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From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.

Tag: University of Alaska Anchorage

  • Letters to My Younger Self: Adam Verrier and Taming Fire

    Letters to My Younger Self: Adam Verrier and Taming Fire

    “1992. Senior year of college. Biwabik, Minnesota. Another cold day. Olympic trials. I was in the top ten in every race that week and came about as close as possible to making the Olympic Team without making it.” (courtesy photo)

    Editor’s note: This is the second essay in our new series, “Letters to my younger self.” Lauren Fleshman provided the modern locus classicus for this genre; Adam Verrier ably takes up the mantle here. While the first two essays, from Adam now and John Wood before him, have set a high bar, the general theme of this series is clear: If you were writing a letter to your younger self, what would you want to tell them about skiing, life, or skiing and life? Additional contributions from our readers are respectfully requested and gratefully accepted; see the bottom of this article for our contact info.

    Adam grew up in New Hampshire, as he discusses in this memoir. He skied collegiately for the University of Wyoming, when it had an NCAA ski team, and was a nordic ski Olympian at the 1994 Lillehammer Games. He began dominating Anchorage endurance sports soon after, with wins in the Crow Pass Crossing, Lost Lake Run, and Tour of Anchorage among many other items on his local race résumé. He has the all-time record for podium finishes in the Tour of Anchorage 50k skate, the unofficial Alaska citizens championship contested by dozens of Olympians over the years, with eight. At 53, Verrier recently qualified for the classic sprint heats in a loaded Anchorage JNQ field, only to bow out so that a junior could race instead. He has announced numerous prominent American ski races. He founded the iconic Oosik Classic ski race now held in Talkeetna, Alaska. And he is a very, very nice guy.

    But “None of these things define who Adam Verrier is,” current University of Alaska Anchorage head coach title Sparky Anderson wrote in a recent blog post. “Adam is a musician, a connoisseur of experience, deeply interested in anyone lucky enough to engage him in conversation, a rural Alaska home appraiser, and an avid clothing-optional motorcycle operator.” As Anderson also notes, Verrier has been a volunteer assistant coach for the UAA ski team since 2001. Verrier keeps a delightful, sometimes idiosyncratic blog about the UAA nordic team here.

    By Adam Verrier

    Dear Seventeen-Year-Old Adam,

    I’ve been asked by FasterSkier.com to write a letter to my “younger self.” So this is your future 53-year-old self, with some advice and some insights based on the intervening 36 years’ worth of life experience between you and me. (By the way, FasterSkier.com is a “website” on the “internet.” Since it’s 1985, you’ve probably never heard these terms before, but that’s a topic for another conversation.)

    Under normal circumstances, I’d never write to you from the future and spoil your suspense. After all, isn’t life all about finding your own way forward, being ignorant but curious, charting your own course, trying to make good decisions, and hoping for a little luck, too? To write to you from the future with the answers seems like a great way to deprive you of most of the excitement and joy that a life has to offer. So ordinarily, I would never agree to this. But since I don’t believe in time travel, I’ve agreed to participate.

    “Probably 1984. Bretton Woods, NH. I remember it was FREEZING cold that day!” (Courtesy photo)

    As fate would have it, I had a conversation just last week about pretty much this same topic during ski practice with the women on the college team that I’ve been volunteer-assistant coaching for years. It was suggested, during our warm down after a set of intervals, that I use my little mobile recorder to tape conversations with them – our college skiers – about skiing, about life, about their hopes and dreams – and then we could listen to it 20 or 30 years in the future and see how differently things will turn out in reality, as compared with how we now think they will.

    When I was their age, I had such a dramatically different set of goals and ambitions for myself from what has actually transpired over the years from then until now. I never would have imagined my life would follow the path that it has, and I’d have never imagined that I’d end up living in Alaska. And I expect they’ll feel the same way thirty years from now. Because, really, isn’t it that way for most people who are curious and open to new ideas and new experiences?

    At this point in your young life, Adam, I know that things are looking and feeling pretty dark. High school is a struggle, and you hate it. It seems you’re spending all your time studying and doing homework, and trying so hard just to get C-minuses. No matter how hard you try to understand it, algebra doesn’t make any sense at all, chemistry is beyond your comprehension, and your English teacher thinks your writing sucks.

    Cross-country skiing is your favorite sport, but you’ve never really been very good at it. I mean, yes, good locally against your friends, but you’re not remotely in the same league as the best skiers in the New England. You’ve been racing in all the New England qualifying races, trying to make Junior Nationals for years, but have never qualified. And you’ve never even been very close to making it. You want to go to college but there’s the question of how to pay for it. Joining the military and using the G.I. Bill to go to college like Uncle Tommy seems like the most likely route, but there’s also the chance that distance running could get you a Division 1 college athletic scholarship. Because running is the thing that you’re actually very good at. Problem is, while you love cross-country skiing, you dislike running. You find it jarring and uncomfortable, and you can’t imagine having to keep doing all that running, all the way through college. You feel like you’d probably rather join the military.

    “Getting my first look at Alaska. Junior Nationals. 1987. I was third [far left]. That looks like Jeff Graves in second. And Ed Lynt in first.” (Courtesy photo)

    As I said earlier, I’m now a volunteer assistant ski coach for an NCAA ski team. Yeah, seems hard to imagine now, doesn’t it? I get to be the “team uncle” to this group of kids (older than you, I know, but I call them kids) who are talented and smart and ambitious. When I think back to when I was seventeen, it seems unimaginable that I’d go from being a frustrated high-school athlete with a strong work ethic but dim prospects, to being someone that they’d let hang out with a group of elite athletes like we have here on this college team. But somehow I went from there to here. And I’m going to tell you how I think it happened. I will tell you what your future has in store for you, and how I think you could do a lot better, with less frustration and misery than what I’ve put myself through.

    In the very near future, you’re going to have some luck in one particular ski race – the New Hampshire state high school championship. Due to some inclement weather conditions (heavy snow and rain on race day) and because you’ll have extraordinarily fast skis on that day (due to pure luck with the weather – maybe all those rocks you’ve hit gave your bases lots of anti-suction structure to handle the soggy snow) you’ll win a race against skiers who are usually a lot faster than you. This one lucky result will open a door, which will lead to other opportunities, and your goals and ambitions will change with each new result and new opportunity.

    “New Hampshire State High School Championships. 1986. Carl Swenson in front, obviously knew how to skate. Me, in back, obviously kind of fumbling around with it. But I won that race, somehow. That turned out to be a very big day for me.” (Courtesy photo)

    I know that becoming a member of a college ski team doesn’t seem realistic now. It seems like either distance running or the military are the options for getting tuition paid for. Because you’re definitely not going to do it with an academic scholarship, the way things are going! But because of this one lucky race, you’re going to take the opportunity that’ll be offered to spend your senior year of high school at a ski academy. There, you’ll find out that you really don’t have very good skiing technique, and that this lack of technique is likely the reason your running is so much better than your skiing. You’ll also find out that, even though you train more, and far harder, than all your high school teammates now, you’re really not training very much at all, compared to the best in your age group. Finding out about this thing called a “training log,” and having teammates who are surprised you don’t know how to “V2-skate”… a lot is going to change in the near future.

    One thing that’s going to keep changing is your goals and ambitions. I know what your goal is now: to find a way – any way – to escape rural northern New Hampshire and go west – anywhere west of the great plains – like your uncle Ronnie who escaped New England and became a cook at a restaurant in Lake Tahoe. Uncle Ronnie’s accomplishment – his escape from rural life – has been your ambition for as long as you can remember.

    But you’ll find that just one year at the ski academy (Green Mountain Valley School), coached by one of most energetic and extraordinary women you’ll ever know, will change your thinking dramatically. Having never qualified for the New England Junior Nationals squad, you’ll finally qualify next year as an eighteen-year-old, and then actually win gold and silver at Junior Nationals, and it will seem very surreal and weird, like it’s not even you doing the skiing that week. Because everybody, especially you yourself, knows that you’ve never been fast enough to beat any of these other kids; they’ve always been much faster than you. But you’ll have to reconcile yourself with this new reality.

    This result will provide the opportunity to be on a Division 1 college ski team. It will provide the opportunity to go west. To the University of Wyoming! As a high school senior, your goal will be, by the time you’re a senior in college, to get a few top-20 finishes in some western college races. If you can accomplish this, you’ll feel like you can legitimately call yourself an elite skier and a big success.

    Summer 1994, Östersund, Sweden, US Ski Team training camp. Cart racing on our day off. Back row from left: Ben Husaby, Coach Sten Fjeldheim, Todd Boonstra, Justin Wadsworth, Verrier, Marcus Nash, Carl Swenson. Front row from left: Leslie Thompson, Suzanne King, Kerrin Petty, Nina Kemppel, Laura Wilson, Pete Vordenberg.
    (Courtesy photo)

    I know this is going to sound utterly unbelievable to your 17-year-old self, but one thing is going to lead to another, and there are actually going to be some college wins in your future. There’s even going to be some World Cup racing and an Olympics. I know that this isn’t even remotely on your radar at this time in your life, but you’ll be shocked at how your future reality will differ from the way you imagine it now, when your only goal is to escape from this dark, rural life in this little town where it feels like nothing has ever happened, and it seems nothing ever will.

    One thing that’s going to be of use to you as you move upward and onward in this sport is your inclination toward angst and melancholy. The discomfort that’s endemic to this sport will be an opportunity to explore your tendency to gravitate toward the dark and difficult, and toward isolation and self-reflection. Your most memorable, most rich, most intense workouts will be the ones done alone, in driving snow, in the dark, and half-lost. And your most successful races will be those rare occasions when you can manage to manipulate your own reality, to convince yourself that discomfort is no longer part of the equation, and that the ski race performance is more important than life or death. That the immediate moment is everything – is the only thing. It’s quite a stretch. You’ll learn some real mental gymnastics to manipulate your perception of reality for the purposes of a good race performance. For now, this penchant for despair and darkness mostly manifests itself as raw angst. But you’ll find, when you learn to work with it, that it can be a powerful tool in a sport like cross-country ski racing.

    Verrier in Nesbru, Norway, outside of Oslo, in 1988. “With my 1962 VW Beetle and my friend Tariq Eik,” he writes. (Courtesy photo)

    But the coin has two sides, and you’re going to see your friends and teammates struggle with some of the same feelings of futility and desperation that you have now. Many of your friends, teammates, and competitors are not going to survive their twenties. You’re going to be left shocked and speechless every time you hear about another friend.

    You’ve heard it said that your brain is your most important muscle in sports, and I know you think that’s nonsense – everyone can see that it’s your heart, lungs and muscles that are most important in this sport. But you’re going to find out as you get older that it’s actually true; your brain really is your most important organ. Without focus, without willpower, without problem-solving, we’re not going to accomplish much. My friend Roy, who was an all-star Division I college basketball player and went on to play a decade in the pros, told me recently, “When I was younger, I wanted to explore the limits of what my body could do, but as I got older I gradually became a lot more interested in exploring the limits of my mind.”

    Now I have some advice for you. If you want to do better at this sport than I did, spend less time thoughtlessly bashing yourself through workouts than I did. Instead, find ways to train smarter. Don’t just take all your coaches’ advice and grind through the training on the presumption that if you just do the workouts prescribed by whomever your coach happens to be, the success will automatically follow. That’s not a given. The most successful athletes in any sport have always been the creative ones who found their own way to do things nobody had done before. Among skiers, Bill Koch, Gunde Svan, Marit Bjørgen, Kikkan Randall, Petter Northug, Bode Miller… all of these skiers did things their own way, and in so doing became the best, or among the best, in the world. And the most successful skiers I’ve known here at UAA have been the ones who haven’t always agreed with what their coaches have told them. They’ve had their own opinions and they’ve been pretty stubborn. The best skiers I’ve known here at UAA… coaching them has not always been a picnic.

    1992 NCAA Championships. Waterville Valley, NH. With my friend Joe Barton. (Courtesy photo)

    The most important think that you should know, though, is that success in this sport is not going to turn you into something else; it’s not going to get you millions of dollars and a future in Hollywood. I know (because I remember) that you have this vague notion that there’s some kind of firm and defined dividing line between “success” and “not success” in this sport. I know that you have this foggy conceptualization that if you can achieve “success” by whatever criteria you’re defining it at the moment, then everything will be OK, you will have “made it” and you’ll be happy and satisfied and relaxed and proud of yourself. And I know that you don’t allow yourself to think about the consequences to your psyche if you don’t achieve “success,” whatever that means.

    But I can tell you now, as your future 53-year-old self, that the reality is nothing like this. For example, my biggest regret in skiing is not quite ever winning an NCAA Championship. I came very close a couple of times, but never quite pulled it off. Nevertheless, the time I came closest was when I was beaten by my teammate in one of my best, most focused, and most excellent races ever. It was such a dramatic and fun day for me! Thus, as it turns out, my biggest regret in this sport is also one of my very favorite and most special moments.

    You think that “success” and “not success” are defined by results, on paper. But I can tell you that, in hindsight, one of my proudest moments in this sport was a few years ago when my friend Ian told me that he used to call me “The Scrapper” because it was his impression that I would never give up, regardless of how well or how poorly I was doing. If there was going to be a battle for 467th place, I was going to fight hard to win that little battle. It made me feel so good to hear that from Ian, who is the same age as me but has always seemed to me like a role model, much more mature and a far better athlete than me, ever since we were young. Hearing Ian say that to me felt as much like “success” as I’ve ever felt.

    “Success” and “not quite” are not nearly as defined and concrete as your young mind now conceives them to be. You’re going to find out, gradually over time, that your definition of success will morph and change in relation to, and in synch with, your goals. You’ll recalibrate to your successes and you’ll rationalize your failures. And you’ll also find out, because you’ll have friends with Olympic gold medals, that after the elite-level skiing is over, life goes on and these people do normal-people stuff just like you and me, with jobs and spouses and dinner parties and divorces and mortgages and everything else.

    After the ski racing career is over, the most important and salient thing you’re going to be left with, contrary to this vague idea you have now, is not going to be a million dollars or a Hollywood acting career or free beers for life.

    The most important and lasting thing you’re going to be left with is the memories of the good times you’ll have, and the friends you’re going to make.

    As my friend Lucy, who was on another country’s national team, and about the same age as me, and whom I visited earlier this fall while on a motorcycle trip, said, “I can’t hardly remember what I had for breakfast this morning, but I remember all those crazy times racing in Europe like it was yesterday, and all the friends made along the way. And those good times and those good friends are the most special thing.”

    1986, 18 years old, with Muffy Ritz, who had a big influence on me. (Courtesy photo)

    So now, as I’m writing to you, they’re letting me be a volunteer assistant coach for a group of kids who are just a few years older than you are now. I hate to break it to you, but these kids seem much more mature and pleasant to be around than you will be when you go to college in a couple of years. Your college life will be a lot more pleasant for you and those around you if you could just dial down the intolerance and dismissal of your teammates’ goals which may be a little different or a little less all-consuming than your own. You could learn a thing or two from one of our current UAA kids, who is a lot better skier than you will be, who told me a few weeks ago that if he couldn’t be a personable and friendly guy for his friends and teammates to be around, he would quit the sport. Because it wouldn’t be worth compromising his humanity just to be a successful athlete. I found this statement shocking and profound, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. It occurred to me that when I was his age, I had pretty much the opposite point of view. And it probably showed.

