with Noah Hoffman finishing in 38th (+11:02.6) and Ben Lustgarten 46th (+18:44.7). Canadian Russell Kennedy was the final North American to finish in 47th (+20:16.3).
The IBU World Cup men’s podium after the 12.5 k pursuit in Kontiolahti, Finland, where Arnd Peiffer of Germany outsprinted Simon Eder of Austria for the win. (Photo: IBU/Twitter)
After one day knocked down to the second spot of the podium, it was back to the usual winning ways for Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier in the 10 k pursuit. Dahlmeier caught Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff, who won Friday’s sprint, early in the race after Eckhoff had one penalty in the first prone and second-starter Dahlmeier cleaned. While Eckhoff picked up five more penalties as the race went on, finishing 15th (+1:12.0), Dahlmeier had just one – and cleaned when it counted, on the final shoot with France’s Marie Dorin Habert and the Czech Republic’s Gabriela Koukalova right there with her. Dorin Habert missed one shot and held on to second place (+16.5) despite the penalty loop, while Italy’s Lisa Vittozi picked up her first individual podium in third (+19.9).
The win secured the overall World Cup title for Dahlmeier, her first. “That makes me really speechless,” she told Germany’s ARD broadcaster. “This is an amazing moment.”
Susan Dunklee collected four penalties and dropped from fifth place to 14th (+1:02.8) for the United States. Teammates Clare Egan and Joanne Reid finished 45th (+3:24.7) and 52nd (+4:07.0), respectively.
For Canada, Julia Ransom finished 53rd with three penalties (+4:14.0) and Emma Lunder 58th with four missed shots (+6:20.7).
Earlier in the day, Martin Fourcade had started the men’s race in bib one and set out to win the men’s 12.5 k pursuit, but was undone by four errors on the shooting range. No matter: the French biathlete still picked up the World Cup crystal globe for the pursuit discipline after finishing fifth (+25.5 seconds) and now he’s skipping tomorrow’s mixed relays to go be with his wife, who is about to have their second child.
Capitalizing on Fourcade’s errors were a group of chasers, among whom Arnd Peiffer of Germany managed to shoot 20-for-20. The race came down to a sprint finish between him and Simon Eder of Austria; Peiffer took a 0.3-second win for his eighth career victory. Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway finished third, +2.3 seconds, and Andrej Moravec of the Czech Republic fourth, +9.8.
Besides Peiffer, the only other man in the field to shoot clean was Sean Doherty of the United States. That allowed Doherty to jump from 44th at the start to a season-best 18th (+1:19.5) at the finish, the top result for the American team. Lowell Bailey finished 27th (+1:57.2) and Leif Nordgren 43rd (+3:24.4) with three and four penalties, respectively.
Christian Gow led Canada with just one penalty and a 37th-place finish (+2:36.0), a big improvement from his 50th-place starting position. Brendan Green placed 50th with three penalties (+4:47.3).
The men’s 10 k classic podium and award winners at 2017 NCAA Skiing Championships on Thursday at the Jackson Ski Touring Center in Jackson, N.H., including Martin Bergström (Utah) in first, Dag Frode Trollebø (DU) in second, and Martin Mikkelsen (Utah) in third. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad.com)
NCAA Skiing Championships (Jackson, N.H.): 5/10 k classic
The universities of Utah, Colorado and Denver occupied five of six of the podium spots between the men’s and women’s races on the first day of nordic racing at the 2017 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Skiing Championships on Thursday in Jackson, N.H. University of Utah freshmanMartin Bergström won the men’s 10-kilometer classic individual start and Petra Hyncicova, a junior at the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU), took the title in the women’s 5 k classic.
Originally from Sweden, Bergström captured his first NCAA title in 25:33.1 minutes, 26.8 seconds ahead of Dag Frode Trollebø, a University of Denver (DU) junior from Norway, in second. Utah had two on the men’s podium with Martin Mikkelsen, a Norwegian freshman, in third (+52.6).
The women’s 5 k classic podium and award winners at 2017 NCAA Skiing Championships on Thursday at the Jackson Ski Touring Center in Jackson, N.H., including Petra Hyncicova (CU) in first, Merete Myrseth (Utah) in second, and Alayna Sonnesyn (UVM) in third. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad.com)
In the women’s 5 k, Hyncicova, of the Czech Republic, notched her first NCAA victory (after placing second last year) in 14:55.5, 18.7 seconds ahead of Utah freshman Merete Myrseth, of Norway, in second place. University of Vermont (UVM) freshman Alayna Sonnesyn placed third (+19.8) and was the top skier outside of the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA) on the first of two days of nordic racing at NCAA Championships.
In terms of All-Americans (top 10), CU have five on Thursday (Hyncicova 1st, Christina Rolandsen 4th, Petter Reistad 4th, Jesse Knori 8th, Mads Ek Strøm 8th) Utah had four (Bergström 1st, Myrseth 2nd, Mikkelsen 3rd, Guro Jordheim 5th), Denver three (Trollebø 2nd, Moritz Madlener 5th, Lars Hannah 10th), Northern Michigan University three (Vivian Hett 6th, Fredrik Schwencke 6th, Adam Martin 7th), UVM two (Sonnesyn 3rd, Ian Moore 9th), the University of New Mexico one (Krista Niiranen 7th), UNH one (Lizzie Gill 9th), and Dartmouth one (Lauren Jortberg 10th).
After Day 2 of the NCAA Championships (with the first day of alpine races taking place on Wednesday), Utah leads the team standings with 301.5 points, followed by Denver in second (265) and Colorado in third (240). Montana State dropped from first to fourth with 177 points and Dartmouth ranks fifth (170).
The Chugach Mountains as seen from the Lekisch Loop, part of the course for the weekend’s races, at Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo: Adam Verrier)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — So how cold was it at Kincaid Park Sunday morning for the last of four Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA) races held in the Anchorage area this week?
“It’s f—ing cold,” said women’s winner Merete Myrseth of the University of Utah. “It was cold,” said men’s winner Moritz Madlener of the University of Denver. “Now we fly back to Denver and get warm.” [Unavailable for comment] were the two skiers who required an ambulance for cold-related injuries following the women’s race.
For the record, temperatures were consistently at or above zero degrees Fahrenheit all morning, so readily FIS-legal. (The International Ski Federation, which sanctioned all of this week’s races, has a temperature cutoff of -20° C, or -4° F, in order for a race to be held.) The real problem was the wind, which blew steadily from the north at around 10mph all morning.
Unless the real problem was the humidity. The city of Anchorage is, well, a natural anchorage, bordered by Cook Inlet to the north and Turnagain Arm to the south. The Kincaid stadium is well under a kilometer away from the shores of the ice-choked Pacific Ocean; athletes were within 150 meters of the Turnagain Arm beach at one point on Sunday’s race course. Humidity was over 90% all morning. By any measure, conditions were somewhere between “raw” and “brutal.”
At least atmospherically speaking. The ski trails were in superb shape following 30″ of snow in the month of January, if slow due to temperatures below zero Saturday night into Sunday morning.
The first race of the day, the men’s 20-kilometer freestyle mass start, saw its start moved one hour later due to cold conditions. In that time the temperature rose from -2° F to zero.
Denver’s Moritz Madlener (2) leads Dag Frode Trollebø of Denver (12) and Kevin Bolger of Utah (4) in the men’s 20 k skate at Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo: Adam Verrier)
When the race started, Denver’s Madlener quickly moved near the front as the field of 42 racers headed north out of the stadium to make their way up Elliott’s Climb. (For Anchorage readers, or anyone else familiar with Kincaid: the course went up Elliott’s and down Rollercoaster; up and down the Gong Hill; through the lower tunnel out to Mize’s Folly; take the first right onto Hairpin; take the first left at the top of Hairpin onto the 2.9 k Lekisch. Men did two laps of this, for 15 k, then a final 5 k lap that cut out Elliott’s. Women did two laps of the 7.5 k course for 15 k total.)
“I was in the front pack pretty much the whole race,” Madlener recounted in an in-person interview with FasterSkier. “Tried to, you know, set the pace every now and then to get rid of people. Which worked pretty well; I think four of us got away after maybe 12 [kilometers]. And then we stayed together for the rest of the race, and then the last couple hills we kind of separated.”
Madlener ultimately crossed the line in 52:39.2, edging teammate Dag Frode Trollebø by 2.6 seconds. Martin Bergström of the University of Utah followed in third (+10.4). “That’s a great feeling” to share the podium with a teammate, Madlener told FasterSkier.
Madlener recalled that he had “a really good start” to his season at U.S. nationals – he earned two podiums there, second in the classic sprint and third in the 15 k skate – before he got sick “and had to catch up. And the races so far here in Alaska weren’t that great,” he continued, “so I was very happy to win today.”
