Tag: the 12

The 12: Far West Elite Team

Note: This is the 12th preview in our U.S. elite-team series, the “The 12.” We asked coaches to tell us what’s new and whom to look out for this season. We will be publishing Canadian training-centre profiles in the coming weeks.

Team: Far West Elite Team

Coaches: Martin Benes, August Teague

Roster: Franz Bernstein, Spencer Eusden, Wyatt Fereday, Patrick Johnson; Holly Whitney

Who’s new: Bernstein heads west after a standout career at the University of Vermont, where he was an NCAA champion in 2010. Bernstein remained in Vermont after graduating, as he pursued his MBA from UVM. With Masters degree in hand, the former member of the German Junior National Team will race in Far West colors for the first time 2012-14.

Eusden on the run this summer (Photo: Mark Nadell)

Joining Bernstein as a Far West rookie is Johnson, who wrapped up four impressive years at Middlebury College in 2012, before stepping right on to the professional circuit with the Sun Valley Gold Team. Johnson won his first SuperTour last season, and will join the Far West squad this fall after spending the summer at home in Anchorage, Alaska.

Who’s missing: Beth Taylor; Noah Brautigam, Phill Violett, Gus Johnson

All four of the above have moved on from competitive ski racing. Johnson and Brautigam are coaching, in California and Utah respectively, while Violett has shifted his focus to summer biathlon. Taylor, following a breakout season, has opted not to train full time or travel this year.

Back for more: Both Eusden and Whitney started with the Far West EliteTeam as part of the summer college training program. Obviously they found the mountains of California to their liking, and returned for more.

They attended East Coast colleges, Bowdoin and Williams respectively, and are heading into their second seasons with Far West.

The longest tenured member of the squad, Wyatt Fereday, just completed his master’s thesis at the University of Nevada, Reno, and is looking to build on strong results his third year racing out of California.

Whitney and Fereday after claiming victory on Valentines Day. (Photo: Mark Nadell)

Top results last season: Fereday placed an impressive 16th in the SuperTour Finals Hill Climb and 49th at the American Birkebeiner while consistently placing at the top in local events.

Eusden took 2nd at the Great Ski Race, 11th at the Aspen SuperTour in the 10k classic, 22nd at the Boulder Mountain Tour, and 21st in the SuperTour Finals Prologue.

The final returning member of the team, Whitney, won the local Tahoe Rim Tour and just missed the podium in the Great Ski Race, placing 4th.

Johnson did not race for Far West last season, but his results are impressive nonetheless, earning the victory at the Aspen SuperTour in the 10k classic, along with a 5th at US Nationals in the 15k freestyle, and 8th in the American Birkebeiner, where he was the top American finisher.

Bernstein, for his part, placed 8th in the Craftsbury Marathon.

Coach’s Comment: Benes is looking forward to the 2013-14 season with new faces joining the solid returning cast.

“This year’s edition of the team is definitely one of our strongest,” Benes said. “On the men’s side, adding Patrick Johnson and Franz Bernstein will be a big boost not only in training, but also by increasing the size of our travel squad.”

Both Bernstein and Fereday will be more focussed on local racing, though Fereday does plan to hit West Yellowstone, the American Birkebeiner and the Boulder Mountain Tour.

Benes expects Eusden to build off some strong results from last year, and should reap the benefits of some tough training.

“We had a big planned jump in terms of training volume last year, which combined with a move to altitude left him feeling pretty tired at times during the race season,” Benes explained. “This was to be expected, and he ended up with some big fitness gains. This year, we have leveled off his training a little and we should see payoff come winter.”

Like Fereday and Bernstein, Whitney will mainly race locally as she will also be coaching part-time after spending the summer in New England.

Johnson should be battling for top spots on the domestic circuit, and the team looks forward to his imminent arrival.

Other previews: Alaska Pacific University | Bend Endurance Academy |Bridger Ski Foundation | Craftsbury GRP | Maine Winter Sports Center | Methow OD | SSCV/Team HomeGrown | Stratton Mountain School T2 | Sun Valley SEF Gold Team | XC Oregon | Central Cross-Country

— Alex Matthews contributed reporting.