    Seventeen-year-old Adam, you have a lot to learn in the years ahead. But even now, I’m finding out that I have so much to learn from the young people I’m around. This volunteer coaching gig gives as much to me as I give to it. The energy and curiosity of our skiers goes back with me to my “day-job” office after ski practice and influences how I handle the rest of my day. Their optimism and vigor inspire me to try new things and take chances for myself. Their search for purpose and meaning nudges me out of my own complacency, both physically and mentally.

    “1987, Holderness, NH. First time I qualified for Junior Nationals. 18 years old.” (Courtesy photo)

    Ultimately, my advice to you, seventeen-year-old Adam, is to tone it down with the obsessing and worrying about the future, and about achieving success. Connecting with the experiences and the people around you won’t prevent you from training hard or training smart. Enjoying the journey won’t preclude success. The fire and brimstone stuff is great as a race-day tool to help you achieve a transcendent performance, but it has no place in the team van.

    And ultimately, none of this matters as much as you think it does.

    *  *  *

    If you are interested in submitting a letter to your younger self, or know of someone with a compelling story that might be a good fit, please contact us at info@fasterskier.com with questions or for more information. Don’t be put off by Adam’s credentials; we’d love to hear from you even if you’re not a former Olympian.

    Previously in this series:

    Letters to My Younger Self: John Wood and Returning to a Lifelong Sport

  • Matching Grant Announced for UAA Ski Team Supporters

    Matching Grant Announced for UAA Ski Team Supporters

    ANCHORAGE — The beleaguered ski team at the University of Alaska Anchorage, or UAA, once more finds itself fighting for its continued survival as a competitive program, following last month’s decision by the University of Alaska Board of Regents to tentatively eliminate the alpine portion of the men’s and women’s ski team.

    As previously reported, the decision facially saves the UAA nordic team: USST national team member JC Schoonmaker and his nordic teammates will not be without a college ski team after this school year. But the decision, if it stands, would spell the end of UAA as a nationally competitive NCAA ski program. Because team scores in NCAA skiing competitions are based on the combined points scored by both alpine and nordic athletes, a college ski team fielding only nordic athletes will never be competitive at the overall level against other schools with twice as many athletes scoring points.

    (This objective mathematical statement is not intended to denigrate nordic-only schools like University of Alaska Fairbanks or Northern Michigan University, both of which claim a history of multiple cross-country Olympians and national team members. But as UAA Head Ski Coach Sparky Anderson has stated, his concern is that the Board of Regents’s action would “keep a Nordic-only grouping that can never be competitive in its quest for a National Championship.” Anderson also calls UAA “the canary in the coal mine,” and expresses a fear that cuts to UAA could lead to the loss of “the entire Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association. Once the RMISA is gone, the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association is soon to follow.”)

    The Board’s decision left ski team supporters some reason for hope: If they can muster private funding for the next two years’ worth of operating expenses in the next few months, “The board will consider reestablishing men’s and women’s alpine (downhill) skiing … .” (It remains unclear whether the fundraising deadline is February 1, 2021, or the Board of Regents meeting at the end of that month, February 25–26. This site suggests a deadline of February 1, 2021.)

    The UAA alpine skiing team has annual expenses of $314,000. Two years’ worth of operating expenses is therefore $628,000. Of the total amount required at least half must be raised in the form of cash in hand, according to the Board of Regents; the other half can be firm pledges.

    Ski team supporters have been busy. They have a website, Friends of UAA Skiing, which is raising awareness and soliciting funds. Supporters have launched what they term “The 314 Initiative”: “We are asking for 314 individuals, groups, businesses, or interested parties, to invest $1000 or more this year, and pledge $1000 for the following year. This collection of distinguished parties will be The 314ers. A group of highly motivated ski racing backers who will not only save NCAA skiing at UAA, but save NCAA skiing across the country. We must demonstrate to college administrators across the country that an Olympic sport like Skiing has a place in collegiate athletics.”

    Backers will receive “an authentic sweatshirt” if the fundraising campaign meets its goal. Donations will be returned, less online processing fees, if the full goal is not met.

    As of Monday evening, ski team supporters had raised, in round numbers, $113,000 in cash for fiscal year 2022, and $86,000 in pledges toward fiscal year 2023. This is roughly one-third of the way towards the total amount required. The first $1,000 contribution came from Anderson’s 14-year-old daughter, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

    Also Monday, Ski Racing Media announced a matching grant to support UAA skiing. Ski Racing Media, in partnership with Team America Foundation, will match donations to the UAA ski team up to $50,000. The fundraising page to obtain the matching donation may be found here. Donations are tax-deductible; Team America Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

    (Translations for nordic readers: TA Foundation is essentially the alpine skiing version of NNF. Ski Racing Media is roughly the alpine version of FasterSkier, if FasterSkier had a whole lot more money, staff, and vertical branding integration.)

    The role of “314” in the fundraising campaign has a significance that goes beyond the happy accident of a budgetary line item. If you’re a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the number connotes the 314 Project, which created Adam and other demonoids. If you’re a fan of the musical stylings of Nelly, the number evokes his St. Louis demesne, via metonymy from the city’s area code. And if you have any sense for geometry, it calls to mind the mathematical constant π, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Pi is an irrational number, and its decimal representation has no end, but its first three digits are, of course, 3.14.

    The imagery of circles is appropriate for the UAA ski team, whose alpine skiers carve precise arcs between slalom gates. It is also sadly apposite in the sense of “history is circular,” as the UAA ski team once more finds itself fighting for its survival. Time will tell if, unlike π, their efforts are rational and eventually come to an end.

  • BREAKING: Nordic Skiing Saved at UAA

    BREAKING: Nordic Skiing Saved at UAA

    History repeats itself: A supporter holds an updated sign at the #savealaskaskiing rally in Anchorage, Alaska, on Nov. 10, 2016. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)

    ANCHORAGE — For the second time in four years, nordic skiing has been saved at the University of Alaska Anchorage, following a serious proposal to eliminate the ski team entirely. This time around, the victory is somewhat more of a pyrrhic one, as the University of Alaska Board of Regents voted Thursday to eliminate the alpine portion of the men’s and women’s ski team, unless supporters can raise over a half million dollars in advance funding over the next few months from private sources.

    The math is stark, and has multiple implications for supporters of collegiate skiing at one of Alaska’s two NCAA ski programs. (Alaska Pacific University does not have NCAA affiliation.) On the one hand, as far as the NCAA is concerned, a college ski team without an alpine team is just as much of a team as one with alpine athletes – two teams, in fact, “men’s skiing” and “women’s skiing.” Cutting alpine skiing therefore lets UAA continue counting skiing as two sports, at effectively half the price tag as before. When it comes to the 10-team minimum for NCAA Division II status, a college ski team with only nordic athletes is still a team in the eyes of the NCAA.

    On the other hand, a college ski team with no alpine skiers is by definition not going to be very competitive at the NCAA Championships level. Team scores for skiing are based on total points scored by nordic and alpine skiers combined. Schools such as University of Alaska Fairbanks and Northern Michigan University show that it is possible to have a rich standalone nordic tradition; current American World Cup-level skiers who attended those schools include Tyler Kornfield, Logan Hanneman, Ian Torchia, and Rosie Frankowski. But those schools placed 16th and 12th at the 2020 NCAA Championships, and 15th and 7th in 2019, since they could only potentially score half as many points as a school that also fielded a full alpine team.

    When this news was first announced last month, UAA Chancellor Cathy Sandeen was recommending the complete elimination of both men’s and women’s skiing, as well as men’s hockey and women’s gymnastics. By the time of today’s Board of Regents meeting, Sandeen instead presented an alternative plan that would cut only alpine skiing after the current season, as well as hockey and gymnastics.

    The Anchorage Daily News quoted Sandeen as telling the board at today’s meeting, “We understand we are becoming a focal point for cross-country skiing (nationwide). We are part of that growing movement of cross-country skiing in Anchorage.”

    The ADN also provided more details of Sandeen’s proposal, which was adopted by the board: The other three sports have from now till February 2021 to raise enough money through private donations to cover two years’ worth of operating expenses. If alpine skiing can come up with $628,000, gymnastics with $880,000, or hockey with $3 million, the Board of Regents will consider keeping each sport beyond the 2020/2021 school year.

    JC Schoonmaker skis to 10th place in the 10-kilometer skate at the 2020 NCAA Championships. Earlier this year, Schoonmaker made the heats in his World Cup sprint debut. (Photo: Joan Darnell / UAA Ski Team Blog)

    FasterSkier reached out to Head Ski Coach Sparky Anderson for comment. (UAA does not currently have a head nordic ski coach or an assistant nordic ski coach, though it is working through the hiring process to fill this position.)

    In a Thursday email to FasterSkier, Anderson provided some perspective on this nordic/alpine solution, writing, “The NCAA defines skiing only in terms of gender. We are required to have five athletes in either gender to field a team. The makeup of that team by discipline is up to each program. We all know that to win an overall title, which we have been close to doing in the past, requires men and women on nordic and alpine skis. I hope to educate our administration that the best path forward is to only travel with our top scoring athletes of either discipline and fundraise for the opportunity to travel and train a larger group. We have all the infrastructure in place to be able to do just that.”

    Anderson continued, “Today’s decision demonstrates the understanding that NCAA skiing is important to our community. I am grateful to the regents and to our chancellor for understanding that. My goal moving forward is to help our administrators understand the nuance of our sport, the fact that we can use the numbers we are given to have at a minimum what we need, and fundraise for what we want. Because what everyone on this UAA Ski Team wants is to hoist a big NCAA trophy in March, and that doesn’t happen unless we stick together as one team. I see a pathway forward where this is possible and I’m going to do everything in my power to make that happen.”

    As laid out in magisterial detail last week on volunteer assistant coach Adam Verrier’s blog, cutting men’s hockey leaves UAA with only one men’s team sport, men’s basketball. (Notwithstanding the heavily team-centric nature of NCAA skiing competition, any sport that crowns individual champions – skiing, wrestling, etc. – is not classified as a team sport under NCAA bylaws.) Verrier explained a theory under which supporters of UAA skiing could seek a bylaw amendment to allow Alaska to count skiing as a team sport for NCAA purposes. At no point did Verrier, or anyone else associated with the ski team, advocate for cutting alpine skiing in the process.

  • Several RMISA Schools Currently Without an Active Nordic Coach

    Several RMISA Schools Currently Without an Active Nordic Coach

    Matthew Perry Johnson, shown here in an earlier position with Alaska Winter Stars, began working as the new head coach for the Montana State University Ski Team in August 2015. (Photo: Montana State University)

    Multiple schools in the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association are experiencing flux with their nordic coaching staff going into the 2020/2021 ski season, according to representatives from each school. The schools in question are the University of Alaska Anchorage, University of Utah, and Montana State University, all of which have well-established nordic programs that placed highly at last year’s NCAA Championships. Neither Anchorage nor Montana State currently has anyone filling this position. Utah has two nordic coaches on staff, but they are both subject to furloughs of unknown length due to budget shortfalls.

    University of Alaska Anchorage, or UAA, has multiple problems for the future: The Board of Regents is meeting today and tomorrow to vote on a proposal from the chancellor and athletic director to cut both the men’s and women’s ski teams after this academic year. But it appears to have a more immediate problem for the present: The school does not officially have anyone currently coaching the nordic team.

    The current roster page for the UAA ski team lists Marine Dusser Bjornsen as the assistant nordic coach, and Adam Verrier as the volunteer assistant coach. But Verrier is just that – while an enthusiastic volunteer assistant, he is not employed by UAA directly. And Dusser Bjornsen is no longer listed in the online directory for UAA employees, which does list both Head Ski Coach Sparky Anderson and Assistant Alpine Ski Coach Anna Berecz.

    Marine Dusser was named RMISA Nordic Coach of the Year in her first year leading the UAA Seawolves. (Photo: Adam Verrier)

    Trond Flagstad was announced as the new UAA head nordic coach in May 2019, and was set to “begin his duties on August 18th,” 2019. What appears to be his official UAA bio page is still available online (albeit at a site not hosted by UAA). Nonetheless, Flagstad does not seem to have publicly coached at UAA during the 2019/2020 ski season or academic year. He is not listed as a current UAA employee in the online directory.

    “Our nordic ski position is currently vacant and we are working through the hiring process,” a UAA media relations representative wrote to FasterSkier on Thursday.

    There is no ski coaching position currently listed on the UAA jobs site.

    At the University of Utah, meanwhile, Athletic Director Mark Harlan announced last week that the school would furlough every employee in its athletic department, for periods ranging from 1 to 8 weeks. The news was widely reported by, among others, the Deseret News, Sports Illustrated, and local TV station KUTV.

    In a September 5 tweet, Harlan wrote, “All staff and coaches will furlough a minimum of 1 week to a maximum of 8 weeks.Head coaches, myself and cabinet will furlough for 2 weeks. We are fully operational as we stagger the schedule through Jan 1.  Sharing this sacrifice as a team allows us to emerge stronger than ever.”

    Following the decision of the Pac-12 conference to postpone all fall sports – in particular, the main revenue sport of football – Harlan told the Deseret News in August that the decision could lead to the school losing $50 to $60 million in income against an annual budget of $91 million.

    “Everyone in the athletic department is furloughed anywhere from 1-8 weeks,” wrote Utah media relations representative Joseph Feldman to FasterSkier on Thursday. “The priority on when those furloughs are happening is to make sure the student-athletes are still operating as normally as they can and still have all of the resources they need. The rest of the department will be fully functional as the furloughs are staggered until January 1.”

    Utah media relations representative Paul Kirk did not directly answer specific questions about when Director of Skiing Fredrik Landstedt and Head Nordic Coach Miles Havlick will be or have been furloughed, or for how long the two men will be or have been furloughed. Kirk wrote to FasterSkier on Saturday, “We are unable to share specifics about when any staff member or coach is on furlough, but when an individual is on furlough his or her email out of office reply may reflect that.”

    It appears from Harlan’s tweet and Feldman’s statement that both Landstedt and Havlick have been or will be furloughed for some period of between 1 to 8 weeks, at some point between last week and January 1, 2021. If either or both of them is treated as a “head coach” under Harlan’s standards, then his furlough is or will be for 2 weeks.

    On Sunday, through a spokesman, Landstedt stated, “The ski coaches are staggering their furloughs during the fall, and one or more coaches will be working at all times during this period. The University of Utah Ski team has been practicing with coaches present since the second week of school.”

    Counting alpine coaches and student assistant coaches, Utah has a healthy six coaches currently listed on its roster. 400 miles to the north, however, Montana State University only has two people listed as ski coaching staff: Kevin Francis, the head alpine coach, and Emily Danza, assistant alpine coach. (The “staff” section for the women’s skiing roster looks the same.)