This week marked Madlener’s second time racing in Alaska; he previously competed in the last RMISA race series held in Anchorage, in early 2015. That week was marked by warm weather, rain, and shortened courses.
Madlener is a fan, of Alaska in general and particularly the full courses that athletes got to race on this year.
“I think it’s beautiful,” Madlener said of Alaska. “It’s like – I would say it’s like a big theme park; people are surfing and flying around and fishing. I really enjoy it. And the courses – again, two years ago, were not so great, but this year there’s a lot of snow, they’re pretty amazing courses. Like a rollercoaster.”
Merete Myrseth of Utah enters the stadium approaching the finish in the women’s 15 k skate at Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo: Adam Verrier)
Sunday’s race course featured a total of eight A-climbs for the men in 20 k, and six A-climbs for the women in 15 k. There was an average of 34 meters of climbing per kilometer on the main 7.5 k loop.
Four racers, roughly a tenth of the field, were DNFs in the men’s race, likely due to a combination of the hills and the cold. Two skiers did not finish the women’s race. An additional eight opted not to start.
The first words out of Madlener’s mouth when asked about his race were, “It was – first of all it was cold, obviously.” Myrseth, the women’s winner who skis for Utah, voiced similar sentiments: “It was cold, really cold,” she began her race summary. (By the time of the women’s race start at 12:30 p.m., temperatures had climbed to 1.6° F.)
“I was unsure if I would start the whole race because it was so cold, actually too cold for me,” Myrseth told FasterSkier in a brief in-person interview while shivering in the windy stadium soon after her finish. “But it went really easy in the first half of the lap,” she continued, and she felt good. “So I decided to speed up when I came to hills”; there Myrseth created a gap that she kept all the way to the finish.
But not without difficulty. “I didn’t feel good,” Myrseth said. “My feet, I couldn’t feel my feet, it was so cold. So I had to just, like, double pole over the hills, I was so tight in my feet and lost my balance, it was just so hard to keep balancing. But I made it to the finish line. And I am so happy that Guro took the second place.”
Merete Myrseth of Utah (l) in the finishing chute en route to the narrow victory over Guro Jordheim of Utah (106) and Christina Rolandsen of Colorado (109) at Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo: Adam Verrier)
Myrseth crossed the finish line in 46:28.3 for 15 k, double poling the last few meters to the finish. As she noted, she was followed by teammate Guro Jordheim in a close second (+0.5). Christina Rolandsen of the University of Colorado was not far back in third (+1.8). There was then a 30-second gap to a chase pack containing places fourth through sixth. 32 skiers finished the women’s race.
This week marked Myrseth’s first time racing in Anchorage or even visiting Alaska. So what did she think? “I love it,” said the native of Øverbygd, Norway. “It’s f—ing cold, but it reminds me of Norway, my home. I’m used to it. But it’s so nice; I really like it here.”
Sunday’s race marked the fourth race of the week in the Anchorage area for RMISA athletes. Recaps of the first three races follow below.
On Tuesday, February 7, RMISA athletes, plus a handful of skiers from Alaska Pacific University (APU) with sterling sprint credentials, raced a 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint at Kincaid. Conditions were impeccable, with pure blue skies, temperatures in the high teens, and last month’s fresh snow mixed in with the base of manmade snow covering the sprint loop.
In the women’s race, Merete Myrseth of Utah posted the fastest time in qualifying, 3:25.77, followed by Becca Rorabaugh of APU (+2.14) and Utah’s Guro Jordheim (+3.65). All three skiers made the A-Final, where Myrseth took her first victory of the week. The overall podium, which was also the college podium, was Jordheim in second and Anika Miller (Montana State) in third. Casey Wright (UAA), Rorabaugh, and Jasmi Joensuu (Denver) were fourth through sixth.
Times were not available for any of the heats.
In the men’s race, Dag Frode Trollebø (Utah) set the pace in qualifying in 2:48.80. He was followed by APU’s Logan Hanneman (+1.52) and Utah’s Martin Bergström (+3.33).
Three of the six skiers in the men’s A-Final were locals (in the broad sense of being from Alaska; the Hanneman brothers are from Fairbanks, not Anchorage). And it was the Hanneman show in the final, as the elder Reese Hanneman took the victory over his younger brother Logan. Trollebø was third. Kevin Bolger of Utah, last seen winning the classic sprint national championship at Soldier Hollow, Bergström, and APU’s Forrest Mahlen rounded out the final finisher spots in that order.
The collegiate podium for the men’s race was Trollebø, Bolger, and Bergström. (APU is not an NCAA-affiliated athletic program.)
While sprinting may be on the horizon for NCAA skiing in general, it had yet to make an appearance on the RMISA circuit.
“This was the first sprint that I know of in my, what – 10 years of RMISA coaching now and we’ve never had just a straight invitational sprint,” University of Alaska Anchorage Head Nordic Coach Andrew Kastning told FasterSkier in person following Sunday’s distance skate races.
Kastning said that the addition of a sprint in Anchorage stemmed from a desire for a change of pace, and to avoid repetition in a single week with four races. “So when we sat down last spring and were deciding the schedule,” he said, “we’d been hearing for a few years now from our athletes that the fives, 10s, 15s, and 20s [kilometer race format] every weekend just kind of got boring, and we wanted to mix it up. So we counted the qualifying round as an invite at U.S. Nationals, and then we ran the full sprint [this week] and counted that. … So we just wanted to mix it up a little up here. Especially with four races in a short period of time, you don’t want to be doing all the same distances and the same courses.”
So did the college athletes appreciate the chance to contest a sprint race in the middle of the RMISA race season? “Some of them do,” Kastning said. “There’s always a sprint specialist in the crowd who gets to shine. And I know there were kids on the podium, or in the top-10 at least, that aren’t normally in a distance race. So it allows some athletes to play to their strengths and shine a bit when they maybe wouldn‘t in a 20 k race, they can in a sprint.”
On the non-collegiate side, APU skier Reese Hanneman, a sprint specialist, was thrilled to have a mid-season sprint race with high-level competition on his adopted home course. “I wish there were more sprint races in the middle of the season,” Hanneman told the Alaska Dispatch News.
Utah’s Martin Bergström (402) leads Denver’s Dag Frode Trollebø (right) and APU’s Reese Hanneman (center) at the start of the mixed-gender classic relay in Girdwood, Alaska. (Photo: Adam Verrier)
The next day, Wednesday, February 8, skiers made the 45-minute drive down Turnagain Arm from Anchorage to Girdwood for a classic relay race. Girdwood is perhaps best known in ski circles as home to the Alyeska Resort alpine area, which boasts an average annual snowfall of 669″ and (when it’s clear) sweeping views of the mountains and glaciers overlooking Turnagain Arm. Publications as diverse as Powder magazine and National Geographic have lauded Girdwood as a quintessential locals ski town (“Best For: Off-the-beaten-path powder hounds with an aversion to glamour”).
Girdwood also has a proud nordic heritage, though you have to look a little harder to find it. It is home to APU skier Chelsea Holmes, who will be competing at World Champs in Lahti later this month. And it hosted the 1969 Junior Nationals, on trails cleared from the continent’s northernmost coastal rainforest for this purpose.
As discussed in more detail on former U.S. Ski Team member Tim Kelley’s invaluable blog, Alaska Lost Ski Areas Project, the trails faded back into the woods at some point during the 1970s. High-level nordic skiing in Girdwood then languished for over thirty years, until the early part of this decade, when the Girdwood Nordic Ski Club oversaw construction of a new 5 k loop. The reborn nordic trails have since hosted a handful of local high school races in periods of poor snow conditions in Anchorage, but it is safe to say that Wednesday’s relay was the most significant cross-country ski race held in Girdwood since 1969.
APU (1st), Colorado (2nd), and Utah (3rd) make up the podium for the mixed-gender classic relay in Girdwood, Alaska. (Photo: Adam Verrier)
Athletes raced in a mixed-gender 4 x 5-kilometer classic relay in the epochal event, man/woman/man/woman. It was once again APU leading the way, as the team of Reese Hanneman, Rosie Frankowski, Logan Hanneman, and Rorabaugh crossed the finish line for the victory in 57:33.7. Second overall, and first among collegiate teams, was Colorado (Mads Ek Strøm, Jesse Knori, Petter Reistad, Christina Rolandsen), 25.6 seconds back. They were followed by Utah (Bergström, Jordheim, Bolger, Myrseth) (+1:02.6). Fourth overall, and third for the NCAA podium, was Denver (Trollebø, Linn Eriksen, Moritz Madlener, Joensuu) (+1:25.4).