September 12, 2013
The 12: Bend Endurance Academy

Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess (Bend Endurance Academy) skating to a career-best 38th at the Quebec World Cup freestyle sprint last December. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad.com)

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

Team: Bend Endurance Academy (BEA) a.k.a “The Dirty Ravens,” according to coach Ben Husaby.

Coach: Ben Husaby (Executive Director and Nordic Director as well as van driver, cook, DJ and pop psychologist).

Support: “J-Beck,” Justin Beckwith (Green Mountain Valley School) for testing, Scott Johnston (Methow Olympic Development) for application, and “J-Nice” (New England Nordic Ski Association) for top-tier resource procurement at major competitions. “Although we have decided that all of this will not be necessary in the future after reading this study, this might be the advantage we have been looking for,” Husaby wrote in an email.

Roster: This guy: What could he be thinking?

Bend Endurance Academy’s lone elite-team athlete: Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess (Photo: Ben Husaby)

Who’s new: No one for winter, but the BEA has “a ton of new and returning ravenettes that have come around for summer training,” Husaby explained. “They have done a fine job of pushing the lead bird.”

Notables include Rogan Brown (University of Vermont), Jordan Buetow (Bates), Bella Smith (Montana State University), Elena Breed (University of Denver), Reitler Hodgert (The College of St. Scholastica), Tony Squallace (Gustavus Adolphus College), and Joel “The Filth” Bransky (St. Olaf College), as well as Ben Grodner (Wasatch Nordic Ski Academy), and Pat Madden is on loan from the Bridger Ski Foundation.

Who’s missing: Lars Ellefson. “He has embarked on a long desired (secret) passion; body building,” Husaby wrote.”(This is not a joke).” Well, sort of. He’s a big-time gym rat and works at the Central Oregon Community College club sports department, Husaby explained. “We have lost him for the time being.”

“For the future, we would like to offer this once in a lifetime opportunity,” Husaby added. “If you choose to hang out with us we will give you one of these as a token of our appreciation.” (See below)

VonBallCap (Photo: Ben Husaby)

Top results last season: According to Husaby, it’s a tie for Blackhorse-von Jess between “getting the opportunity to compete with ‘our’ awesome Americans on the World Cup. And being given the play by play from Halsey at US Nationals, Classic Sprint Semi, where the commentary went from ‘Dak is down!’ at the start to ‘Dak is in the lead!’ down the finishing stretch. I have a hard time watching sometimes.”

Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess and coach Ben Husaby, the two main components of the Bend Endurance Academy in central Oregon. (Photo: Ben Husaby)

Blackhorse-von Jess, 27, won the freestyle sprint at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah, following a bronze-medal finish in the classic sprint at Soldier Hollow. After placing 38th in the Quebec World Cup skate sprint in early December, he went on to qualify for the World Cups in Switzerland (Davos), Finland (Lahti), and Norway (Drammen).

Coach’s comment: “I would like to think that we offer a very comprehensive and complete training atmosphere where everyone can reach their personals goals,” Husaby wrote. “We had great success last year with Pat, Bella and Rogan making it to the NCAA championships. In the future we would certainly like to entice skiers to consider Bend and BEA as their place to roost. It certainly is taking shape during the summer months. I buy a lottery ticket every week hoping to hit it big so I can underwrite it all. But in the meantime Dakota and BEA’s great supporters will focus on trying to get him to the highest level.”

***

Other previews: Alaska Pacific University | Bridger Ski Foundation | Craftsbury GRP | Maine Winter Sports Center | SSCV/Team HomeGrown | Stratton Mountain School T2 | Sun Valley SEF Gold Team

August 8, 2013
The 12: Stratton Mountain School T2 Team

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

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

Team: Stratton Mountain School T2 Team (SMST2)

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

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

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

Who’s missing: none.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Other previews: Craftsbury GRP | SSCV/Team HomeGrown

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who’s new: none.

Who’s missing: none.

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

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

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

Top results last season:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

July 2, 2013
The 12: Craftsbury Green Racing Project

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

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

Team: Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP)

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

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

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

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

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

More on the new athletes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

July 1, 2013