    Screenshot of MSU coaching staff page as of Sept. 9, 2020.

    But earlier this summer (on June 22, the last date the ski roster page was archived by the Wayback Machine), the staff section looked like this:

    Screenshot of MSU coaching staff page, as archived at the Internet Archive: Wayback Machine on June 22, 2020.

    That’s Matthew Johnson and Sawyer Kesselheim, both recently associated with the MSU nordic team but no longer there.

    The Montana State athletic department confirmed in a Thursday email to FasterSkier that both men had moved on: “We received a letter of resignation from Matt Johnson last week. Montana State is currently working with its HR Department to search for a new head coach. Sawyer Kesselheim was not planning on returning this season.”

    There is no ski coaching position currently listed on the MSU jobs site.

    As of Thursday morning, Johnson was still listed as the head nordic coach in the MSU online directory:

    Screenshot of MSU faculty and staff directory on Sept. 10, 2020.

    He also still lists his current job as MSU head nordic coach on Facebook and LinkedIn.

    Attempts to contact Johnson on Wednesday and Thursday for comment were not immediately successful.

    Montana State placed seventh at this year’s NCAA Championships. UAA was sixth, and Utah was first. Of the six RMISA schools that scored points in the nordic race at this year’s NCAA Championships – UAA, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Colorado, Denver, MSU, and Utah – fully half of them are without an active nordic ski coach at this point in the season. It further appears that Denver (second at this year’s NCAAs), which last season employed Rogan Brown as an assistant nordic coach, only has head nordic coach Toni Roponen at present, with no assistant coach for the nordic team.

    This story has been updated with additional information about the timing and nature of furloughs at the University of Utah.

  • Longtime USST Teammates Reunite in Support of UAA Skiing

    Longtime USST Teammates Reunite in Support of UAA Skiing

    The U.S. women (l-r Kikkan Randall, Holly Brooks, Jessie Diggins, and Liz Stephen) after their first ever World Cup relay podium in November 2012. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)

    ANCHORAGE — The U.S. women’s epochal third-place relay finish at the World Cup stop in Gällivare, Sweden, in November 2012 is justly hailed as an inflection point for American skiing: For the first time in American nordic history, this country had four athletes who were all strong enough on the same day to challenge the traditional Scandinavian powers at their own game. The race begins Peggy Shinn’s historical treatment, World Class: The Making of the U.S. Women’s Cross-Country Ski Team, and features prominently in Jessie Diggins’s recent memoir. Although American ski fans may have subsequently become somewhat inured to success, it was a really big deal at the time – contemporary headlines on this website included phrases like “U.S. Women Shock the World” and “Historic U.S. Performance.”

    The first two legs that day in Gällivare were Holly Brooks on the scramble leg, then Kikkan Randall on the second classic leg. (Liz Stephen and Jessie Diggins, who had the skate legs, were obviously of equal importance, but this article is pursuing a selective focus on just three Alaskan athletes in order to introduce a specific op-ed.) When the team did it again a year later, taking third once more at the Lillehammer World Cup stop in December 2013, it was now Randall handing off to Sadie Bjornsen (then Stephen and Diggins once more for the skate legs).

    Seven years later, those classic-leg skiers – longtime friends and teammates, for Alaska Pacific University domestically and the U.S. Ski Team internationally – are teaming up once more in support of the ski program at the University of Alaska Anchorage, or UAA.

    Flyer for local rally in support of UAA Ski Team. (photo: screenshot from SkiAK email)
    Flyer for local rally in support of UAA Ski Team. (photo: screenshot from SkiAK email)

    In a powerful opinion piece published in Wednesday’s Anchorage Daily News, the three athletes, who have a combined nine Winter Olympics between them, write “on behalf of all the young aspiring athletes in the Anchorage community and the state of Alaska, a place we are proud to hail from.” Brooks, Randall, and Maubet Bjornsen continue, “The [UAA ski] team is an important institution in our community and demonstrates everything that is good about hard work, healthy lifestyles and what you can achieve when you put your mind to it.”

    There’s much more. The entire article is worth your time.

    Other articles in today’s local paper include a eulogy for UAA hockey – which, like chivalry in the late Middle Ages, seems to have always been in decline – and an opposing opinion piece titled, “Restructuring UAA Athletics creates a foundation for stronger, more sustainable future.”

    Next steps

    Ski team supporters have launched a petition, which may be found here. Anchorage supporters are planning a short-notice, socially distanced rally for Thursday afternoon at Hilltop Ski Area (see flyer at right). Public comments may be submitted to the University of Alaska Board of Regents at ua-bor@alaska.edu, cc’ing uaa_feedback@alaska.edu.

    The Board of Regents will hear public testimony from 4-5 p.m. next Monday, August 31, in advance of its upcoming Board meeting on September 10-11 at which it is scheduled to vote on the chancellor’s proposal to eliminate skiing, men’s hockey, and women’s gymnastics.

  • UAA Skiers, Past and Present, On What the Team Means to Them

    UAA Skiers, Past and Present, On What the Team Means to Them

    Erik Bjornsen on his way to second at 2011 NCAAs in Stowe, Vt., while a freshman at UAA.

    ANCHORAGE — It’s déjà vu all over again for alumni and supporters of the University of Alaska Anchorage ski team, following the recent announcement that, for the second time in four years, university administration wishes to cut the team for budgetary reasons. A common theme in their current responses is their concern that this time, the cut may stick.

    To start with, consider what Adam Verrier wrote on his blog four years ago, in November 2016. Verrier, who skied for the University of Wyoming in the late 1980s and early 1990s, was a member of the 1994 Olympic team for cross-country skiing. He’s also, by this point, the closest thing that the UAA nordic team has to institutional memory – since the last time the team was threatened to be cut, all athletes and both nordic coaches have completely rolled over.

    Then, as now, Verrier wrote solely in his personal capacity. Verrier, who describes himself on his blog profile as “The UAA Nordic Team’s crazy uncle,” has never been on the UAA ski team staff; he has instead served as a volunteer assistant coach for many years. He has no official professional affiliation with the school.

    All that said, here’s an excerpt from what Verrier wrote four years ago this fall:

    Alaska is sometimes referred to as a “resource extraction state”. For centuries, people have been coming from other parts of the world to Alaska to get their paws on something valuable and bring it back “home” with them. The Russians came to fetch animal pelts and furs. Thousands showed up 120 years ago to dig a bunch of gold out of the ground and cart it back to the mainland. Folks came from the Pacific Northwest to catch salmon in Bristol Bay and cut down trees in Southeast. College students from around the USA come for summer jobs in the tourism industry. And Texans and Okies showed up in the ’70’s and ’80’s for oil, and they’re still here. None of these groups have been particularly concerned with building infrastructure and amenities here in Alaska – the things that enrich our lives, our culture, our cities and towns – because their goal has been to amass wealth and take it back “home”.

    I see it all the time at my “day job”, flying around the state and appraising the homes of people who are getting their kit together for their migration back “home” after “putting in their time” in Alaska. I frequently sit next to people on airplanes who say things along the lines of, “I figure I’ve got just a few more years up here and then I should have enough saved and I’ll move the family back to ________. I’ve already bought a parcel of land down there. It’s been a good run, but of course there’s nothing to do up here during the miserable winters.”  And I hear the same thing from people selling their homes to move “back home”.  Do you think these people want to pay taxes in Alaska and invest in local amenities like libraries, city parks, elementary education, and the state university system?  Of course not.  They’re extracting resources. They’re extracting wealth. Their priorities lie elsewhere.

    The full blog post may be found here. It’s worth your time (and shorter than this fine work, which makes similar points). Verrier’s observations on the historical relationship between Alaska and Outside, and on residents’ views of state spending in a state with no income tax and where residents are literally paid annually just for living here, remain trenchant and applicable today. (More on Verrier later in this article.)

    Hailey Swirbul

    University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves skiers Hailey Swirbul (l) and Casey Wright (r), photographed on the UAA campus in Anchorage, Alaska, in October 2016. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)

    Four years ago, Hailey Swirbul was 18, a college freshman, recently arrived at UAA from Colorado and living on her own for the first time. She spoke with FasterSkier in October 2016 about the recent announcement that University of Alaska administrators wanted to cut the ski team after the 2016/2017 season. Before the three World Juniors medals, before the three (and counting) national championships, before the four (and counting) World Cup top-30 finishes, Swirbul sat in the Alaska Airlines Center next to teammate Casey Wright and told this reporter, somewhat presciently:

    I don’t think we were necessarily singled out. But I can’t understand why they would cut skiing in Alaska. I don’t understand that. And I don’t think they understand why they cut us. I don’t know. … Were we singled out? No. Are we some of the best academic and hard-working people at UAA? Yes. And I don’t think they would purposefully single out those types of people to remove.

    …

    I would never wish this upon anyone else, and I can’t say that I would rather have the gymnastics be cut, or the hockey be cut – because this sucks. And I don’t want anyone to go through this.

    Fast forward to 2020, and Swirbul is now a professional skier with Alaska Pacific University, or APU, literally just down the street in midtown Anchorage. Over the weekend, she took a break from training to write to FasterSkier as follows:

    Well, it sure is frustrating to say the least. I almost feel a preemptive sense of defeat after going through this process a few years back. I’m afraid that the board is going to do it “right” this time – in their eyes, at least.

    To those trying to cut the ski team at UAA, only 20 or so lives would be impacted directly. But they aren’t seeing the bigger picture. Cutting teams that actually have a presence on the collegiate circuit, like UAA, opens a gateway to risk losing skiing as a collegiate sport entirely, in my opinion. Less participants, less viewers/fans, less income. I’ve heard rumors that cutting UAA Alpine and Nordic might make the current RMISA system fail due to too few teams competing.

    We all know that skiing is already not the most lucrative of sports, but in my view, it is unmatched in non-monetary benefits. Endurance sport instills a work ethic and drive that you don’t find just anywhere. As far as I know, the UAA Ski Team has been one of, if not THE, top team at UAA academically for years!! These hard-working, involved, dedicated people are the kinds of people I want in my community, and those are the kinds of people that skiing brings to Anchorage. I’m bummed about this announcement, but I can’t say I’m surprised after the way it was left a few years ago. I figured this might happen, and I’m ready to do my part to keep skiing at UAA. I just hope it’s enough.

    (As Swirbul accurately notes, members of the UAA ski team have historically been strong students as well as strong athletes. At the 2019 NCAA Championships, for example, Swirbul’s former teammate and 2018 Australian Olympian, Casey Wright, won the Elite 90 Award, presented to the skier at NCAAs with the highest grade point average. Following the 2019/2020 ski season, UAA tied for third nationwide in total selections to the National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team.)

    Sadie and Erik Bjornsen

    Sadie Maubet Bjornsen is now known as a longtime member of the U.S. Ski Team, and as a student and athlete at APU. But before the national team nominations, the national championships, the two Olympic teams, the World Championships medal, and the 11 World Cup medals, Sadie was a freshman skier for UAA. (And a pretty good one, too; she finished in the top five in five out of eight races her freshman year on the RMISA circuit, including third overall in the classic race at NCAAs.)

    Although she spent just one year at UAA before moving over to APU, Sadie continues to place great value on that year as a stepping stone on her path to the national team. Here’s Sadie (at the time just Sadie Bjornsen, no Maubet yet), in an email to FasterSkier from October 2016:

    My year as a Seawolf was one of the most important “steps” of my life. I would have never been drawn to AK fresh out of high school, and discovered this incredible state. I see skiing as a big family with many functioning parts. By eliminating one integral part of the ski community, we are cutting off a strong piece of the family!

    I have always considered Alaska to be the best training for a cross country skier in the US. We have the perfect environment for training, including early snow in the fall, and late snow in the spring. I now race professionally, and am a student at Alaska Pacific University while racing World Cup. I see APU as providing the very best opportunity in the world for myself, but, I know this level is not designed for everyone. It is important to have options, and varied levels so that skiers can choose where they want to go, and have a path to where they are looking to reach. I would never give back that year of racing NCAA at UAA, a year that taught me so many lessons! It saddens me to know that won’t be available for everyone anymore!

    Erik Bjornsen followed a similar path as his older sister, Sadie: grow up in Mazama, Washington, skiing in the Methow; come to Anchorage to ski for UAA; make a national championship podium as a freshman (Erik was second at the 2011 NCAAs); move to APU to pursue professional skiing outside the NCAA context; become a longtime member of the U.S. Ski Team; marry an athletic French person. (Because American nordic skiing is often just one very small family, Erik’s wife, Marine Dusser-Bjornsen, was an athlete at UAA from 2012–2014, and was interim head coach there for the 2019/2020 season. She was named the RMISA Nordic Coach of the Year for last season before amiably moving on from UAA as she and Erik moved back to Washington.) Erik would go on to ski at two Olympics and log dozens of World Cup top-30s before retiring from professional skiing earlier this year.

    Erik took time out from his first post-skiing job, working 12-hour days on construction sites in the Methow, to talk with FasterSkier by phone this weekend.

    Much like Sadie, Erik talked about the significance of his time at UAA as the start of his adult life. “It’s not only been an important part of my ski career,” Erik said, “but also it’s where I went after high school; it was the first place I lived away from my parents. I definitely made some of my best friends there. Three of my groomsmen, my best man, were guys that I met at UAA. … It’ll always be a big part of my life, the year I spent there. I’m just thankful that I was able to have that opportunity with the team there, and I’m disappointed that other kids won’t have that same opportunity.”

    Marine Dusser was named RMISA Nordic Coach of the Year in her first year leading the UAA Seawolves. (Photo: Adam Verrier)

    As someone who raced both within the NCAA system, at UAA, and outside of it, at APU and internationally, Erik shared his perspective on the significance of college skiing to American nordic skiing as a whole: “It’s an important part of the whole system that we have here in the U.S. It’s a smaller part, maybe, but it’s an important part. Alaska is one of the strongest cross-country ski regions in the U.S., and having an NCAA program in that region is quite important. APU does a great job with more of the – in Alaska, I think people think of it as more of the elite, more professional team – but it’s important to have an NCAA program in town, that younger, high school athletes that maybe aren’t quite ready to race on the World Cup can go to UAA. The school just came off one of their best years in a while; they have the second-best, nearly the best men’s team in the U.S.”

    (As Erik correctly noted, the UAA men were second among men’s nordic teams at the one-off nordic race that was the 2020 NCAA Championships. The UAA women were fourth in the women’s nordic standings.)

    Erik continued, “I’ve always been a big supporter of NCAA skiing. I think it’s an important thing to have in the system. Although I didn’t use it for all five years like some others did, I was definitely able to benefit from UAA, and it was an important part of my development to have it there. I think the whole U.S., especially Alaska, is going to really miss having it.”