“Everybody was psyched on a new format and a new trail in a beautiful location,” Kastning told FasterSkier of Wednesday’s race.
Kastning added that the relay, like the previous day’s sprint, was new territory for RMISA racing. “We’ve never had a relay that’s counted for anything,” he said. “I think the relay captures college skiing well, with the mixed gender and the team aspect, men and women working together to try and reach the podium.”
Three days later, Saturday, February 11, skiers were back in Anchorage for individual start distance classic races, 5 k for the women and 10 k for the men. Race time was moved forward from 10 a.m. to noon, which allowed temperatures to rise from 2° F up to 8°.
Saturday’s course was by some measures the hilliest of the week, clocking in at a healthy 39 meters of climbing per kilometer of distance. The upper limit for FIS homologation is 40 m/km. (The course covered the final two-thirds of Sunday’s 7.5 k course – notably Gong Hill, Mize’s Folly, Lekisch.)
Merete Myrseth of Utah (103) leads Denver’s Jasmi Joensuu (126) and Taeler McCrerey (108) in the women’s 15 k skate at Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo: Adam Verrier)
Rorabaugh started near the end of the field in the women’s 5 k classic, which had 39 starters. Two A-Climbs later she crossed the finish line in 15:47.0, which held up as the fastest time of the day. Colorado skier Knori was second (+4.2), followed by her teammate Rolandsen in third (+8.2). Jordheim of Utah (+13.8) was fourth overall to round out the collegiate podium, just ahead of APU’s Frankowski in fifth (+15.0).
It was Rorabaugh’s first 5 k classic FIS race in this country in over five years.
The men raced two laps of the same course for a 10 k classic. Denver’s Trollebø was again on the podium, posting the day’s fastest time of 26:51.60. He was followed by Utah’s Bolger in second (+15.0) and Colorado’s Reistad in third (+19.3). Utah skier Bergström (+29.2), immediately followed by Denver skier Madlener (+29.4), rounded out the top five.
The week’s four races were technically scored as parts of two college invitational race series. In the Seawolf Invitational, encompassing the sprint and relay from the first part of the week, plus two alpine races held at Alyeska in January, the University of Utah took the overall team title with 665 points. The University of Denver (569 points) and the University of Colorado (549 points) followed. The order was the same if the standings are broken out by exclusively nordic results: Utah, Denver, Colorado.
The weekend’s distance races combined with two other January alpine races to make up the week’s second race series, the UAA Invitational. Combined standings were unchanged here, as Utah (661 points) took the victory over Denver (636 points) and Colorado (544 points). On nordic results alone the ranking was the same: Utah, Denver, Colorado.
RMISA racing continues with the RMISA Championships/NCAA West Regional in Colorado in late February, then (for qualifying skiers) NCAA Championships in New Hampshire in March. Nordic races will be held at Jackson Ski Touring Center.
Kastning explained that RMISA schools take their biennial trip to Alaska in years when NCAA Championships are set for the East Coast, “because it’s lower elevation. So other teams like to get some sea-level racing,” he said. “And so it helps our whole region do better I think at NCAAs, because you get some tempo racing, a different kind or style of racing than you do when you’re racing at 9,000 feet.”
From left, Dag Frode Trollebø of Denver, Moritz Madlener of Denver, Kevin Bolger of Utah, and Martin Bergström of Utah enter the stadium in the men’s 20 k skate at Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo: Adam Verrier)
Sunday’s 1.2 k freestyle sprint podium at the 2015 SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho. Andy Newell (1) claimed victory over teammate Simi Hamilton (2) and Bend Endurance Academy’s Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess (3).
SUN VALLEY, Idaho – Living, training, and competing together over the course of a year can often lead to similar race outcomes, as demonstrated by the 1.2 k freestyle sprint at the 2015 SuperTour Finals where Stratton Mountain School T2 teammates Andy Newell and Simi Hamilton skied in the same final lane and finished roughly a tenth of a second apart to take the top two positions.
Newell’s time of 2:24.96 earned him the victory while Hamilton crossed the line just 0.12 seconds back. In third was two-time 2015 national sprint champion Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess of the Bend Endurance Academy, who finished 0.88 seconds back from Newell.
Rounding out the final were Emil Johansson of the University of Colorado (+1.28) in fourth followed closely by Noe Bellet (+1.31) of the University of Utah in fifth. Colorado teammate Mads Ek Strøm (+2.56) placed sixth.
Newell and Hamilton didn’t start their day at the top of the result sheet after placing seventh and 10th in the morning’s qualifier. Starting at 10am, the preliminary round welcomed conditions that left racers feeling as if they were on an ice rink instead of a ski trail. Many competitors struggled to find their balance on the fast course that featured rolling terrain and little climbing.
Colorado’s Mads Ek Strøm leads Simi Hamilton (10) and Alex Howe (1) in the first quarterfinal of the Sunday’s 1.2 k freestyle sprint at the 2015 SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho. Stream eventually finished sixth, while Hamilton placed second. Howe broke two poles to finish third in the heat but did not advance as lucky loser.
“The qualifier was dicey for sure,” Newell said in a post-race interview. “It was funny, we were all trying to find skis that would work out there. I’m not sure it mattered what kind of grind or wax you had on, it was just a matter of trying to find a ski that wouldn’t slide. I went on this ski that I had never raced on before and it still felt really slippery on the ice so I was just happy to not crash in qualification.”
Hamilton added that the relative flatness of the course also added a challenging dynamic to the day’s races.
“It’s a flat course and sometimes those flat courses are the hardest,” he said after his race. “You can’t just pin it and recover on the downhill, it’s more of a steady consistent effort throughout. Skiing smooth and being relaxed was key.”
Several skiers seemed to conquer the slippery conditions, including Alex Howe of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, Alaska Pacific University’s Tyler Kornfield, and Johansson, who went 1-2-3 in the preliminary round. However, by the time the heats rolled around over two hours later, the warming temperatures had softened the course to make balance and smooth glide a manageable feat.
As the heats progressed it became apparent that the descent before the uphill finish was key in securing a qualifying position. Skiers who used their momentum to enter the inside of the nearly 180-degree corner were often able to rocket past the competition to gain an advantage in the finishing meters.
It was a strategy that took time to catch on. In the first quarterfinal, Hamilton exited the corner in third behind Strøm and Howe, but caught a lucky break when Howe was forced to free-skate after shattering both his poles after an aggressive pole-plant. In the second quarter, Newell realized the benefits of the strategy and skied the remainder of the heats accordingly, even though his competitors caught on quickly.
“I realized early on if you could work the downhill instead of just tucking, you could get around people really easily, so that became my tactic all day, trying to work the downhill and work the corner,” he said. “I think people saw that. I did that in the quarterfinal and I think I kind of let the cat out of the bag really early. Once people saw that move, they were like, ‘Oh, I guess we can do that, too.’”
Come the final, Hamilton led from the start followed by Newell, the three collegiate skiers, and Blackhorse-von Jess in the rear. By the time the six skiers reached the downhill, Newell powered to meet Hamilton on the corner and gained momentum after finding a gap on the inside. The two exited the turn neck and neck.
Andy Newell (7) gains a slight advantage over SMST2 teammate Simi Hamilton (10) as they cross the finish of the 1.2 k freestyle sprint at the 2015 SuperTour Finals.
As they reached the 50-meter lanes before the finish, Newell made a move to the far left lane in front of Hamilton. The two remained in the lane as Newell maintained his small advantage all the way to the line. Newell explained that the move was tactical – waiting until the last minute to choose a finishing lane prevents strategic lane choices from other competitors.
“If you play your card too early and show that you’re going to a certain lane, it allows your competitor to set up and go around you,” Newell said. “So I purposely waited to choose the inside lane. I was kind of hugging the whiskers because I didn’t want to completely box him out. Because he’s my teammate, I didn’t want to completely be like, ‘Screw you, I’m taking the lane.’”
Hamilton explained that due to the lane size, he had to adjust his technique to avoid hitting the course markers.
“I had to time my V2 to not ski into the v-boards, but racing is racing and you have to make it up on the fly. It’s just how it played out,” Hamilton said of the finish. “I was psyched to see my teammate on the podium with me. Andy has been an amazing sprinter and to be in any heat with him, he’s a great skier. I’m looking forward to training with him this summer and beyond that.”
Newell echoed the sentiment adding, “It’s always nice to get a win and to have your teammate in second, we’re happy about that.”
Hamilton said that prior to Sunday’s race he was dealing with illness but was able to ski any poor feelings away as the day progressed.
“I didn’t feel great this morning. I’ve definitely been fighting something all week,” he said. “In the past when I haven’t been feeling great, if I can just keep skiing throughout the day I’ve tended to erase it out of my system and feel better and better.”
The 27-year-old Aspen native explained that heading into Sunday’s race there was pressure to perform well due to the level of competition at this year’s SuperTour Finals.
“I think that you feel pressure because there are so many great domestic skiers right now,” he said. “Which is so cool to see. It’s awesome to come home and see so many people fight for the top spots.”
The start of the men’s final at the 2015 SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.
While Newell and Hamilton battled ahead, one of those strong domestic skiers, Blackhorse-von Jess, came back from sitting in last position at the start to third position at the finish.
“Coming out of the start in last place was something else,” he said, referring to the final. “About halfway across the top flat I was like, ‘I can’t sit here anymore,’ and there’s really only one opportunity, because of the way the trail twists and turns, to take the lead. So I hammered through there.”
After making his move, Blackhorse-von Jess entered the downhill with momentum that brought him to the heels of the SMST2 teammates. Unable to take the line he wanted to the finish, the Bend skier held on to third in the final meters.
“Andy, really, he took the line I wanted to take, which is exactly what I would’ve done if I had been where he was,” he said. “And then, I thought he and Simi were gonna open the door there for me at the end but I just didn’t quite have it there.”
Blackhorse-von Jess earned several World Cup starting spots and a place on the 2015 World Championships team after a successful early season. He explained that it was an adjustment to return domestic racing after a several weeks on the international circuit.
“It’s incredibly fun to be racing in the heats again,” Blackhorse-von Jess said. “I had the best time ski racing that I’ve had in the last couple years racing, at World Champs in the heats. So to come back and have guys that are better than me to race with, it changes the complexity of the race and makes it a lot more fun.”
Sadie Bjornsen (USST/APU) skiing to win the 10 k classic at the 2015 SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.
SUN VALLEY, Idaho – It was a family affair at the first competition of the 2015 SuperTour Finals on the trails of Galena Lodge, with siblings Sadie and Erik Bjornsen claiming victories in the 10- and 15-kilometer classic individual starts. The wins seemed like destiny, as the two were both the 23rd starters of their respective races with each winning by roughly a minute over their competition.
The women’s 10 k featured a hard-packed course that made for fast times and often unforgiving downhills. Although organizers moved the start of the race back by an hour, the women still experienced what at times felt like pure ice.
Starting in the middle of the A-seed, Bjornsen began her race with the fastest first lap and continued her dominance until the 10 k’s finish, where she crossed the line with a time of 27:53.7. She was followed by Alaska Pacific University teammate Chelsea Holmes, who trailed by 1:021. In third was U.S. Ski Team/Burke Mountain Academy’s Liz Stephen, who placed 1:26.8 behind Bjornsen.
In fourth and fifth were University of Utah skier Veronika Mayerhofer (+1:43.1) and Stratton Mountain School’s Katherine Ogden (+2:07.9), who was also the top junior in Saturday’s race.
Bjornsen’s strategy was to charge out of the gate and sustain top speed through the two-lap race while maintaining control of her energy. She explained that the top of the course, which features rolling terrain, was her strongest section and set her apart from the other women. “I really enjoy double-pole and I was just working that section so much harder than everyone else,” she said.
Bjornsen hasn’t spent much time at altitude in the 2015 season with the exception of World Cup races and training camps in Davos, Switzerland. Although Saturday’s race was situated at 7,290 feet, the 25-year-old said she tried to forget about the high elevation.
“It’s funny because I rarely race at altitude, mostly Davos, and I’ve never had success in Davos,” she explained. “Today I was trying to just tell myself that altitude is not a thing because everyone is coming here from sea level so I felt we were all on even ground.”
Chelsea Holmes (APU) skis to second in Saturday’s 10 k classic at the 2015 SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.
The APU skier said her experiences on the World Cup aided her quest for victory. She explained that throughout the 2015 season she has lost kick in the second half of every classic race, which taught her to find ways to make little to no kick work in a race like Saturday’s.
“This year on the world Cup I believe I lost kick on the second half of every race. I’m trying to figure out if it’s a technique thing or a waxing thing, so today I was just trying so hard to find a way to make it work,” she said. “It was actually good training to figure out a way to make your kick work when it’s not ideal. In these icy conditions, there’s no way to keep kick for 10 or 15 k.”
Bjornsen said that she was happy to return to the U.S. and compete in a fun end-of-season event. At the same time she said that domestic races like SuperTour Finals often make her more nervous than the World Cup.
“A lot of the younger girls on my team asked me if I get nervous, and I have to say that I get way more nervous for racing in the U.S. than in the World Cup,” she said. “In the U.S. you come back to win. Granted I always try to win on the World Cup, but coming here you know that if you have a good race winning is an option.”
In second place Holmes was pleased with her result, saying it gave her a boost of confidence as her season comes to an end. The APU skier explained that she normally preforms better on hilly courses but used her teammate as motivation to ski smooth and relaxed.
“Gradual isn’t always my thing,” she said. “Honestly I tried to picture myself skiing behind Sadie because she’s a good classic skier. I wanted to ski relaxed and focused and not crush myself in the first kilometer.”
Holmes said that the icy course was manageable but highlighted some of her tactical and technique weaknesses. “I definitely know what I have to work on in the summer,” she said with a laugh.
Liz Stephen (USST/Burke Mountain Academy) strides to third in Saturday’s 10 k classic at the 2015 SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Like Holmes, Stephen is stronger on strenuous courses that require ample climbing. She entered Saturday’s race looking to ski at a pace well suited for the altitude.
“The altitude is definitely a harsh reality right now but hopefully by the end of the week it will start to feel normal. It’s definitely a different pace. You have to remember that you’re at 7,200 feet and there’s less oxygen and you got to go a little slower,” she said.
The 10th ranked woman in the 2015 World Cup said that she was pleased with her effort and happy to be racing on U.S. soil. She explained that SuperTour Finals are a way for her to return to the roots of the sport and not worry about the stresses of the season.
“I definitely have a ‘spring series’ type mindset and I think it’s really healthy, for me anyway, to end the season how I got into the sport – just really enjoying it all and spending time with friends,” she said.
“You spend the entire year taking care of your body and resting, and I’m over it,” she added with a smile. “I just like to come out see people, have fun, and enjoy the sun. That’s what I went out to do today. It feels good to race because you love to race.”
Several women sat out Saturday’s 10 k, including APU’s Rosie Brennan and SMST’s Sophie Caldwell, both of whom are recovering from illness. Caitlin Gregg did not start the 10 k due to a concussion from a rogue feed that hit her head in the Holmenkollen 30 k earlier this year.
Erik Bjornsen en route to his 58.5 second victory in the 15 k classic at the 2015 SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Erik Bjornsen Achieves the Family Goal
By the time the men’s 15 k began, the warming temperatures had changed the nature of the course. Instead of hard-packed ice, the 5 k loop developed into a wet track that sucked speed from competitors’ skis.
Despite the deteriorating conditions Erik Bjornsen skied his way to a time of 40:32.6. In similar fashion to his sister, the APU skier bested field of 80 by an astounding 58.5 seconds. In second was teammate Lex Treinen, while University of Colorado’s Mads Ek Strøm crossed the line in third, 1:02.4 behind Bjornsen.
In fourth and fifth were Sun Valley teammates Ben Lustgarten (+1:16.0) and Miles Havlick (+1:31.1). SMST2’s Ben Saxton (+1:44.1) finished sixth, while 2015 World Championships skiers Noah Hoffman (+1:55.8) and Kris Freeman (+2:01.0) finished seventh and eighth.
Bjornsen entered Saturday’s race with extra motivation after witnessing his sister’s win. According to the 23-year-old it has been a mutual goal to win high-caliber domestic races on the same day. They have come close in the past – at the 2013 U.S. Cross Country Championships they finished in the top two positions of their respective races twice – but never reached the coveted double-win.
“Both mine and Sadie’s goal for a while has been to win on the same day in a big race, a national caliber race,” Bjornsen said in a post-race interview. “I was nervous before the race, but as soon as she came in and grabbed the win the pressure was on for sure.”
Before he could accomplish the feat, Bjornsen had to make a decision. Given the conditions and the course’s rolling terrain some competitors chose to use skate skis and double-pole the entire course. According to the APU skier, it was a decision he almost made but in the end he chose minimal kick.
“I was really close to using skate skis but tried to go with the classic skis with very little wax and it was just enough to be able to work that long steady section and stay pretty relaxed and try not to push it too hard,” he said of his choice, adding that the minimal kick allowed him to gain a lot of time on the flat section at the top of the course.