    Finally, Erik noted, “It’s disappointing to see cross-country skiing going in that direction in Anchorage, when it just seems like, in the U.S., everything else is headed in the right direction for cross-country skiing in this nation. So to be losing one pretty important nordic team in the U.S. is disappointing to see, for sure. … I really thought we were kind of past the point of cutting the team. I hadn’t heard this most recent news, but before Marine had finished at UAA, it sounded like it was in a good position. So I was very shocked when I saw the news.”

    Adam Verrier

    And finally, back to Adam Verrier, the volunteer assistant coach who, though officially unaffiliated with the school, has unofficially been with the program longer than anyone currently on the nordic side of the UAA ski team. Here are Verrier’s thoughts on the current situation, from a recent email to FasterSkier, as drawn from over 30 years’ experience with NCAA skiing:

    We went through this in 2016 here at UAA. And during my involvement with NCAA skiing over the past 33 years, I’ve seen this scenario play out at the University of Nevada-Reno, Western State College, Montana State and University of New Mexico. And twice on my own team when I was at University of Wyoming. We got cut at the end of my freshman year, in 1988, but were reinstated about a month later and survived four more years until finally being cut (for good this time) in 1992 at the end of my senior year. So I’m no stranger to this game. As a long-time observer of these kinds of things, it’s been interesting to see how often the team gets reinstated sooner or later.  University of Denver got cut in 1984, but then was reinstated in 1992 when my University of Wyoming team got cut, so most of our team just moved a couple hours’ drive down the road to Denver, and they were immediately successful and have been so ever since. The Montana State team was cut in the mid-1980’s, but their program was reinstated 20 years later and lives on today.

    The 2014 UAA alpine and nordic teams on the Kincaid sand dunes in Anchorage. (photo: Adam Verrier)

    And many of the teams that didn’t get resurrected as NCAA programs have put together their own kind of ski team or university club racing program, like University of Wyoming and Western State College. It goes to show that there is a community desire for competitive college ski racing programs.  These programs are often the anchor for these college-towns’ winter recreation programs, providing trail grooming and maintenance and local ski events for area residents.

    I think the proposal to cut the Ski Team is shortsighted. Not only is Anchorage full of Olympic skiers past, present and (hopefully) future, but it’s also a city in which a significant number of residents regularly commute to work on skis during the winter months. With our interconnected ski trail networks and our groomed multiuse corridors connecting residential neighborhoods to commerce centers like the hospitals, University, and downtown and midtown business districts, this is one of the few places in the USA where skiing is a mode of transportation that residents regularly use for practical purposes like getting to the office in the morning.

    Skiing is a practical sport here in Alaska, and a valuable skill to have. It’s important enough that organizations like NANA (Northwest Arctic Native Association) and Skiku have been putting lots of time, money and energy for many years to bring skis and ski instructors to remote villages to teach skiing as a practical skill and a way to get outdoors during the winter. Our Alaska high school ski races put hundreds of kids on the starting line every weekend, and several of our Anchorage high school ski teams have close to a hundred kids on the team. And if you want to sign your youngster up for Junior Nordic, you’d better be quick because the hundreds of available spots fill up super fast every year. Skiing is a really big deal in this state.  And the University of Alaska Ski Team, along with APU, are the elite flagship programs.  Many of America’s most successful World Cup skiers in recent years developed through the UAA program, with some of them moving from UAA directly across the street to APU to continue their post-collegiate ski racing.

    I haven’t had a chance yet to look too closely at the details of the proposed cuts or the budget numbers that we’re talking about, but clearly this problem is rolling downhill from the legislature’s choices and decisions regarding the Alaska state budget. This is a state which has sixty-one billion dollars’ worth of savings in the bank, a state which levies no state income tax, not statewide sales tax, no broad-based personal taxes of any kind, and a state which mails a check of around a thousand dollars or so to every resident, every year, just for breathing. But yet, we claim to be “broke” and we claim to be “overtaxed”.

    Marine Dusser (l) and Adam Verrier (r) prepare fast skis. (Photo: courtesy Adam Verrier)

    The legislature’s decision to cut state funding for the University by $34 million seems to me like poor policy. And the proposed cut of the Ski Team also seems to me like poor policy.  This team has consistently provided a place for Alaska-grown skiers to take their athletic ambitions to the next level, and at the same time has attracted a steady stream of high-achieving, smart people who come to Alaska from other places to be a Seawolf, but wind up getting hooked and staying here for life. And these athletes – both the Alaska-grown ones and the ones who come here from elsewhere – have contributed enormously to the talent pool in the Alaska workforce today. They’ve brought tremendous benefit in their roles as research economists, CFOs of the state’s largest Native-owned corporations, as oilfield geologists, just to name a few specific examples that come immediately to mind.

    I would estimate that these high-achievers, who were lured to the state, or were enticed to stay in-state by the Ski Team have contributed far more value to the local economy in terms intellectual capital during their careers here than the cost of the athletic programs which brought them or kept them here in the first place. If one of the University’s goals is to foster intelligent dialogue between people of various experiences and viewpoints, and to provide a rich and fertile environment in which our best brains can develop, then it’s clear that our ski team serves that mission. To propose cutting the team seems to me to be diametrically opposed to this goal.

    Next steps

    Cathy Sandeen, the UAA Chancellor, will hear public comments at an online town hall from 5-6 p.m. Alaska time this Wednesday, August 26. Zoom information will be published here.

    The University of Alaska Board of Regents will hear public testimony from 4-5 p.m. next Monday, August 31, in advance of its upcoming Board meeting on September 10-11 at which it is scheduled to vote on Sandeen’s proposal.

    Finally, ski team supporters are encouraging advocates to submit written comments to the Board of Regents at ua-bor@alaska.edu, cc’ing uaa_feedback@alaska.edu.

    * * *

    This article has been edited to reflect the fact that Adam Verrier competed for the University of Wyoming only in nordic skiing, not in alpine skiing as well.

  • Hailey Swirbul on the USST Park City Training Camp

    Hailey Swirbul on the USST Park City Training Camp

    American Hailey Swirbul (University of Alaska Anchorage) leads Norway’s Lone Johansen up a climb during the second half of the women’s 10 k skiathlon on Thursday at 2018 Junior World Championships in Goms, Switzerland. (Photo: JWSC2018.ch)

    With the U.S. Ski Team’s final pre-season camp wrapping up on Oct. 22 in Park City, Utah, FasterSkier reached out to one of the newer additions to the USST’s D-Team, Hailey Swirbul, for a recap of her experience.

    Born in Grand Junction, Colorado, the 20-year-old grew up skiing in the Rocky Mountain area with the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club. In 2016 she headed north to attend the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), where she is currently in her junior year.

    Since joining UAA, Swirbul has qualified for NCAA’s twice, racing to a second and third in last seasons races held in Steamboat Springs, Colo. At the 2018 World Juniors Championships in Goms, Switzerland, she came away with two individual medals, one silver and one bronze.

    The script below is a firsthand account from Swirbul of what the Park City camp was like for her.

    ***

    Though my 20-year-long life might not seem like a long time to some, I’ve spent about half of my time on earth dreaming about becoming a member of the US Ski Team. And 2018 was the year this dream became reality. As a new member of the development team, October Camp in Park City rounded out my first cycle of summer training with some seriously seasoned World Cup athletes and D-team peers.

    As I write this, recalling training sessions and meetings and breakfasts in Park City, I take a moment to zoom out from the perspective with which I went through camp. There I am, sitting with Sadie Bjornsen watching dog videos together, while Jessie Diggins prepares her daily oatmeal. Wait a second… that’s me? Sitting next to these women who, to this day, pose in a poster on my wall wearing neon yellow puffy jackets and heavy duty trail shoes? These ladies are my heroes! But yes, I assure myself, that was me, a little fish in a big new pond, or a “guppy” as the older ladies dubbed my fellow D-team teammates the previous few years.

    I zoom back to the perspective I actually saw with my own two eyes; the one where I not only coexisted with these athletes that are the best in the world, but learned from them and was included by them and could be myself around them. After breakfast, I would head back to the room I shared with fellow D-teamers Hannah Halvorsen and Julia Kern, where we turned on some tunes and sang our way through our morning routines until it was time to get to work.

    Now it’s time to get serious; let’s talk training.

    Because this was my first October camp, I wanted to keep it conservative my first few days in Park City. We tested out our bodies with distance sessions and flat, threshold skate intervals to rev our engines. And after about three days, I was exhausted! What the heck? I train harder than this regularly back in Alaska, so why do I want to curl up in my cozy bed and check out for about 15 hours? It turns out, the training wasn’t the only thing that caused stress on my body.

    Though training was manageable, my first week in Park City was infused with obligations like a proctored exam, PT and nutrition meetings, and nightly dinners with supporters of the ski team or with NTG athletes. To say the least, I was not able to squeeze in the nap I so desperately longed for, and it didn’t help that Hannah, Julia and I couldn’t stop talking when it was finally time to go to bed at night.

    Oops. I was told Park City camp would be busy, and indeed it was!

    Once I finally figured out the general format of how each day would go, I settled in and found a rhythm to my training and daily routine. I found training sessions a good time to practice focusing and learning from others, as about 40 athletes from the NTG, University of Utah, APU, and Sun Valley joined us for some workouts. Kudos to the coaches; organizing training for 50 athletes at once is no small feat!

    USST D-Team skiers Julia Kern (r), Hannah Halvorsen (c), Hailey Swribul (l) during the recent USST Park City Camp. (Photo: Instagram screenshot)

    The camp went by quickly, and before I knew it, it was time to hammer out some race simulations: a skate sprint and a classic distance. Personally, I saw gains from any previous sprint simulation I had contested. Both my consistency and fitness improved throughout four heats of race-course-like terrain on the Soldier Hollow roller ski track. 

    We used a “King’s Court” format where the last skier in each heat moves down, and the winner of each heat moves up. I’ve still got a ways to go to reach the levels of the U.S. World Cup veterans in sprinting. As for my peers, I’m continually impressed by Hannah and Julia who can mix it up with the best and execute fitness, tactics, and courage throughout a sprint day.

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    We returned to Soldier Hollow the following day for our individual start classic time trial–my favorite. The women completed three tough laps around the roller ski course and men took on four laps. For me, that meant three grueling times up the legendary Hermod’s climb. It hurt, no doubt, but it meant that race season is just around the corner!

    After that race, I saw that Sadie Bjornsen posted a photo with a caption that read, “Testing out the pain cave…I think we can be friends again.” I couldn’t have said anything better about the end of Park City camp. After months of training this summer and adjusting to a new environment with the U.S. Ski Team, I am finally ready to say that the pain cave and I can be friends once again. Bring on the races, because this new team of mine is ready to leave it all out there this season.

    Hailey Swirbul (University of Alaska Anchorage) on a suspension bridge leading to the Goms cross-country venue on Jan. 24, 2018. (Photo: Hannah Rudd)

  • Under 23 Questions: Natalie Hynes

    Canada’s Natalie Hynes (University of Alaska Anchorage Ski Team) racing in women’s classic sprint qualifier at 2017 Junior World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. She placed 42nd. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad.com)

    In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Ski Federation (FIS) 2018 Nordic Junior/U23 World Championships in Goms, Switzerland, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 20-year-old Natalie Hynes, of the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Ski Team and the Yukon Ski Team, who’s representing the U.S. at her third Junior Worlds. 

    On Thursday, Hynes placed 24th in the 10 k skiathlon for her career-best result at Junior Worlds. 

    ***

    Young skiers came from all over the country to represent their clubs and test their progress. Whitehorse's Natalie Hynes is following the tracks of Emily Nishikawa and Dahria Beatty. (Photo: W. James MacLean)
    Natalie Hynes (Yukon Ski Team/University of Alaska Anchorage) racing at 2017 Canadian Ski Nationals last March. (Photo: W. James MacLean)

    “My full name is Natalie Hynes, but you can call me Hey You.

    I was born and raised in the Yukon, and I learned to ski at the Mt. Mac Ski Trails.

    I spent the time between Mont Sainte-Anne trials and Junior/U23 Worlds racing in West Yellowstone.

    The most scenic workout I did in the last training year to prepare for this was mountain biking in the Wheaton River Valley with my border collie.

    This is my first time in Switzerland and my third time racing internationally, and so far it’s been very snowy.

    One difference I’ve noticed between Switzerland and Canada is the length of the meals.

    Skiing and racing in the Alps is so beautiful. Usually racing at altitude is hard for me because there is not enough air to share with all the other competitors. There are so many incredible mountains around where I live.

    One of the things I’m most excited about for Junior/U23 Worlds in Goms is gaining experience racing internationally.

    One race I’m especially targeting there is the skiathlon.

    I really hope I can chat/make friends with someone from Norway and ask them if they know my Norwegian teammate, Marte.

    My favorite thing at the breakfast where we are staying are the kiwis.

    Fondue is probably better here than in Canada but I haven’t had the chance to try it. The cheese here is strong. And the chocolate is so delicious.

    If I had a totally free day here and didn’t have to worry about race fitness or training, I’d spend it taste testing Swiss chocolate.

    The best way to follow me on social media is on Instagram @natalie.heinz.”

  • Reese Hanneman Wins Qualifier, Second Sprint Title of Week at Nationals

    Left to right: Tyler Kornfield (APU), Reese Hanneman (APU) and Ben Saxton (SMS) as the top three finishers in the men’s 1.6 k classic sprint final on Monday, the last day of 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Anchorage, Alaska.

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — No two races are exactly alike, the saying goes, and there’s a lot of truth to this cliché. But if you step back just a little bit, two race days can start to look awfully similar to one another.

    For example, for the second time this week, a Hanneman brother won the sprint qualifier, Reese Hanneman won the final, and Alaska Pacific University (APU) put three athletes in the final and two on the podium on a perfect day for sprinting at Kincaid Park. That was the story on Monday, when Reese Hanneman led teammate Tyler Kornfield and Ben Saxton of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) Elite Team across the line in the men’s classic sprint at 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships. But it was also the case on Friday, when Reese was first and Kornfield was third in the freestyle sprint. It’s been a good week for the Hanneman family.

    The classic sprint, the final race of this year’s U.S. nationals, had a slightly more subdued feel than the three that preceded it.

    The fields were 50 percent smaller; a combined 160 athletes skied in the qualifier on Monday compared to 337 on Friday, as many juniors opted out of a race whose results did not bear on qualification for international trips and championship teams, and some athletes had already left town. The spectator numbers were smaller, measuring in the dozens rather than the hundreds after three days of packed parking lots and raucous crowds, as the first day of school following winter break sent local students back to the classroom. And the athletes were tired, too, after a full week of racing.

    “I was just running on fumes out there, especially after the 30 k yesterday,” fifth-place finisher Kevin Bolger, of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) told FasterSkier after the men’s final.

    But cross-country skiers are nothing if not resilient, and so, just after 10 a.m., Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess (Bend Endurance Academy) once again led 95 men out onto the qualifying course at 15-second intervals. The temperature was 10 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the display on the stadium scoreboard. The sun had yet to rise and start burning off the morning’s dense fog. It felt cold.