Bjornsen said that his win in the 15 k classic demonstrated a diverse approach to previous SuperTour Finals. He explained this was especially true in 2014 season, where he struggled to find motivation after a long World Cup season.
“Last year after the World Cup season I got a little unmotivated so I decided I wanted to change that this year and try to finish these races strong. I’ve been trying to stay pretty focused the last week and come in here pretty hungry,” he said. “It seemed like it worked. I’m really happy with that result, there are a lot of strong guys out there.”
Lex Treinen (APU) skis to second in Saturday’s 15 k classic at the 2015 SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Almost a minute behind Bjornsen was Treinen who, unlike his APU teammate, decided to race on skate skis. “I double-poled the whole course and I think that was the right call for me today,” he said. “It was faster for me at least to double pole the whole uphill, and I think that was a huge key.”
Treinen has seen a breakthrough year in which he placed second in the 30 k at U.S. Nationals, was the first American in the Birkebeiner, and completed a successful stint on the OPA Cup circuit in Europe. He explained that his recent experiences in Europe helped him decide to double-pole Saturday’s course.
“I just got back from the OPA Finals trip and there are some real hills there, much steeper and more intense than these hills here. Those guys double-pole up that stuff and win their races so it was huge to get that experience there,” he said.
According to the 24-year-old, his finish in Saturday’s race was possibly the best of the season – which not only gives Treinen confidence, but also removes an pressure for the remainder of the Finals.
“This is maybe my best result I’ve ever had,” the Alaskan said. “I’ve had some decent results but to have a second place it takes a lot of pressure off but it makes it a lot more relaxed for me. Spring Series are always relaxed; it’s a fun time.”
Mads Ek Strøm (University of Colorado) strides to third in Saturday’s 15 k classic in Sun Valley, Idaho at the 2015 SuperTour Finals.
Rounding out the podium, Strøm said that he struggled through much of his race due to the altitude and lack of training in the week prior to the Finals. Last Friday the Norwegian skied to second in the NCAA Championships 20 k classic and returned to Boulder, Colo. with a large amount of schoolwork and little time to complete it. Friday’s pre-race ski was his first since competing in Lake Placid.
The Colorado sophomore started one bib ahead of Bjornsen and skied with the APU athlete for much of the first lap. After that, however, Strøm lost valuable time on the subsequent laps and lost an additional 30 seconds.
“That was probably the toughest race I’ve ever done in like forever… at the 5 k I felt completely done, like ‘I can’t finish this race,’” Strøm said in a post-race interview. “When I heard I was fighting for podium I just tried to finish strong, as strong as I could.”
With the focus of his season – NCAA Championships – behind him, Strøm said that the races in Sun Valley are a chance to see how he measures up against America’s best.
“Skiing against Noah Hoffman, Kris Freeman, Erik Bjornsen, they’re all the best skiers in the U.S. It’s really cool because you can really see how good you are compared to those guys,” he said.
Fredrik Schwencke (9) of NMU celebrates his win in the 2015 NCAA 20 k classic mass start with teammate Kyle Bratrud.
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – The second day of nordic racing at the 2015 NCAA Championships was exciting to say the least, with both the 15 and 20 kilometer classic mass starts coming down to a sprint finish. In the women’s race a fight between two skiers resulted in a new NCAA champion, while the men’s race saw a controversial 100-meter sprint between four competitors.
Ahead of the final sprint’s mayhem, Northern Michigan’s Fredrik Schwencke crossed the finish line with a time 56:12.3 to earn his first national title. He was followed by the University of Colorado’s Mads Ek Strøm and Rune Malo Ødegård who finished 0.6 seconds and 6.9 seconds behind the winner respectively.
In fourth was New Mexico’s Aku Nikander (+11.4), while Utah’s Niklas Persson (+21.2) ended his day in fifth.
The 20 k began with a blistering pace as the Colorado skiers led the group of 40 men through the hilly 5 k Olympic course that features almost 600 feet of elevation gain per lap. As the pack progressed through the four-loop race its size dwindled and by the first kilometer of the final lap there were four remaining skiers in the lead pack – Schwencke, Strøm, Ødegård, and Nikander. The New Mexico skier led for much of the final lap until the final downhill where all four skiers jockeyed for the lead.
They rounded the corner into the final 100 meters with Scwencke in first and Strøm in second. Behind them, Ødegård and Nikander skied in the farthest left-hand lane, with the Colorado skier in the tracks and the New Mexico skier just outside the tracks to Ødegård’s left.
Aku Nikander of NMU leads Rune Malo Ødegård of CU and Fredrik Schwencke of NMU in the final lap of the 2015 NCAA 20 k classic mass start.
All four skiers were in the hunt for gold until Ødegård and Nikander suddenly crashed. While the Colorado skier said it was unclear why he fell, video footage later revealed that Ødegård had planted his pole on Nikander’s ski and lost balance. He fell to the left taking Nikander with him.
By the time the two got up they were far from the win, as Schwencke and Strøm crossed the line in first and second. Ødegård was the first to recover from the crash and nabbed the final podium position. Race officials said that there was no disqualification due to the nature of the crash and the lack of obstruction by either skier.
Ahead of the messy fight for third, Schwencke celebrated his win amongst the many Northern Michigan teammates and coaches who came swarming into the finish pen. At one point the first-time NCAA Champion was hoisted upon the shoulders of a coach to the cheers of the crowd.
After the jubilation of the finish, Schwencke said that he didn’t expect to be on top of the classic podium due to his wellbeing the previous day. The Norwegian from Oslo said he didn’t feel well and had trouble sleeping. Despite his misgivings, Schwencke explained that he kept faith in his skiing throughout each of the four laps in the 20 k.
“I know that I am better in classic so I was just kind of hoping for the best. I just tried to ski smart and save as much energy as possible,” he said. “Then after a while, one by one they dropped off and we were four guys in the very end there and I just gave it my all.”
Due to the falling snow throughout much of the race, the Northern Michigan skier said that his plan was to stick behind the leaders and make a move in the final meters. “I sort of wanted to be third or fourth position because it was snowing so it was a bit slower to be leading so I sort of wanted to be a bit back there and be ready to attack,” he said. “Then they went for it and I felt good so I just tried the best I could to be first in the last turn. The plan worked out very well.”
Schwencke led the Northern Michigan Wildcats to earn the most team points in the 20 k, as teammate Kyle Bratrud was the first American in seventh and Erik Søderman placed 11th. The Norwegian attributed much of his success to his teammates and said that their collective performances were especially pleasing after a freestyle race that was below their expectations.
“We have a really strong team and we really wanted to do well. Wednesday wasn’t up to our potential so we really wanted to go for it today and do well and prove that we should be up there,” he said.
Bratrud, who recently returned from the 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun, Sweden echoed Schwencke’s sentiments and said that he was happy to be the first American across the line. At the 2014 NCAA Championships, Bratrud was also the first American in the 10 k classic and finished sixth.
“Freddy [Schwencke] and I, we are rooming together and both of us woke up and felt really bad this morning. He has been sick, and after the skate race I was pretty much done with the season,” he said. ” I am happy with the day, I didn’t think I was going to finish in the top 30 today so to finish seventh is pretty sweet.”
“Now the three NMU guys here have all won a national championship at some point so it is a pretty sweet team to be on,” he added. Søderman won the 10 k freestyle at the 2012 NCAA Championships, while Bratrud won a national title in the 15 k freestyle at the 2015 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Houghton, Mich. earlier this year.
In second, Strøm received a written warning after the Colorado skier took more than one skate before entering the tracks in the final 100 meters. Officials said that they chose not disqualify Strøm because they believed he gained no clear advantage from the technique violation. Before he received the written warning, Strøm explained that the extra skate was due to the layout of the tracks into the finish.
Colorado’s Rune Malo Ødegård leads teammate Mads Ek Strøm in the first lap of the 20 k classic mass start at the 2015 NCAA Championships.
Strøm, who set the race’s pace for much of the fist half of the 20 k, said after the race that he was pleased with second place, especially after finishing fourth in Wednesday’s 10 k freestyle – a race he hoped to win. Strøm also added that he was dealing with a sore throat and had been on antibiotics for several days.
“The race overall was really good and I think it was a high-level race, especially the four in front there. There were a lot of good skiers that couldn’t keep up today,” he said. “Of course I wanted to win but second is not bad, especially with everyone crashing in the end. I could have been fourth.”
After his third place finish, Ødegård said that he enjoyed the majority of the race and was glad that the pace was challenging from the start. Like Schwencke, the Colorado skier avoided the lead to save energy given the falling snow, and by the time he reached the final turn Ødegård believed he was in good position to take the win.
“I think I had a really good turn into the sprint, and I gained a spot or two in the finish,” he said about his standing before the crash. “I don’t know what happened. Stuff happens in a sprint and when there’s four people coming in and two meters apart, a lot can happen.”