    “It’s a very quintessential Alaskan day,” women’s domestic podium bronze medalist Becca Rorabaugh (APU) said after. “It’s like an Alaska temperature, and I feel like a lot of the Alaskan teams have great skis, it’s hard-wax skiing, and it’s just a classic race day. It’s very Alaskan.”

    Hanneman Brothers Headline Qualifier

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BdsyQTkB945/

    APU skiers did very well in the time-trial portion of the morning, which has added, if not exclusive, significance for Olympic qualifying purposes slightly a month before the 2018 Winter Olympics begin in PyeongChang, South Korea.

    Reese Hanneman, 28, who grew up in Fairbanks, covered the brand-new, 1.6-kilometer sprint course in 3:21.93, a time good for the fastest qualifying mark on the day. And he did so by nearly three seconds. Next best was his APU teammate and younger brother, Logan Hanneman, 2.84 seconds back. Third was his APU teammate Tyler Kornfield, 4.23 seconds off Reese’s mark.

    Alaska Pacific University’s Reese Hanneman during the men’s 1.6-kilometer classic sprint heats on Monday at 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Anchorage, Alaska. Hanneman won the qualifier and eventually, the final for the national title.

    The brothers Hanneman are skiing qualifiers well these days, to put it mildly. Logan, 24, won Friday’s sprint qualifier, with Reese qualified third.

    In light of the bonus points awarded for U.S. nationals podium performances, FasterSkier’s unofficial calculations put Logan first on the 2018 Olympic Winter Games domestic sprint qualifying list, with 80 points (45 for first at U.S. nationals and 35 for second), and Reese second, with 71 points (45 for first and 26 for third).

    In Monday’s classic sprint, Benjamin Ogden (SMS) was fourth in qualifying, 5.12 seconds back. Blackhorse-von Jess was fifth (+5.16), Zak Ketterson of Northern Michigan University sixth (+7.56), Cole Morgan (SVSEF) seventh (+7.61), David Norris of APU eighth (+7.85), Saxton ninth (+7.88), and Bolger tenth (+9.09).

    Just like the skate sprint, Brian Gregg, of Central Cross Country (CXC), Loppet Nordic Racing (LNR) and Team Gregg, was the final athlete to make the heats, 16.53 seconds back in 30th.

    “I would say all the top sprinting guys, everyone’s focusing kind of on the qualifier, more so than normal,” Reese said on Friday after he had qualified third in the skate sprint. “There’s no margin for error, and you just have to ski it absolutely as fast as possible. It’s definitely different tactics than in the heats… but if you’re fast, you’re fast.”

    Reese Hanneman Wins Everything En Route to Final

    On Monday, Reese was pretty darn fast. He won his quarterfinal, the first of the day, as well as his semifinal, the first of the day, to make the final with the maximum amount of rest possible. And then, of course, he won the final as well for his fourth national title — and second of 2018 nationals.

    In the day’s first quarterfinal, Reese was in the lead by the first turn at 200 meters, followed closely by Bolger. The two of them had a big lead by the time they were coming off Gong Hill. The rest of the field caught up to them somewhat by the finish, but Reese and Bolger still took the top two spots with relative ease.

    In the second quarterfinal, U18 skier Ogden led the field into the first turn, with Morgan and Bill Harmeyer, of the University of Vermont, right behind. Ogden was still into the lead coming back into the stadium, but Kris Freeman (Caldwell Sport) had caught up into third. Coming into the finish, Freeman won a four-way lunge for second over Thomas O’Harra (APU), Ben Lustgarten (CGRP), and Harmeyer. O’Harra’s third place in a fast heat was good enough to send him on to the semifinals with the day’s first lucky loser spot.

    In the third quarterfinal, Andrew Egger (Colby College) took the lead out of the stadium, but it was Blackhorse-von Jess in the top spot by the time they came back. Blackhorse-von Jess entered the finishing stretch with a 10-meter lead. Ketterson took second, 1.2 seconds back, with Egger another second back by the finish.

    From left to right: Logan Hanneman (APU), Like Jager (APU), Ben Saxton (SMS Elite Team) Nick Michaud (BSF), Scott Patterson (APU), and Jack Hegman (SVSEF) at the start of their quarterfinal in the men’s 1.6-kilometer classic sprint on Monday at 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Anchorage, Alaska.

    In the fourth quarterfinal, Saxton and Logan Hanneman left the stadium with the early lead, alongside a quick-starting Luke Jager (APU), one of three U18 skiers who made the senior heats. It was Saxton in the lead coming back to the stadium two minutes later, with Logan leading Jager. Saxton came into the finishing stretch with a healthy lead, but Logan made a powerful move to pull around him and come alongside. Saxton won the heat by 0.37 seconds over Logan. Yesterday’s medalist, Eric Packer (APU), was out in third.

    The fifth quarterfinal was heavy on local pride, with three APU skiers and a fourth from University of Alaska Anchorage. Erik Axelsson (Montana State University) led Kornfield and Logan Diekmann (University of Utah) into the first uphill. But two minutes later it was all APU, with Kornfield, David Norris and Forrest Mahlen with a sizeable lead on the rest of the field. Kornfield took the win; Mahlen came around Norris for second, but Norris moved on with the day’s other lucky loser spot. Axelsson was nearly five seconds back of Norris in fourth.

    In the first semifinal, Blackhorse-von Jess flashed his ski speed and momentum by dropping into a tuck within the first 200-meter straightaway in the stadium, then still led the field over the top of the first, smaller climb. Ogden and Reese Hanneman were nearby. When they returned to the stadium, Reese had a 20-meter lead over Ogden on the downhill. As happened throughout the day, though, that lead shrank to half that size by the time the skiers entered the finishing stretch. But Reese still had the lead, which he held to the finish. Bolger was second, 0.32 seconds back. Ogden was relegated for obstruction.

    The second semifinal featured a predominantly blue color scheme, between four suits from APU and the blue accents on Saxton’s SMS suit. Saxton again led out of the stadium, with Ketterson and Kornfield close by. By the time they came off Gong Hill two minutes later, it was Kornfield in the lead, with Ketterson close behind him. Kornfield led into the finishing stretch, but Ketterson overtook him to place first in the heat.

    Behind them, Logan Hanneman made a strong push for third. He closed down Saxton, edging him by 0.04 seconds for third behind Ketterson and Kornfield. In practice, both Logan and Saxton advanced to the final as lucky losers; Norris’s fifth place in this heat would have won the day’s first semifinal by nearly a second.

    Reese Hanneman Wins Final, Again

    Slightly after 2 p.m., six men lined up in the south end of the Kincaid Stadium. From racer’s left to right, it was Logan, Kornfield, Ketterson, Reese, Bolger, and Saxton in the starting blocks. The sun was out, the temperature was in the high teens, and the course was firm and fast. There was no wind. Conditions were once more basically perfect.

    The field had a clean start at the sound of the starter’s pistol, double poling in six separate lanes over the first 200 meters slightly downhill through the stadium. As the racers turned right to go up the first hill it was the Hanneman brothers in the lead, with Kornfield immediately behind them and Ketterson to Kornfield’s right. The pack double poled up the first part of the climb, then strode up and over the top of the hill.

    A quick descent followed, then a high-speed, double-pole section leading to the start of the course’s main hill. Reese pushed the pace going up the hill, and not everyone was able to respond.

    “I basically started at the base of the big climb,” Reese recalled of the 24-meter vertical gain B-climb in the middle of the sprint course. “I just kind of led in the climb and then just threw down the hammer and just tried to drop everyone going up that thing, and just continue to pound it over the top and take it all the way home.”

    The largest climb on the course is “tough for classic skiing,” Bolger explained. “That hill definitely adds a different dynamic to your whole approach to every heat you do. To be able to ski up that hill four times, strong, it’s a challenge.” (Bolger added that he didn’t think anyone would have attempted to double pole a hill of that size, saying that “it’s a challenging enough hill to where it’s going to rule out double poling for anyone.” But just to be sure, race organizers placed a no-double-pole technique zone up the entire length of the climb for both the qualifier and the heats.)

    By the time the field descended the waterfall downhill back into the stadium, Reese had a substantial gap over Kornfield, who in turn had a sizeable lead over Ketterson.

    Kornfield made up some of this gap going down and around the final 180-degree turn, but Reese still entered the final straightaway with a sizeable lead. Saxton had moved into third, ahead of Ketterson, by the time they reached the 100 meters to go mark.

    Reese Hanneman (1) of Alaska Pacific University celebrates his second sprint title of the 2018 L.L.Bean U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships on Monday with a win in the classic sprint final, just ahead of teammate Tyler Kornfield (r) in Anchorage, Alaska. Ben Saxton (SMS Elite Team) rounded out the podium in third. (Photo: Michael Dinneen Photography)

    Kornfield barreled down the slight uphill of the finishing straight with grace and fury, closing in on Reese with each extension of his lanky frame. But he was still in the same finishing lane as his APU teammate, getting closer to Reese, but still immediately behind him. With roughly 20 meters to go, Kornfield moved one lane to his left, then lunged as he approached the finish. But Reese’s lead was still too much, and he crossed the finish with his second sprint national title of the week.

    Reese’s time for the final was 3:20.62. Kornfield was 0.2 seconds back in second.

    Some distance behind them, Saxton crossed the finish line in third, 4.78 seconds back of Reese, with a slight lead over Logan and Bolger. Ketterson finished sixth, 6.83 seconds back, in his second sprint final of the week.

    “I can’t let off at all,” Reese said, when asked what he was thinking when coming down the final stretch of a national championship classic sprint with a narrow lead over Kornfield, who won the men’s 30 k classic mass start in an all-out effort to the line the day before.

    “He is obviously on super-good form right now,” Reese continued. “I just have to know that I have a little more speed than he does. … But he’s really cranking right now. He is skiing great, but it definitely motivated me to know to just drive that thing so hard in the final.”

    The second national title in as many races was “an answer to a lot of prayers from this morning and in the heats,” Reese said. “I just feel really lucky and stoked that I could put it together and be in such good form right now in January. It was a great day, an amazing day.”

    Tyler Kornfield leads his APU teammate Forrest Mahlen in the men’s 1..6 k classic sprint on Monday at 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Anchorage, Alaska.

    Although Kornfield was second today, he “probably got the all-around performance of the week for the men,” Reese said of his teammate. Kornfield reached the podium in every race this week save the opening 15 k freestyle individual start, where he was 14th.

    Kornfield’s race series was “a dream come true a little bit,” Kornfield told FasterSkier, “a little unexpected, but I knew I had it in me. The start of the season didn’t go as planned, I got sick for a month before it started, I also sprained my wrist for another month and so I was pretty frustrated with the lack of performances, but I knew there was something there and it was just a matter of time.”

    “In this sport there are a lot of ups and downs,” he continued, “and it’s really easy to get caught up in the downs and not realize that just because you have a few bad races doesn’t mean you lose your ability to succeed, so just have to keep your head up and keep trying and hoping for the doors to open.”

    When it comes to possibilities for potential Olympic selection, “I don’t know anything,” Kornfield said. “I can let you know in a couple weeks.”

    Mathematically speaking, Kornfield currently ranks second to APU teammate Scott Patterson on the most recent version of the Olympic selection distance points list, which reflects both distance races from U.S. nationals.

    For now, Kornfield plans to leave Alaska on Tuesday (that is, today) for a previously planned trip to Austria. He plans to work out precisely what races he will contest soon; he had planned on racing a Ski Classics marathon, but is currently uncertain where he will be racing next.

    While Kornfield’s week at U.S. nationals exceeded his expectations, Monday’s third-place finisher, Saxton, didn’t have the week he was hoping for.

    “I came here, like many people, with goals of heading to Korea and representing the country racing in the Games,” Saxton said after the final. “I fell short of that this week and that’s nothing to be ashamed of, but I was really disappointed I wasn’t in the mix as much as I would have hoped to be. This week was difficult because I don’t feel like I put forth a representative effort.”

    Saxton was quick to offer sincere congratulations to the skiers who had had more success this week.

    “I am incredibly proud to know and am happy for Logan and Scott and Reese and all of the other champions from this week,” he said, “and incredibly happy that those are going to be the skiers going to over to represent us. I think it’s just, from a personal standpoint, people can understand I was disappointed not to feel like I had my absolutely best days out there, but I am really proud to end the day on a podium, representing the hard work that all my teammates and my coach and the program at Stratton have done all year, and to reward them for that work and that effort is a great feeling.”

    Saxton also enjoyed the “playground mentality” of the sprint day.

    “I think a lot of the times racing we can get lost in the technical aspects of it,” he mused, “but one of the reasons I love racing heats so much is, it just kind of reminds me of being back in elementary school and pointing to something in the far end of the playground, basketball hoop, or whatever it is, and just saying, ‘Let me race you there.’ And there’s no rules, there’s no anything, it’s just the feeling of you and the other person just going all out, and that’s a beautiful way to live and that’s a beautiful way to compete, and sprints are a wonderful thing like that.”

    Strong Alaska Performances Throughout the Week

    What a difference a year makes. One year ago this week, in the classic sprint at Soldier Hollow, APU didn’t put any athletes into the heats for the first time in at least a decade, done in by a combination of illness, seeding, weather conditions, and wax choice. This time around, head coach Erik Flora’s squad sent eight men through to the heats, six to the semifinal, three to the final, and two to the podium.* 

    The classic sprint capped a successful week for APU, and for Alaskan skiers more generally. Caitlin Patterson, who skis for CGRP, took all four gold medals for the women. Then APU skiers took all four golds on the men’s side, between Scott Patterson on Wednesday, Reese on Friday and Monday, and Kornfield on Sunday. Chelsea Holmes, Kornfield again, Hannah Halvorsen, Rosie Frankowski, Eric Packer, Becca Rorabaugh, and Kornfield again also stepped on the domestic podium for APU. All told, that’s 15 out of a possible 24 medals going to athletes who hail from or ski in Alaska.

    (Although if you slice the data another way, there were also seven out of 12 possible medals in women’s races won by CGRP, between Patterson’s quadfecta and Kaitlynn Miller’s trifecta.)

    This week’s results “just show the depth” of the team, Reese told FasterSkier after his race. “It speaks to the hard work of our coaches, especially Erik Flora. That guy will not be outworked, he just puts so much into us. I’m just really happy that we can have a week like this and go four for four in the men’s with APU, just to show that what he is doing works and how hard he works for us. … To get to this point that we can do that and crush all week and just give them a good show is really rewarding.”

    “We’re all Alaska born-and-raised,” Reese added of the APU men. “Can’t beat that.”

    *(Full disclosure, this reporter skis on the APU Masters team, and receives direct coaching from Flora roughly once a year at Masters Camp.)