The Norwegian has won the last two NCAA Championships classic races, and is the only NCAA male in history to win back-to-back classic titles. His third place finish is his second of the 2015 Championships. While Ødegard was disappointed to miss a third Championship, he said that Schwencke and Strøm deserved to finish ahead of him.
“I think the best skiers manage not getting into trouble like that, so today I got into trouble so maybe I wasn’t the best skier,” he said.
As a senior, the 20 k was Ødegård’s last race as a collegiate skier. While he may be done racing for the Buffs, the Norwegian explained he plans to race professionally next year. “I had a great career at CU and I really enjoyed all four years of it,” he said. “Right now I really wanted that win today so I’m a little disappointed with that but I guess to get two third places at NCAAs is good. It shows that I’m consistent and up there. I’m going to ski professionally next year and see if I can do better.”
New Mexico’s Emilie Cedervaern celebrates her win in Friday’s 15 k classic mass start at the 2015 NCAA Championships in Lake Placid.
Cedervaern Out-Sprints Mayerhofer For 15 k Victory
The women’s 15 k classic mass start also featured a sprint finish, but instead it featured two skiers – New Mexico’s Emilie Cedervaern and Utah’s Veronika Mayerhofer. The two began the race at the front of the lead pack, which eventually whittled down to three skiers as Denver’s Sylvia Nordskar entered the fray.
Nordskar lost contact with the Cedervaern and Mayerhofer in the third and final lap as the New Mexico and Utah skiers battled for the lead. Each tried to make a move on the course’s many hills to no avail, util Cedervaern crashed on the last major downhill of the course. The fall gave Mayerhofer a roughly 20 meter advantage as she entered the stadium, but Cedervaern eventually caught the Utah skier and strode into the final meters to take the win.
The Lobo finished with a time of 47:40.3 and bested Mayerhofer by 1.5 seconds. Nordskar took the final podium spot, 1:11.0 behind the victor. The top three women also finished on the podium in Wednesday’s 10 k freestyle, with Mayerhofer taking the win over Nordskar and Cedervaern.
Rounding out the top five were Colorado’s Maja Slobakken (+1:15.2) and Utah’s Sloan Storey (+1:15.7).
Cedervaern said that she believed the win was out of reach immediately after her crash. As she made gains on Mayerhofer, however, she began to realize victory was possible.
“I fell on the last corner, so I was like ‘oh shoot’ because I felt so good and was like ‘why did I mess this up,’” she said. “But then I was very strong in the double poling so I felt like I was catching her all the time. On the last turn when I was on her back I thought that I should go for it.”
New Mexico’s Emilie Cedervaern leads Utah’s Veronika Mayerhofer in the first kilometers of Friday’s 15 k classic mass start at the 2015 NCAA Championships in Lake Placid.
The win marks Cedervaern’s first NCAA title and second podium at her first Championships. The New Mexico junior said she believed it was possible to win Friday’s race due her successful season on the RMISA circuit. She entered the 2015 NCAA Championships as the top ranked skier from the region.
“It was so close on Wednesday and we have been close the last weeks of the season too, so I thought it was possible, but you never know,” she said. “It is so hard with classic, you have to have good skis and a good day and everything, but I definitely thought that it was possible to do it.”
In second, Mayhoffer said that she was pleased with her placement despite being out-sprinted in the final meters. The Ute explained that she experienced breathing problems throughout race, which affected her ability to find the energy needed to stave off Cedervaern’s advance.
“Today I had some breathing problems. I had that last year but this time was the first time I had hard time for breathing, so I didn’t have any energy left for [the finish],” she said. “I just tried my best but [Cedervaern] was definitely stronger today. She was leading more and she was stronger so it’s good that she won.”
The Austrian said that she didn’t expect to have such a successful NCAA Championships in her first year of collegiate racing due to the challenges of balancing school and skiing. She explained that the support of the Utah team was essential to her and her teammates’ success. With Storey’s fifth place finish and Ane Blomseth’s 10th, the Utah women earned the most points in Friday’s 15 k.
“Everybody supports each other, and the coaches too do an awesome job. They do everything they can, not just great skis but they try to make everything as easy for us as possible,” she said. “The team spirit is one of the important things because we spend time skiing but also free time most of the time together so that’s the most important advantage for the Utes I think and I really enjoy that.”
Over a minute behind the fight for first, Nordskar earned her second podium of the week with her third place finish in the 15 k. The Norwegian dealt will illness for much of the 2015 season and given the circumstances, Nordskar was pleased to be in the fight for a top position. Although she struggled with kick and energy the last lap of the course, Nordsakr said the prospect of team points motivated her to maintain third position as Slobakken and Storey attempted to catch her.
“Today was a very tough day, it was really just getting through because my body is not a 100 percent ready and healthy after this long illness period,” she said. “But I am very satisfied that I got the podium and I got to hold the other girls behind me. It was really important to get these points for the total.”
Nordskar, a sophomore, earned both second and third in the 2014 Championships – a feat she repeated in 2015. “I got second and third place last year so I kind of wanted to get the first place, but when you are not 100 percent that is not possible. You have to be ready and in good shape to win NCAAs,” she said.
“I have two more years so four more chances,” she added with a smile.
After the third day of competition, Colorado leads the 2015 NCAA Championships standings with 288 points. Utah is in second and only seven points behind while New Mexico trails by 61 points.
The men’s 10 k freestyle interval start podium at the 2015 NCAA Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y. Taking the top three spots were Dartmouth’s Patrick Caldwell, Denver’s Moritz Madlener (not pictured), and Colorado’s Rune Malo Ødegård.
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Excitement was high in upstate New York as the 2015 NCAA Skiing Championships kicked off in Lake Placid with the men’s 10 kilometer and women’s 5 k freestyle interval starts. Dartmouth’s Patrick Caldwell claimed his first national title, while the University of Utah’s Veronika Mayerhofer led a western sweep in the women’s race.
While Lake Placid has faced a colder-than-average winter, Wednesday welcomed temperatures in the 40s and occasional sun. Snow was hard packed for the men’s race, and conditions were incredibly fast despite the difficulty of the course.
Caldwell finished the 10 k with a time of 25:09.1. The University of Denver’s Moritz Madlener placed second, just 2.1 seconds off the Big Green skier’s winning time. The Univeristy of Colorado’s Rune Malo Ødegård finished third, 26 seconds behind.
Fellow Buff, Mads Ek Støm (+29.8) took fourth, as Montana State University’s Forrest Mahlen (+1:00.7) finished fifth.
Dartmouth’s Paddy Caldwell hugs Vermont’s Rogan Brown at the finish of the 10 k freestyle at the 2015 NCAA Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Starting in bib 40, Caldwell was the last skier to begin the two-lap race on the challenging Women’s Cross Country Olympic 5 k course at the Mt. Van Hoevenberg Nordic Center. Given the conditions, the Dartmouth sophomore said he entered the race planning to begin fast and maintain high speed until the finish line.
“With the fast conditions I just wanted to go as hard as I could. I tried to get a fast pace from the start and hold it,” he said in a post-race interview.
Caldwell notched the fastest time at the halfway mark, 8 seconds ahead of Madlener. As the Big Green’s skier traversed the second lap his lead over Madlener gradually decreased – at one point it reached 10 seconds but eventually whittled down to 2 seconds. Cakdwell said that he was fading fast by the last kilometers. “The wheels were coming off at the end but I was able to hold it just long enough,” Caldwell said in an interview.
After his victory, Caldwell said that the 10 k freestyle was a target of his in the 2015 season. “I was definitely shooting for this race,” he said. “This is one of my favorite events. I definitely wanted to have a good one today.”
Caldwell is also a member of the U.S. Ski Team D-Team. Given his position between collegiate and national team skiing, the 20-year-old faced a decision – focus solely on skiing or continue racing for Dartmouth. Caldwell chose to spend the winter at school and said that his focus of the season has been to have strong individual and team performances in Lake Placid.
Moritz Madlener of The University of Denver skied to second in the 10 k freestyle at the 2015 NCAA Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y.
In second place, Denver sophomore Madlener earned his best finish at a NCAA Championships. Last year the German skier placed fifth in the 10 k classic individual start and said his goal was to top the result in either race in Lake Placid. Although he hoped to place better than fifth, Madlener never expected to land on the freestyle podium. The Pioneer said that he was surprised by his second place finish because he is traditionally performs better in the classic technique and didn’t feel strong in the days prior to Wednesday’s race.