    Results: Final | Heats | Qualifier

    — Gabby Naranja and Ian Tovell contributed

    Highlights video by Max Romey Productions

    Replay on U.S. Ski & Snowboard live feed (start at roughly 1:21:00 into the video for the men’s final)

  • Caitlin Patterson Takes Third National Title of Week; Sweden’s Bångman First Overall

    Caitlin Patterson Takes Third National Title of Week; Sweden’s Bångman First Overall

    The top-three Americans in the women’s 20 k classic mass start on Sunday at 2018 U.S. nationals in Anchorage, Alaska, with Caitlin Patterson (1) of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) in first, Rosie Frankowski of APU (l) in second, and Kaitlynn Miller (r) of CRGP in third.

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — It turns out that Caitlin Patterson does have a weakness: Swedes. The 27-year-old Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) skier was denied her first outright victory of the week when she crossed the finish line second to Hedda Bångman, a former member of Sweden’s U23 National Team who now skis for the University of Colorado Boulder (CU), in the women’s 20-kilometer classic mass start at the 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships on Sunday morning at Kincaid Park. But as the first American, Patterson captured her third national title in as many races.

    Rosie Frankowski, of Alaska Pacific University (APU), was the third athlete across the line and second American. She was followed by Jessica Yeaton, who competes domestically for APU, but is an American-Australian dual citizen and competes internationally for Australia. Kaitlynn Miller, also of CGRP, was the fifth athlete across the line to round out the domestic national championship podium.

    Bångman crossed the finish line of the four-lap, technically 22-kilometer course in 1 hour, 55.3 seconds, 15.9 seconds clear of Patterson in second. It was the first time all day that Bångman had enjoyed such an edge.

    CU’s Hedda Bångman on her way to win the women’s 20 k classic mass start at 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships on Sunday in Anchorage, Alaska.

    The field of 42 skiers left the Kincaid Stadium at 10 a.m. on another perfect race day, the temperature around 16 degrees Fahrenheit and an approaching sunrise about to reveal mountains shimmering in all directions.

    Wednesday’s fresh snow had allowed race organizers to come up with a compromise between the snowmaking loop and the full International Ski Federation (FIS) distance courses, a 5.44-k loop that began with an A-climb up Elliott’s Climb, descended most of the way back to the stadium, covered all the hills on the snowmaking loop, then traversed the 1.5 k Lekisch Loop before finishing in the stadium. The hills on the course were relatively front-loaded, with the single largest climb coming in the start of the loop and smaller (but still steep) hills over the final four-plus kilometers. The final kilometer was predominantly downhill from the high point of the 1.5 k Lekisch into the finish.

    Snow coverage off of the manmade loops appeared to be good to very good, albeit with a relatively abrasive and icy base in the bottom of the tracks.

    The first time up Elliott’s, Frankowski led a large group of 30-plus women (effectively the entire field) up to the top of the A-climb roughly 1.3 k into the race. She was closely followed by APU’s Chelsea Holmes to her left, and Bångman and Miller to her right.

    The second time up Elliott’s, little had changed. Frankowski led a group of 10 women, with Bångman, Yeaton, and Holmes immediately behind her, and Patterson a few strides farther back.

    The third time up Elliott’s, it was yet again Frankowski in the lead, followed yet again by Bångman, Yeaton and Holmes, with Patterson yet again appearing to lag back slightly on the uphill.

    “Rosie Frankowski definitely deserves a shout-out for leading the train a whole lot out there and really pushing the pace,” Patterson told FasterSkier in a finish-line interview.

    Four kilometers later, the athletes lapped through the stadium a final time as they headed out on their fourth loop. At this point, Frankowski, Bångman and Patterson, in that order, were still within one second of each other, with Yeaton around seven seconds back in fourth and Miller in fifth 12 seconds behind Yeaton.

    APU’s Rosie Frankowski (6) and CU’s Hedda Bångman (11) leading the charge up Elliott’s Hill in the women’s 20k classic mass start at the 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Anchorage, Alaska.

    If the lead pack was going to avoid a three-woman sprint to the finish, something was going to have to give. And the final time up Elliott’s, it did.

    “The fourth lap is where it really splintered apart,” Patterson said. “At the top of Elliott’s, that last really kicker hill, the herringbone hill.”

    At that point, Patterson, who grew up in Anchorage, recounted that Bångman had “really good skis, like stay-in-the-track that whole way up good. All the rest of us were running outside [the tracks] flailing around a bit, so she gapped us there. And she skis the downhills very well, so she closed a gap there across the World Cup [start area] flat out there, and we never closed that down. Frankie and I were chasing her on Rollercoaster, but I think she held her gap about the same from there all the way to the finish.”

    As Bångman, 22, told FasterSkier after the race, “I didn’t have a plan before [the race], but I knew I was the strongest. So when we went out on the last lap, then I realized, ‘I can really make this race.’ So in the first hill on the last lap, I started to push harder, and then I left the others behind me. And then it was just to push as hard as I can to the finish line.”

    By the time the three-woman lead pack came around the edge of the stadium again, midway through their final lap, Bångman had a significant lead, roughly 12 seconds. She stretched it to 15.9 seconds by the finish, finally allowing herself to slow slightly, look around, and celebrate in the final meters before crossing the finish line.

    Behind her, a battle for top American was shaping up between Frankowski, who had never stood on a national championships podium, and Patterson, who had been there twice already this week.

    Coming through the edge of the stadium, Patterson held a lead of two to three seconds over Frankowski as the two of them approached the wall-like climb up the Gong Hill for the final time. Patterson began heading up on the left side of the trail, Frankowski a few meters behind her on the right, herringboning with stunning alacrity for being 20 kilometers into a 22-kilometer race.

    Then Frankowski caught a pole tip on her ski and fell into the sugar snow on the uphill. It took her several seconds to get up. While she extricated herself, Patterson skied away and up and over the top of the Gong Hill.

    “The real cool thing that came out of that fall,” Frankowski told FasterSkier after, “was that I actually had my pole stuck under my ski, and I had to literally think, ‘Relax, and figure this out and stand up.’ While in the past I would have been so frantic I probably would have dropped more places than I did.”

    “So I basically was just trying to get up,” recalled Frankowski, a 26-year-old Minneapolis native. “And when I got up someone yelled, ‘Don’t give up.’ And immediately I felt like, well, I am going to try to catch Caitlin, and if I could I would, but I didn’t. She is so strong right now; I tried and got close, but I didn’t do it.”

    Frankowski’s travails were news to Patterson when told about this after the race.

    “I had no idea,” Patterson said of her fall. “But that makes sense because it confused me because I was certain that as I ran up on the wall on the left side I was certain that there was someone just by me on the right side. But then I could hear on the downhill that there was no one close and then people were cheering for her 10 meters back, so I didn’t see that during the race.”

    Frankowski’s fall came midway through the last lap, roughly 2.1 kilometers before the end of the race. After giving chase over the Lekisch Loop, she made up roughly the time she had lost in the fall before running out of real estate, crossing the finish line 3.7 seconds after Patterson for third overall and second American.

    Rosie Frankowski (APU) leads CU’s Hedda Bångman (11) up Elliott’s Hill in the women’s 20 k classic mass start at the 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Anchorage, Alaska.

    Yeaton, 26, who was born in Perth, Australia, and moved to Alaska at age 12, skied into the finish alone 24 seconds later for fourth overall. Miller followed another 29 seconds later for fifth overall and third American. Alayna Sonnesyn, a University of Vermont junior, was the second college skier and second U23 skier in the top six.

    “I felt so strong today,” said overall first-place finisher Bångman. “It was a so-good race, I’m so happy. My skis were perfect, and my body felt so good.”

    Patterson is now three-for-three for national titles this week, but this one didn’t come easy.

    “I am pretty excited about this third one, but it was the toughest of them all,” she said.

    “It was a real struggle to hang with the people who were pushing the pace today,” she added, crediting Frankowski for her work at the front.

    “I know especially how I am racing right now that I just need to hang on and the end can be good, and it was fairly good today,” Patterson added. “So I am really happy with the national title.”

    Patterson said that she had opted to prioritize glide over kick on Sunday in light of the course profile, “because I feel like a lot of those walls are steep enough where I would be running anyway.”

    “I probably erred a little too much on the glide side,” she continued. “Which is my fault with some testing … so I was herringboning like every single one of those technique zones, every kind of big hill, just had to keep moving. And luckily because the skis were so fast and I know these downhills so well, I was able to catch up on a lot of the downhills when I did get gapped on several uphills, almost every lap.”

    Each lap featured three of the technique zones that Patterson had mentioned, in which doublepoling was forbidden. For the Anchorage readers, or anyone else familiar with the Kincaid trails, one was at the top of Elliott’s Climb; one was at the southern end of Dark Alley, approaching the lower tunnel; and one was the entire climb up to the Gong Hill from the north/back side of the snowmaking loop just a few hundred meters later.

    (There had been a fourth zone marked during Saturday’s course preview, Patterson recounted, in the first uphill on the Lekisch Loop, which features a stair-step climb with a slight saddle or depression between the two steps. “There was a technique zone that they tried to put there,” she said, “and it literally had a downhill in it, but luckily the coaches protested that and they took it out.”)

    After 22 k of skiing and 12 careful trips through each technique zone, Frankowski finished 3.7 seconds behind Patterson. It was the first national championships podium of her career.

    Her sole strategy coming into the start of the race had been to “push every uphill,” Frankowski explained. “I have raced at Kincaid enough to know that you recover at every single downhill, and so for someone who doesn’t have a sprint at the end, I needed the pace to be hot at the beginning. So right when we started, immediately out of the start I realized that our skis were incredibly fast, and honestly comparable to or better than anyone else’s in the field, and so I felt, well I am going to doublepole as much as I can and then every downhill, especially the ones I struggle on, just tuck behind and try to be relax and know that I can catch back up.”

    Craftsbury skier Caitlin Patterson (l) with APU’s Chelsea Holmes during the the women’s 20 k classic mass start at the 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Anchorage, Alaska.

    Frankowski made clear that, like Patterson, she had gone thin to win when it came to choosing how much kick wax she wanted. “The course here,” she said, “except for maybe Elliott’s, all these hills are running hills so you really had to Klæbo it up or herringbone and just know that you are not going to have perfect striding today, and if you do, your skis are going to be too slow through the stadium to be in the mix.”

    Frankowski, whose public social media profile frequently features paeans to the consumption of Thai food, also clarified, “I would say the key to success is that last night I had Tom Yum soup and Pad Thai for dinner, and lots of cookies, so I think that helped also.”

    Fellow APU skier Yeaton was the fourth skier across the finish line, 24.5 seconds behind Frankowski and 44.1 seconds back from Bångman.

    Yeaton pulled no punches when asked if she had been expecting this result.

    “No,” she said. “Not even close. Nowhere in the ballpark. … I was hoping, like on a great day, maybe I’d get top 10. I never thought I’d get fourth.”

    Yeaton’s fourth wrapped up a strong week of domestic racing for the Australian-American dual national, who is known more as a sprinter rather than a distance skier. Indeed, her next races will be Dresden, Germany, to compete for Australia at next weekend’s sprint-centric World Cup stop. Yeaton is presumptively qualified for the Australian Olympic Team in the latest FIS Olympic Points List simulation.

    29.4 seconds behind Yeaton came Craftsbury’s Miller in fifth overall, but the third American across the line after Patterson and Frankowski. She had been “in contact with the lead group until about the third lap when a gap formed on Elliott’s [Climb] that I was unable to bridge,” Miller wrote in an email to FasterSkier after the race.

    “I’m very pleased with my race and it was very exciting to see my teammate, Caitlin Patterson, place second,” she added. “I was very impressed with the 5k course that the organizers put together for the event. It was a fun course to race on.”

    Sunday marked Miller’s fifth time on a national championships podium, and second in this week, following a second on the American podium in Friday’s freestyle sprint.

    Sonnesyn filled out the rest of the top six. The 21-year-old Vermont college skier identifies as a distance skier and had been hoping for a better result in Wednesday’s 10 k skate, she told FasterSkier at the finish.

    “I was excited for that, but unfortunately I didn’t have the race I was hoping for,” Sonnesyn said. “But I came back with a really strong sprint, which kind of surprised me. And I was feeling so great that I came into this race today pretty confident. So I was excited for it this morning, and I’m really happy with the way it went.”

    Hannah Halvorsen Wins Junior Race

    While junior women (U20 skiers and under) raced alongside the senior/master field in Wednesday’s 10 k freestyle individual start, Sunday saw the juniors get their own starting time and course for the 5-kilometer classic mass start race. One lap, 92 starters, 5.5 kilometers, go!

    Before long, a pileup ensued. But “I only heard about it from quite a few girls,” junior winner Hannah Halvorsen, of APU and the U.S. Ski Team, told FasterSkier after. “I was right in front of it; I got lucky.”

    Halvorsen, 19, covered the one-lap course in 15:07.8. Second place went to Hailey Swirbul, a University of Alaska Anchorage sophomore, 10.4 seconds back.

    Third place on the all-Alaska podium went to an athlete with four years’ less experience and one fewer Junior World Championships medal to her name, U16 athlete Kendall Kramer. Kramer, who finished 4.4 seconds behind Swirbul, skis for the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks/Fairbanks XC (NSCF-FXC), as well as West Valley High School. She had competed in only one other FIS race in her life before this week.

    Halvorsen was second on the junior girls podium in Wednesday’s distance skate race, and third overall among American women in Friday’s sprint race. Swirbul was the top junior woman on Wednesday and reached the quarterfinals of the senior women’s sprint on Friday.

    Halvorsen had high praise for Sunday’s race course: “Super-fun course, up and down, kind of rolling,” she said. “Good places to find speed and carry momentum, time to rest and do different transitions. Just, like, a fun course.”

    It probably doesn’t hurt that she won. “It felt good,” said Halvorsen, who grew up in Truckee, California. “I was tired this morning, but it doesn’t really matter how you feel, you just get out there and go for it. I had really good skis, really good support; my dad’s here, my brother’s here. It’s a beautiful day to be racing; really fun racing out there.”

    — Gabby Naranja and Ian Tovell contributed reporting

    Results: Women’s 20 k | Junior women’s 5 k

    Highlights video from Max Romey Productions

  • Hall and Studebaker-Hall Take Reins with Team SoHo

    Hall and Studebaker-Hall Take Reins with Team SoHo

    Zach Hall (far left) the new manager and head coach of team Soldier Hollow’s biathlon programs standing with his athletes during a training session this summer. (Photo: Sara Studebaker-Hall)

    Last September, amidst the chatter of others gathered for the 11th annual U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Assembly in Colorado Springs, Colo., Sara Studebaker-Hall and the CEO of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation (UOLF), Colin Hilton, shook hands. Studebaker-Hall, a two-time Olympic biathlete, was attending the meeting as an athlete rep for the US Biathlon Board of Directors and was introduced to Hilton by US Biathlon Association (USBA) President and CEO Max Cobb.

    The three were partaking in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Assembly’s two-day fall symposium, an event that included seminars on athlete rights and anti-doping. At the time of their introduction, Studebaker-Hall had no idea that her conversation with Hilton would evolve into a job opportunity and eventually, her return to the Intermountain region. Originally from Boise, Idaho, Studebaker-Hall was starting her third season as the assistant coach for the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA).

    But last fall, her coaching position and the future of the UAA Ski Team were in question.  Financial restraints at Alaska’s state universities had put more than one cross-country ski program in limbo.

    Back in Anchorage and also unsure about the future was Studebaker-Hall’s husband, Zach Hall, a former national-team biathlete himself.  A native of Nikiski, Alaska, Hall had been working to develop a competitive youth biathlon program in Anchorage and was questioning whether or not it was time to make a career move.

    Then Studebaker-Hall learned through Hilton that UOLF was looking to add a new biathlon program to Soldier Hollow, its cross-country ski resort in Midway, Utah. A world-class venue, the Soldier Hollow (SoHo) shooting range had hosted biathlon competitions during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, yet no biathlon, development (devo) or competition (comp) teams existed in the SoHo or Midway area.

    Team Soldier Hollow athletes Ingrid Norton and Pearl Harvey during a rollerski workout two years ago near Heber and Park City, Utah. (Photo: Morgan Smyth)

    “One thing I look at is what are we doing with our venues, are we providing the sport we out to provide,” UOLF Vice President of Sport and Venues Marc Norman said on the phone in September. “The fact that we weren’t hosting [biathlon] and weren’t running any programs in it was a quick red flag for me.”

    Along with the addition of a biathlon program, Team Soldier Hollow was also in need of a youth coach for its nordic program. From 2012 to 2015, Morgan Smyth served as the program manager, overseeing the Comp and Devo teams, the Youth League and the Charter School Ski Program. At the time of her departure, 145 kids were enrolled in SoHo’s programs — 10 on the Comp (competition) team, a number which has almost tripled since then.

    “I left Soldier Hollow to work for Park City Nordic Ski Club [PNSC] as the Nordic Manager,” Smyth wrote in a recent email. “PNSC was part of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation. Ironically Soldier Hollow became a part of the Legacy Foundation less than a year later but I live in Park City so it was nice to work closer to home.

    “I left Park City Nordic this fall and started a Physical Therapist Assistant program,” Smyth continued. “I am excited to try something new but plan to stay involved in the ski community. Hopefully coaching the younger kids during the winter months.”

    Former UAA assistant nordic coach Sara Studebaker-Hall (center, white hat) at the #savealaskaskiing rally in Anchorage, Alaska, on Nov. 10, 2016. Former UAA skier and current USST member Sadie Bjornsen (pink jacket) is to her left. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)

    Last fall, after Studebaker-Hall returned to Anchorage, she and her husband were offered the opportunity to work with Team Soldier Hollow, with Hall heading the new biathlon program and Studebaker-Hall leading the pre-existing nordic ones. When the offer was made, the UAA Ski Team’s future remained uncertain, and the two ultimately accepted UOLF’s offer, viewing it too good to pass up.

    “It was hard to leave UAA,” Studebaker-Hall explained on the phone earlier this summer. (The UAA Ski Team was ultimately saved three weeks after she and Hall accepted). “But moving to a head-coaching position and managing a program here and getting this off the ground was kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity, so we had to take it.”

    Studebaker-Hall is now serving as the head coach and program manager for Team Soldier Hollow’s Devo Plus and Comp teams. The competition team alone has 25 athletes, many of which Studebaker-Hall described as being “on the precipice of just getting going”. As she transitions from coaching collegiate skiers to juniors, she expects a few challenges mainly involving the mindset of younger skiers.

    For most of the college skiers she’s coached, knowing the fundamentals of being an endurance athlete were automatic: get adequate amounts of rest between training sessions, practice good hydration. In contrast, a majority of her Team Soldier Hollow athletes are still learning the basic principles, such as the importance of recovery, nutrition and getting decent amounts of sleep.

    “With youth kids, you’re trying to instill in them this idea that coming to training everyday is really important,” Studebaker-Hall observed, “Even just how to think about training, all these things I think that maybe I took for granted a little bit, that all the kids that I previously worked with knew already. That’s definitely a challenge, but one that I’m really excited about because these kids are so moldable.”

    Most of the juniors she’ll coach this winter range in ages from 10 to 20 years old.

    “They’re really ready to take in everything you say,” Studebaker-Hall continued. “You have a huge opportunity as a youth coach to do that for kids, maybe even more so than on a collegiate level, because you’re their first real coach.”

    Zach Hall teaching shooting skills in 2014 at an indoor range in Kotzebue, Alaska, as part of the NANANordic program in the state’s Northwest Arctic Borough.

    Though Studebaker-Hall only started working with Team Soldier Hollow this summer — Hall arrived last December — she’s already made a positive impression on many of her athletes. Pearl Harvey, 16, who has been involved with Soldier Hollow’s nordic program since she started walking, highlighted Studebaker-Hall’s interest seeing her athletes succeed.

    “I have never had a coach so involved with technique and caring about my progression as a skier and a person,” Harvey, who hopes to one day receive a college scholarship for skiing, wrote in an email. “Sara, for me, is a big role model and she is shaping me as an athlete with being more conscious of my technique, eating, drinking and sleeping habits. She is also shaping me as a person and keeping us in check and making sure we are on the correct path.”

    As Studebaker heads Soldier Hollow’s nordic programs, her husband is in charge of SoHo’s new biathlon programs: Intro Flex , Devo Plus Flex  and Comp Flex (development team). Hall estimates he has a total of 20 athletes in the biathlon program, though not all belong to Team Soldier Hollow. The Utah Nordic Alliance (TUNA), the Park City Nordic Ski Club or Wasatch Nordic have athletes participating in SoHo’s biathlon program, thanks to what they dubbed a “flex” program option. With this “flex” program, members from any of the surrounding nordic ski clubs can join Team Soldier Hollow for biathlon training without changing their club affiliation.

    Racers at 2017 U23/Junior World Championships last February in Midway, Utah. (Photo: Team Soldier Hollow blog)

    “We’ve got the only range in the area, so what we’re trying to do is work with all the area coaches to schedule training sessions, so that it works as much as we can with them working with their local nordic clubs, ” Hall said on the phone in July. “A big part of the program is just pushing general nordic development and adding opportunities with biathlon.”

    Sparking interest is the first step for Hall, as well as getting the word out about the biathlon program. Having U23/Junior World Championships held at Soldier Hollow last season was also helpful in promoting the biathlon and nordic programs there, as well as giving younger athletes an idea of where skiing could take them.

    “This is my first summer trying Biathlon, and I am loving it,” Lina Farra, 16, wrote in an email in September. “Both Zach and Sara have very high-level Biathlon experience, and that combined with their great passion for sport sets this program apart from others around the nation.”

    SoHo is currently bidding to host an International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in 2019. According to Studebaker-Hall, an exploratory committee is also forming for a potential Olympic bid — the last Olympics held at SoHo took place in 2002.

    “From a programmatic standpoint, we definitely want to see Utah kids participating in this sport,” Norman said. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t have a strong biathlon program. That’s our goal, is to build up and be one of, if not the best biathlon programs in the nation. And have kids of all ages and abilities participating in biathlon.”

  • Boldface Names Share Support for UNM Skiing

    A man associated with the University of New Mexico carries a Lobos flag in support of its ski team on March 8 at the 2017 NCAA Skiing Championships at Cannon Mountain in Franconia, N.H. (Photo: Flyingpointroad.com)

    #Everyonesalobo is a well-established piece of branding for the University of New Mexico (athletic mascot: the Lobo), as witness the crowd at sporting events, on-campus displays, and even this instructive sing-along video that features a variety of student-athletes good-naturedly chanting, “Everyone’s a Lobo, woof woof woof!” But the hashtag has also recently become a rallying cry for supporters of the UNM ski team, following the surprise announcement earlier this month that the program would be cut.

    The slogan’s cheerful inclusivity seems merited these days, in light of the support flowing toward Albuquerque from some of the biggest names in American alpine and nordic skiing.

    Here’s what Mikaela Shiffrin – Olympic gold medalist, four-time FIS Alpine World Ski Championships gold medalist and reigning overall World Cup champion, among other accolades – posted on Instagram earlier this month soon after the news broke:

    Screenshot from Mikaela Shiffrin’s Instagram account.

    And here’s four-time Nordic World Championships medalist Jessie Diggins on Facebook last week, taking time out from her Hawaiian vacation to talk about the importance of collegiate skiing:

    Screenshot from Jessie Diggins’s Facebook page

    (The reference to the ski team at UAA, or University of Alaska Anchorage, involves the outpouring of community support directed to the University of Alaska Board of Regents urging it not to cut skiing within the University of Alaska system, culminating in what ski team supporters said was one email to the Board of Regents “every two minutes.”)

    And finally, here’s former UNM skier Kristina Strandberg. A Swedish native, Strandberg was not heavily recruited to the university, but ended up winning the 2000 NCAA Championships 15 k classic her freshman year. Strandberg would ultimately leave Albuquerque as a four-year All-American and four-year Academic All-American. She went on to spend several more years in the U.S. training and racing, racking up myriad SuperTour victories and at least one first-place finish in a U.S. national championship race while spending a total of 12 years living and racing in America.

    “What I thought would be one year’s adventure turned out to be a life changing experience,” Strandberg wrote to FasterSkier in a recent email.

    She added:

    “When I was recruited to the UNM Ski Team I was a mediocre skier by Swedish standards,” she added. “I was right out of a few years retirement and I was looking for a situation where I could develop my skiing while traveling and seeing other parts of the world before ‘growing up and getting a job’. With my short list of results there were not many coaches interested in me. I was waitlisted at Utah without any hope for a spot to open when the Utah coach suggested I’d contact Fredrik [Landstedt]. I did, and since he needed more girls on his roster he offered me a scholarship. …

    Kristina Strandberg (then racing for XC Oregon) racing in West Yellowstone in 2010.

    I spent a total of 12 years living and ski racing in the US and I’ve come to think of Fredrik as one of the best coaches in the nation,” she continued. “He is a skier through and through, with a solid understanding of the sport and an unparalleled interest in the development of technique and equipment. He understands the commitment it takes to be a college athlete and he knows how to offer the support that is needed to succeed. When I was out of college and raced on the Supertour he was still there for moral support. I truly believe that I would not have become the skier I was, in college or afterwards, if it wasn’t for Fredrik and I still consider him one of my best friends.

    I can only echo what others have said before me regarding the Ski Team’s impact on the local ski community. Our coaches always made a point of us reaching out to local skiers and to participate in local events. I’ve skied all over NM, in places like Abq, Red River, Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Chama.  People have always been very happy to see their “local” university team in action. I also enjoyed weekend camps in Durango, CO, where we interacted with kids and coaches in the ski club.  

    One aspect that is often overlooked is that we were given fantastic opportunity to explore the Southwest. The Ski Team went on several training trips a year, all around NM and the surrounding states. With no other support needed than a van for transport, we biked in Moab, hiked Wheeler Peak and ran in White Sands. Fredrik made a point of showing us as much more of the country as he could. He’s really proud of his adopted home grounds and I am too!

    Strandberg also gained a post-graduate scholarship for additional study at UNM. She ultimately graduated with a Masters of Science degree, which, she added, “I’m putting to good use now at my job as a methodologist at Statistics Sweden.”

    Back in Albuquerque, the current members of the ski team continue to hit the books. At the 2017 Lobo Scholar-Athlete Banquet on Monday evening, “the Athletic Director’s Cup for the top academic program went to women’s skiing for the second straight year,” according to a UNM press release. Additionally, three of the nine senior student-athletes who were honored for graduating with a 4.0 GPA hailed from the ski team.

    UNM senior Sydney Staples racing at 2017 NCAA Skiing Championships on March 10 at Mittersill at Cannon Mountain in Franconia, N.H. (Photo: flyingpointroad.com)

    Alpine skier Sydney Staples, a senior from Bountiful, Utah, who is one of the three skiers about to graduate with a perfect GPA, was named the women’s Lobo Club Student-Athlete of the Year. In an emotional speech captured on video, Staples unsuccessfully fought back tears as she acknowledged the elephant in the room when it came to celebrating the accomplishments of the UNM ski team at this particular time:

    “My team just barely received an award for [highest] cumulative GPA for the women’s team, and there are three of us skiers up here,” Staples said. “And there are a lot of skiers in this room right now that are going to go on to compete at the highest level of the World Cup or go to the Olympics, and some will stay here and pursue careers. And I’m so proud of all that they’ve accomplished, all that we’ve accomplished. And at the same time, I’m devastated that they won’t get the opportunity to stand where I’m standing today.

    “And for the kids that we ski with each year in Santa Fe, and … Taos, and Colorado, all over the states, who tell us that they want to be just like us when they grow up – I’m sad that they won’t get that opportunity either,” Staples continued. “And so I want to encourage you, everyone here, to keep working hard, in your sport and in your classroom, and to keep taking advantage of all the incredible opportunities that are given to you at this school. Because you never know if that opportunity is going to be taken away from you.”

    Staples subsequently left the podium to a standing ovation.

  • University of New Mexico Cuts Ski Program

    University of New Mexico Cuts Ski Program

    The University of New Mexico ski team (alpine and nordic) celebrates its podium finish at the 2010 NCAA Championships.

    The men’s and women’s nordic and alpine ski teams at the University of New Mexico (UNM) will be defunded and cease to exist by the end of June, university administrators announced Thursday afternoon. While the death of the ski team is being presented as a fait accompli by the UNM athletic department, ski team advocates are nonetheless rallying support and preparing to make their case for continued funding to the Board of Regents. The threatened cut to another western ski program comes six months after UNM’s neighbor far to the north, the University of Alaska, had to rely on a groundswell of community support to reverse an announced ax to its ski program.

    Budget background

    Last month the local paper, the Albuquerque Journal, reported that legislators were running into the final days of the session in their attempt to balance the state’s budget “amid a fiscal crisis.” On Monday of this week it reported on New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez’s symbolic move to veto all funding for public colleges and universities for the next fiscal year. On Thursday, the Associated Press reported that state legislators were preparing to sue the governor over this action, “amid an unrelenting standoff … over how to shore up state finances.”

    Also Thursday, UNM officials announced that the school would no longer sponsor men’s and women’s skiing. “The decision will save the department approximately $600,000 per year in operating budget, scholarships and salaries,” the school wrote in a press release.

    UNM’s Krista Niiranen (c) racing out of the stadium while following Utah’s Merete Myrseth (l) and skiing ahead of Denver’s Taeler McCrerey (11) and NMU’s Kristen Bourne (6) in the women’s 15 k freestyle mass start at 2017 NCAA Championships in Jackson, N.H.

    In round numbers, the budget for the UNM athletic department was roughly $32 million in the previous fiscal year.

    The UNM athletic department recorded a deficit of $1.54 million for the fiscal year that ended in June 2016, the Albuquerque Journal reported last summer. “According to a report to University regents,” the Journal wrote, “UNM fell short of ticket revenue projections by $975,000 and missed fundraising goals by $200,000.”

    In the summer 2016 article, Vice President for Athletics Paul Krebs “made it clear it doesn’t mean there are bills not being paid or sports being cut.”