Although Madlener was one of the highest ranked skiers he started his race in bib 1, a position that he said had benefits and a drawbacks. “In some ways it’s a disadvantage because you don’t know what the other guys are doing, but I think I had better conditions. I didn’t get information about the others and I think that was good too because you start thinking during the race what the others are doing,” he said.
Madlener has played second fiddle to the dominating Colorado duo of Ødegård and Strøm for the entirety of the western collegiate season. He said it felt good to finish higher than third, especially at the year’s most important races. “There’s always been two Norwegian guys in our region who got third and fourth today. They always tease me and tell me it’s my favorite spot to be third, so I thought today I’m going to show them that I like the second spot too,” he said with a smile.
Ødegård, a senior at CU and two-time NCAA champion, said that the 10 k was one of the best freestyle races of his career. He explained that he paced his race to start slow and finish strong.
“I felt like I had a really strong race, it’s probably one of the best skate races I’ve ever done,” the Norwegian said. “I felt like started smart and I skied faster and faster throughout. I couldn’t believe I was behind because I had a super, super strong race.”
One of the later starters, Ødegård explained he spent much of the race chasing Madlener’s time, which he was ultimately unable to match. He said was impressed with Caldwell’s finish, especially given the slowing conditions that the last starters faced.
“I lost a lot from the top and the end of the last lap. Probably conditions were slowing a bit down there in the last lap but you saw by Caldwell that it was possible to beat it. I just wasn’t strong enough,” he said, adding that he was looking forward to Friday’s classic mass start. Ødegård won the 2013 and 2014 classic races at the NCAA Championships.
The women’s podium in 5 k freestyle at the 2015 NCAA Championships in Lake Placid. Utah’s Veronika Mayerhofer took the win, while Denver’s Sylvia Nordskar placed second and Emilie Cedervaer claimed third.
Mayerhofer Victorious in 5 k
In the women’s 5 k freestyle the University of Utah’s Veronika Mayerhofer skied to a convincing win with a time of 14:21.4. She bested Denver’s Sylvia Thorson Nordskar by 13.2 seconds. Emilie Cedervaern of the University of New Mexico raced to third, 15.8 seconds back from the victor.
The first American skier, Montana State’s Cambria McDermott (+15.9), finished fourth and 0.1 seconds from third. In fifth was Utah’s Sloan Storey (+22.7).
The women began their race two hours after the men to slightly warmer temperatures and softer snow. Despite the change, the course remained fast and intact for all 40 starters. The western women swept the top 11 to dominate the 5 k. The eastern skiers originally hoped to capitalize on a home course, but their best finish on the day came from Mary Kate Cirelli in 12th. The central regions best finisher was Jordyn Ross in 13th.
Mayerhofer, a freshman, entered Wednesday with low expectations. She had a cold in the days prior to the race and was feeling flat in training. At the start of the race Mayerhofer said her race felt slow. Everything changed after a coach told her she had a one second lead over Nordskar in the first kilometers. According to the Austrian, the news of the lead motivated Mayerhofer to fight for the win and reach the next level of exertion.
The Ute said that she had no particular strategy while fighting on the challenging course that featured several kilometers of climbing. “In a 5 k you have to go as fast as you can,” she said. “Through the first kilometer you have to not kill yourself because it’s a tough course. I think it’s one of the toughest. We are very used to high elevation so you never know how you’re going to feel.”
Veronika Mayerhofer en route to a win in the 5 k freestyle at the 2015 NCAA Championships in Lake Placid.
Mayerhofer said that she enjoys the collegiate circuit because of its focus on the team rather than the individual. With her teammate, Storey also in the top five, Mayerhofer said she was happy to see the team’s training be rewarded at the end of the season.
“It’s my first year of college racing and I was so happy that I could go to the NCAAs,” she said. “I really enjoyed it so much because it is so much for the team and not just individual racing, because cross country skiing is so much on your own. It’s maybe less pressure and everyone is so happy for you.”
Nordskar entered Wednesday’s race with little training or racing logged since the start of the new year, as she sat out much of the season due to illness. Her last race before the Championships was at the Colorado Invite in late January. Although she complained of breathing troubles, Nordskar said she was happy to race again after the draining illness. “I’ve been sick the whole last month and haven’t been able to train,” she said. “That has been difficult but I think I’ve done a good job to comeback and now race.”
Like her DU male counterpart, Nordskar was also the first starter and set the time to beat early on in the race. She said that while the course was challenging, she enjoyed racing at the Olympic venue.
“It was a very hard race but I really liked the course. It’s some brutal hills,” she said. “I really pushed myself today. It was fun and I’m satisfied with my race today even though I couldn’t get to the very top, which was my goal.”
Cambria McDermott, fourth place and top American finisher in the 2015 NCAA 5 k, high fives Montana State University Head Coach Kristina Trygstad-Saari.
In third was Cedervaern, a New Mexico Junior from Falun, Sweden. The trip to Lake Placid was the Swede’s first NCAA Championships.
“That was good. I was very tired after 2.5 k so I just tried to hammer all the way in,” she said of her race. “5 k is too short to think and I was just trying to hammer the whole way.”
McDermott, a senior at Montana State, said her achievement as the 5 k’s first American was especially satisfying because she was able to share it with her friends and family in attendance. “I’m really excited. It was an awesome course. It was a lot of climbing but I had fast skis and that made it pretty quick,” she said. “I was so happy that my family here to cheer me on and all my friends from home.”
NCAA Standings
With the first races of the 2015 NCAA Championships complete, the University of Colorado leads the points with 155. The Buffs have won the last two Championships in the East and Wednesday’s race gives them a good beginning to their quest for their 28th championship title. They will have to overcome the University of Utah which sits in second and less than 25 points behind.
The NCAA championships continue on Thursday with the giant slalom at Whiteface Mountain,
2015 NCAA Championships standings after Wednesday (link):
The men’s podium in the 20 k freestyle mass start at the 2014 NCAA Championships in Soldier Hollow. (Photo: http://bertboyer.zenfolio.com) All proceeds from photo sales will be directly donated to NNF.
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Come Wednesday, the 148 best collegiate skiers in the U.S. will descend upon Lake Placid for the 2015 NCAA Skiing Championships. Hosted by St. Lawrence University, NCAA’s will serve as the premier collegiate races of the season as skiers aim for both individual and team success. The last time Lake Placid hosted the Championships was 33 years ago in 1982, when the national races were only for men.
The nordic portion of NCAA’s will take place on the trails of the Mt. Van Hoevenberg, the site of the cross-country events in the 1980 Olympic games. The first day of competition on Wednesday will comprise of the 5- and 10-kilometer women’s and men’s freestyle interval starts, while Friday will feature the 15/20 k classic mass starts. Conditions should be pristine in the Adirondacks as recent weather has provided ample snow and below average temperatures.
The 2015 NCAA Championships will have similar team favorites in 2014. At last year’s championships in Park City, Utah, the University of Denver dominated the nordic races to win the overall team title. With several departures from the Pioneers’ squad, however, other schools from the west and east will look to capture the trophy.
The University of Colorado enters the NCAA’s as the top-ranked team from the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA). The Buffs earned the most combined points throughout the season and were recently crowned the RMISA regional champions. If that wasn’t enough to boost their pre-championships confidence, their history in the east certainly will. Colorado has won the last two national collegiate titles in the east in 2011 and 2013.
Utah and Denver followed close behind in the 2015 RIMSA points rankings and will likely be Colorado’s top competition in New York, while the University of Vermont will look to extend its Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association (EISA) dominance to the national stage. The last time Vermont won the NCAA team title was in 2012 in Bozeman, Mont.
University of New Hampshire’s Annika Taylor races in the 2013 NCAA Championships.
The East:
If there are two skiers from the EISA to know before the start of NCAA’s, they are Middlebury College’s Heather Mooney and University of New Hampshire’s Annika Taylor.
With five wins apiece in the 2014/2015 season, Mooney and Taylor have shut out the rest of the eastern competition from the top of the podium. While their fight for eastern dominance will continue in Lake Placid, it remains to be seen how they will match up with the western and central women.
The Middlebury College women’s nordic team has qualified a full team for the first time in many years, including Mooney, Kelsey Phinney and Stella Holt. The trio has won many women’s nordic competitions throughout the season and will look to do the same in Lake Placid. If the recent EISA Regional Championships results are any indication — where Mooney and Phinney finished second and third, respectively, in the 15 k classic mass start — the Panthers are well on their way to their goal.
Paddy Caldwell (Dartmouth College) finishes the men’s 15 k freestyle in fourth place at the 2015 Cross Country Championships in Houghton, Michigan.
If the eastern women have been defined by two individuals, the region’s men are characterized by dueling schools — Vermont and Dartmouth. The Vermont trio of Rogan Brown, Jørgen Grav and Jack Hegman ended the eastern season ranked second, third and sixth, while Paddy Caldwell, Fabian Stocek and Silas Talbot took the first, fourth, and fifth spots.
Caldwell, who spent a large chunk of the season in Europe at the U23 World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, enters as one of the favorites at NCAA’s. Last year, his best finish was fifth in the 20 k freestyle mass start. Talbot’s best finish at 2014 NCAA’s was 11th in the 20 k freestyle.
Brown’s best finish at the same championships was 13th in the 20 k freestyle, while Grav’s was 20th in the 10 k classic.
The West:
Rune Malo Ødegård of CU races to first in the 10 k individual classic at the 2014 NCAA Championships in Soldier Hollow. (Photo: http://bertboyer.zenfolio.com) All proceeds from photo sales will be directly donated to NNF.
If Caldwell wants to step atop the NCAA podium, he’ll have to overcome the RMISA frontrunners from the University of Colorado, Rune Malo Ødegård and Mads Ek Strøm. With the exception of one race, the two have alternated on the top rungs of the 2014/2015 RIMSA podium in every single competition. By the end of the regular season, Ødegård won five of 10 races while Strøm won four.
Ødegård is no stranger to NCAA’s as the Norwegian won two national titles in 2013 and 2014. His wins made NCAA history, as he is the first collegiate skier to repeat as an individual national championship in the classic discipline. Strøm earned his national title in the 20 k freestyle mass start in 2014.
While the two Buffs are the RMISA favorites, there are several other standouts to watch in this week’s races. German Moritz Madlener of DU and enters Lake Placid as the third-ranked westerner after earning bronze in four western qualifiers. The University of Utah’s Niklas Persson is another potential top finisher. The Ute finished third at 2014 NCAA’s in the 10 k classic. Mats Rudin Resaland of the University of New Mexico is also another top contender, and will look to improve on his bronze from last year’s 20 k freestyle.
The University of New Mexico’s Emilie Cedervarn is the top-ranked western woman after winning the last four RMISA races of the season. The Utes’ Veronika Mayerhofer is close behind for total wins in the west with three. Denver’s Sylvia Nordskar will look to repeat her podium performances from 2014 NCAA’s where she placed second and third. The Norwegian only raced the first four RMISA races this season. She won both the races in the Utah qualifiers and placed first and second at the Colorado invite before taking a six-race hiatus.
Other skiers to watch from the West are the Buffs’ Petra Hyncincova and the Utes’ Sloan Storey.
Central:
Kyle Bratrud of Northern Michigan University racing to 52nd in the men’s 15 k freestyle at 2015 World Championships in Falun, Sweden.
Kyle Bratrud of the University of Northern Michigan is the favorite from the central region after a successful season that saw him win the 15 k freestyle at the 2015 U.S. nationals and compete at the U23 World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, followed by senior World Championships in Falun, Sweden.
Bratrud will look to overcome the fatigue of weeks of international racing and travel to fight for a spot on the NCAA podium. In 2014, he was the top American in the 10 k classic in sixth overall.
Joining Bratrud in the quest for collegiate success will be teammates Fredrik Schwenke and Erik Soderman. If the UNM trio can repeat their impressive performances from U.S. nationals, they have the possibility of leading the men’s nordic at NCAA’s. Last year, the men finished third overall in the 10 k classic and helped their coach, Sten Fjeldheim, earn 2014 national coach of the year.
Logan Hanneman of the University of Alaska – Fairbanks is another strong skier to watch from central.
Despite the graduation of Rosie Frankowski, the central women have a chance at top performances from NMU’s Jordyn Ross and Michigan Tech’s Deedra Irwin, among others. They will look to build on the region’s successful 2014 Championships to gain more starting spots in future national events.
Live timing will be available at BartTiming.com. FasterSkier will be on site for both days of nordic racing, so stay tuned for recaps from Wednesday and Friday.
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![Sunday's 1.2 k freestyle sprint podium at the 2015 SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho. Andy Newell (1) claimed victory over teammate Simi Hamilton (2) and Bend Endurance Academy's Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess (3).](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/mens-sprint-podium-.jpg")
![Colorado's Mads Ek Strøm leads Simi Hamilton (10) and Alex Howe (1) in the first quarterfinal of the Sunday's 1.2 k freestyle sprint at the 2015 SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho. Stream eventually finished sixth, while Hamilton placed second. Howe broke two poles to finish third in the heat but did not advance as lucky loser.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/Mads-quarter.jpg")
![Andy Newell (7) gains a slight advantage over SMST2 teammate Simi Hamilton (10) as they cross the finish of the 1.2 k freestyle sprint at the 2015 SuperTour Finals.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/men_finish1.jpg")
![The start of the men's final at the 2015 SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/men_start-.jpg")
![Sadie Bjornsen (USST/APU) skiing to win the 10 k classic at the 2015 SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/IMG_9359.jpg")
![Chelsea Holmes (APU) skis to second in Saturday's 10 k classic at the 2015 SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/chelsea.jpg")
![Liz Stephen (USST/Burke Mountain Academy) strides to third in Saturday's 10 k classic at the 2015 SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/liz_stride.jpg")
![Erik Bjornsen en route to his 58.5 second victory in the 15 k classic at the 2015 SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/Erik_B_win.jpg")
![Lex Treinen (APU) skis to second in Saturday's 15 k classic at the 2015 SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/lex.jpg")
![Mads Ek Strøm (University of Colorado) strides to third in Saturday's 15 k classic in Sun Valley, Idaho at the 2015 SuperTour Finals.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/mads.jpg")
![Fredrik Schwencke (9) of NMU celebrates his win in the 2015 NCAA 20 k classic mass start with teammate Kyle Bratrud.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/fist.jpg")
![Aku Nikander of NMU leads Rune Malo Ødegård of CU and Fredrik Schwencke of NMU in the final lap of the 2015 NCAA 20 k classic mass start.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/leaders_men.jpg")
![Colorado's Rune Malo Ødegård leads teammate Mads Ek Strøm in the first lap of the 20 k classic mass start at the 2015 NCAA Championships.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/CU_men.jpg")
![New Mexico's Emilie Cedervaern celebrates her win in Friday's 15 k classic mass start at the 2015 NCAA Championships in Lake Placid.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/cedervaern_finish.jpg")
![New Mexico's Emilie Cedervaern leads Utah's Veronika Mayerhofer in the first kilometers of Friday's 15 k classic mass start at the 2015 NCAA Championships in Lake Placid.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/Women_lap1.jpg")
![The men's 10 k freestyle interval start podium at the 2015 NCAA Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y. Taking the top three spots were Dartmouth's Patrick Caldwell, Denver's Moritz Madlener (not pictured), and Colorado's Rune Malo Ødegård.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/Men_podium.jpg")
![Dartmouth's Paddy Caldwell hugs Vermont's Rogan Brown at the finish of the 10 k freestyle at the 2015 NCAA Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/hug.jpg")
![Moritz Madlener of The University of Denver skied to second in the 10 k freestyle at the 2015 NCAA Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/madlener1.jpg")
![The women's podium in 5 k freestyle at the 2015 NCAA Championships in Lake Placid. Utah's Veronika Mayerhofer took the win, while Denver's Sylvia Nordskar placed second and Emilie Cedervaer claimed third.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/women_podium_better.jpg")
![Veronika Mayerhofer en route to a win in the 5 k freestyle at the 2015 NCAA Championships in Lake Placid.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/mayerhofer_hill.jpg")
![Cambria McDermott, fourth place and top American finisher in the 2015 NCAA 5 k, high fives Montana State University Head Coach Kristina Trygstad-Saari.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/Cam_and_kristina.jpg")
![The men's podium in the 20 k freestyle mass start at the 2014 NCAA Championships in Soldier Hollow. (Photo: http://bertboyer.zenfolio.com) All proceeds from photo sales will be directly donated to NNF.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/03/Mens-full-podium.jpg")
![University of New Hampshire's Annika Taylor races in the 2013 NCAA Championships.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/03/IMG_0215.jpg")
![Patrick Caldwell finishes the men's 15 k freestyle in fourth place at the 2015 Cross Country Championships in Houghton, Michigan.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/01/Cadlwell2.jpg")
![Rune Malo Ødegård of CU races to first in the 10 k individual classic at the 2014 NCAA Championships in Soldier Hollow. (Photo: http://bertboyer.zenfolio.com) All proceeds from photo sales will be directly donated to NNF.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/03/Oedegaard-11.jpg")
![Kyle Bratrud of Northern Michigan University racing to 52nd in the men's 15 k freestyle at 2015 World Championships in Falun, Sweden.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/02/Bratrud-1st-lap.jpg")