    At that time, UNM Regent Marron Lee told the Journal that she was adamant that sports would not be cut in response to the budget deficit.

    “No. We do not have too many sports,” the Journal article quotes her as saying. “We do a really good job with athletics at the University of New Mexico and I can’t think of one sport where I’d say, ‘Well, you have to be on the chopping block because we have a deficit.’”

    So why was skiing the only sport cut now after all? Here’s what an FAQ sheet from the UNM athletic department has to say:

    “Why skiing as opposed to a different sport? There are now less than 35 ski programs in the country that compete in the NCAA, and several of those do not compete full squads.  There are just six other NCAA programs in the West, and when you look at the costs associated with skiing such as travel, insurance for international student-athletes, equipment and the fact that we practice three hours away, skiing made the most fiscal sense for our department.”

    The ski team’s perspective

    Head Coach Fredrik Landstedt is unconvinced. “They’re justifying it partly because of the budget,” Landstedt told FasterSkier in a Thursday phone call, “because skiing has fewer schools [sponsoring it], 34 sponsored institutions right now with skiing; there’s a few more if you count men’s and women’s. … But in my opinion, it doesn’t really matter how many schools that sponsor your sport, if you want to be on the top. I wouldn’t really care if there were 200 more ski teams out there that had crappy teams; it wouldn’t hurt me any. I don’t even understand the justification based on the number of sports. I mean, we’re competing right at the top.”

    (UNM sports information director Frank Mercogliano told the Albuquerque Journal that no one from the ski team “immediately felt up to discussing the decision with media.” Landstedt was more than willing to speak when cold-called on Thursday afternoon.)

    Finland’s Aku Nikander (r) of the University of New Mexico leads Noah Hoffman of the U.S. Ski Team around a corner on the Spencer Loop during the final lap of the men’s 50 k classic race at the U.S. Distance Nationals at Hillside in Anchorage, Alaska, in 2014.

    Landstedt is objectively correct that the UNM ski team operates at a high level within American collegiate skiing. The team won a national championship in 2004, the school’s first NCAA team title in any sport. They were seventh at NCAA Championships this year – “but that’s one of our worst places,” Landstedt said of a program that consistently places even higher than that.

    Alluding to the threatened cut to the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) ski team last fall, Landstedt said, of a team that has enjoyed solid results but that has historically lagged behind UNM at the top of the results sheet, “This will definitely hurt collegiate skiing. Because now, you know, Alaska Anchorage is one of the top programs, but they haven’t been even close to as successful as we’ve been as far as being up on the podium. And now you’re cutting one of the top programs in the country … and that means, what program is safe out there? ADs everywhere can point to the fact that they cut us – we were national champions.”

    For UAA head nordic coach Andrew Kastning, “the pain from our recent struggle [over being defunded] is still fresh,” he wrote to FasterSkier. “So I know what they’re feeling and hurt for them as well.”

    Kastning continued, looking back on his experience at UAA, “One of the reasons we got saved is because we got a lot of vocal support from [the] ski community which recognizes the importance and uniqueness of US college skiing and how it can raise the level of competition for every skiing region. It’s too early to tell what this means for college skiing, but it’s not good, and we all need to stand together and fight for the Lobos just as hard as we yelled and screamed for the Seawolves.”

    (Current actions to support the UNM ski team are discussed at the end of this article.)

    Back in Albuquerque, Landstedt is justifiably proud of his program. He cites the current 3.92 GPA of the women’s ski team, and 3.6 GPA for the men, as evidence for his claim that skiing has “always been the top academic program” at UNM.

    Plus “We’ve always been the top athletic program,” Landstedt adds. “We have 13 NCAA trophies; there are only three more at UNM, total, for all the other sports. And we have 17 individual NCAA champions. So athletically we have traditionally by far been the best program [at UNM].”

    Landstedt continues, “And on top of that, the ski team has always covered its budget here, so we never put anything to the deficit. We don’t have facilities that they have to pay for at UNM. The only cost as far as facilities is that the State of New Mexico has provided us with two vans, that’s it for 30 years. … So you’re showing poor judgment when you’re cutting the program that really typifies the excellence of being a student-athlete, a top student-athlete at the top level.”

    The skiers’ perspective

    One such student-athlete is Patrick Brachner, a senior alpine skier from Austria. Brachner spoke candidly with FasterSkier about how the athletes found out the news and the current mood of the team.

    “For us, this decision came absolutely out of nowhere,” Brachner wrote to FasterSkier earlier today. “We knew that the Athletic Department was reporting a deficit, but it was always communicated that no teams will be dropped. Also, the Ski Team has not increased its spending since 2003 and we raised about $50,000 every year from supporters to support our budget. If there is a certain amount allocated from the Athletic Department for skiing, and our coaches never exceeded this budget, why would there be any reason to cut this program, although other programs have continuously exceeded their spending.”

    Emilie Cedervaern (University of New Mexico) during the first lap of the women’s SuperTour 10 k freestyle race in West Yellowstone, Mont., in Nov. 2015.

    “It was a total shock” to learn yesterday that the program was being cut, Brachner continued. “Most of my teammates declared majors, signed up for classes the day before, I was talking to new recruits about their living situation for next year only hours before we got dropped.”

    The mood within the team “wasn’t great” on Thursday, Brachner noted. But he added that, “if anything, this has just put us closer together and sparked our fighting spirit. It is amazing to see all the support of other UNM Alumns, and even Alumns of other colleges with a skiing program. People have to understand how great of a job the UNM Ski Team does in shaping people for the rest of their lives.”

    Finally, Brachner provided a dose of realism regarding the options for current athletes. While UNM pledged either to honor current scholarships through graduation or to help skiers transfer to another institution, Brachner wrote that “It’s too late to transfer to other ski teams; spots are taken.”

    (Frank Mercogliano, an assistant athletic director of communications at UNM, had a far less pessimistic view of current athletes’ options. “I don’t think that’s correct” that it’s already too late to transfer somewhere else, Mercogliano told FasterSkier in a Friday phone call. “Because we’ve got other schools that have basically had us on speed-dial, calling, asking about kids. … There’s room; kids will be able to transfer and go to schools, and be able to get scholarships. I mean, they’re going to make room. We have some kids that are – we have a lot of podium kids coming back here, both in Nordic and in Alpine. There’s room – trust me, they’ll find – the Utahs, and the Colorados, and the Denvers, and even the New Hampshires and the Vermonts and the Montana States and the Alaska Anchorages of the world – they’ll find room. They’re going to find room for kids that can win podiums on the circuit. They’ll do that.”)

    And as for those students who wish to remain at UNM, on scholarship and without skiing? “In order to keep their scholarships here,” the senior Brachner wrote of his current teammates potentially still in Albuquerque next year, “they would need to work 10h for free per week for the Athletic Department, the institution that kicked them out.”

    Funding issues and the men’s basketball coach

    Hanging over any current discussion of funding for the UNM athletic department is the prominent and public fact that the school recently paid one million dollars to buy out the contract of men’s basketball head coach Craig Neal, a decision that occurred on March 31. (Neal would have been owed an additional $300,000 if he had been fired during the current contract year, which began on April 1.)

    Emilie Cedervaern (New Mexico) leads Sadie Bjornsen on the final climb of the first leg at the 2015 SuperTour Finals 4 x 5 k mixed relay in Sun Valley, Idaho.

    At best, it may be said to be bad optics for the athletic department to pay out a $1 million buyout on March 31, then announce on April 13 that a sport is being eliminated due to lack of funding and the need to save $600,000. (Although Landstedt suggests that the actual savings to UNM would be closer to $450,000.) At worst, ski-team members are beyond skeptical.

    “The economy in New Mexico is poor,” Landstedt acknowledged. “They’re still trying to work out the state budget, the university has said it has a budget deficit, and the athletic department has a budget deficit. But the athletic department’s deficit is in big part because they signed very poor contracts with the basketball coach and have to pay them million-dollar buyouts, and so forth.”

    He continued, “The economy is tough, tough decisions have to be made, but I believe there are other ways to cut or to increase your budget than by cutting our program out. That said, I believe it’s not the main reason for the predicament UNM Athletics are in; it’s because of the management or the current leadership of athletics.”

    Brachner, the current alpine skier, similarly pulled no punches in contrasting the Neal buyout with the recent news about defunding the ski program.

    In the introduction to an online petition in support of the ski team, Brachner wrote, “After firing UNM’s basketball coach earlier this month, UNM’s Athletic Director Paul Krebs has decided to discontinue the Women’s and Men’s Skiing program, a program that has deep roots not only within the University, but throughout the entire state. To put things in perspective, only the replacement of UNM’s basketball coach during his existing contract will cost the athletic department far more than the yearly budget of Women’s and Men’s skiing combined. This example is only the tip of the iceberg of ongoing financial mismanagement at the expense of student-athletes.”

    For its part, the UNM athletic department disavows any connection between the buyout and this recent announcement. Its FAQ document addresses this claim: “Are there any ties between this announcement and the recent search for a men’s basketball coach and the buyout for Craig Neal?”

    The answer given is: “No, discussions about ways to help our bottom-line regarding our budget have been ongoing for several months among the department’s budget committee. That committee made a recommendation to [vice president of athletics] Paul Krebs and he made the recommendation to the University administration. Regardless of the buyout for men’s basketball coach Craig Neal, this decision would have been made.”

    New Mexico’s Emilie Cedervaern on the ground after winning the 15 k classic mass start at the 2015 NCAA Championships in Lake Placid.

    Mercogliano, the athletics department spokesman, also provided a more nuanced view of the contract language of the Neal buyout. Mercogliano mentioned a mitigation clause in the contract, by which any money Neal earns over the next two years reduces UNM’s financial obligations to its former coach by an equal amount.

    That is, Neal is presumptively owed $500,000 in each of the next two years, payable in 24 monthly installments, as a “salary” for not coaching the UNM basketball team in that time. But if he made $100,000 per year for two years, then UNM would owe him only $400,000 per year for two years, or $800,000 total. If he made $250,000 per year, then UNM would owe him $500,000 over the next two years. And so on.

    “We’re assuming he’s going to get a job,” Mercogliano said of Neal; “that’s not much of a question at this point. Whatever salary he then gets gets mitigated off of what we owe him.”

    Mercogliano also characterized the budget analysis as, “It’s not, ‘Skiing was cut, we’ve got this $600,000, how now are we going to spend it.’ It’s money that we just don’t have any more, because of state budget cuts, rising costs, cost of scholarships,” and other expenses.

    What happens next

    Skiing has been a varsity sport at the University of New Mexico since 1970 (it began as a club sport two years before that). Despite that venerable heritage, UNM is now preparing for a future without skiing. “Is there a possibility skiing could be reinstated?” its FAQ sheet notes.

    “One would never say never,” was the answer, “but in our current climate, it is not a part of the future vision of Lobo Athletics. We are moving forward with skiing off the table.”

    University of New Mexico athletes toe the line alongside citizen skiers at the Chama Chile Ski Classic in Chama, N.M. (Photo: Southwest Nordic Ski Club)

    Despite that official statement, Landstedt is preparing to advocate for his program. “We’re going to fight this decision. We’re working out a strategy right now,” he told FasterSkier late Thursday afternoon. “Because we were told at the meeting at 1 o’clock [today] – the AD told us they would discontinue the ski program. They read us a letter stating that by June 30 we’re out of there, we’re fired. And then 10 minutes later the press release went out, and then right after that they told the student-athletes. So we didn’t find out anything until right then. It was very poorly handled by the department in the first place.”

    Brachner wrote, “UNM’s Board of Regents has their next meeting on Tuesday and we need to gather as many troops as possible in favor of the team, athletes, teachers, supporters, friends, etc. to show that we are important to the community and it is valuable for UNM to have a Ski Team.”

    One representative of the local ski community is Clay Moseley. The president of Southwest Nordic Ski Club, based in Los Alamos, is active in supporting what he calls “a small, but very vibrant Nordic community in New Mexico, with a rapidly expanding group of kids in both Albuquerque and Northern New Mexico.” Moseley wrote to FasterSkier that “Our access to the team is a critical part of the motivation for the kids. They marvel at the team and the team members are always so supportive and friendly to our kids. We are SO isolated here, so having that little bit of contact to some ski ‘heroes’ is vital.”

    The next Board of Regents meeting is on April 18. The budget approval meeting is scheduled for May 11.

    As of Friday, a petition titled, “Save the NMU Ski Team,” had more than 3,000 supporters. Its goal is 5,000.

    The Board of Regents may be reached by email at regents [at] unm.edu, or by phone at 505-277-7639. Contact information for Board of Regents President Robert M. Doughty III is available through his law firm website. Board of Regents Vice President Marron Lee lists her email address as marronresipsa [at] gmail.com in the publicly available New Mexico Bar Association Directory.

  • Myrseth, Madlener Win RMISA Mass Starts in Anchorage

    Myrseth, Madlener Win RMISA Mass Starts in Anchorage

    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.

    Sunday results: FIS men and FIS women | NCAA-only results

    ***

    1.4 k freestyle sprint

    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.

    Full FIS results: men and women | | NCAA-only results

    ***

    4 x 5 k classic relay

    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.”

    Full results | NCAA-only results

    ***

    5/10 k classic individual start

    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.

    Full FIS results: men and women | | NCAA-only results

    ***

    Overall team results

    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)

  • Under 23 Questions with Hailey Swirbul

    American Hailey Swirbul (29), of the University of Alaska Anchorage, racing to 24th in the women's 10 k skiathlon on Friday at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah, for her best result at a Junior World Championships. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad.com)
    American Hailey Swirbul (29), of the University of Alaska Anchorage, racing to 24th in the women’s 10 k skiathlon on Friday at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah, for her best result at a Junior World Championships. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad.com)

    In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Ski Federation (FIS) 2017 USANA Nordic Junior World Championships and U23 Cross Country World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 18-year-old Hailey Swirbul, of the University of Alaska Anchorage, who’s representing the U.S. at her second Junior Worlds.

    On Friday, Swirbul raced to 24th in the women’s 10 k skiathlon for her first individual top 30 at Junior Worlds, and she was 31st in the 5 k freestyle on Wednesday. 

    ***

    “My full name is Hailey Swirbul, but you can call me Swirb. Or whatever. I was born in Grand Junction, Colo., raised in El Jebel, Colo., and one thing you should know about my hometown is that there is a Whole Foods grocery store. That’s the most exciting thing that has happened recently.

    I started cross-country skiing when I was in 5th grade, thanks to my brother, Keegan. I currently train in Anchorage, Alaska, with the University of Alaska Anchorage.

    If I’m not skiing, you might find me shredding around campus on my retro Raleigh bike named Ralph. If I had to pick a favorite book, it would be ‘Thug Kitchen’ (a cookbook).

    One of the things I’m most excited about for Junior Worlds at Soldier Hollow is convincing [U.S. Ski Team Development Coach] Bryan Fish to dye his hair red and blue. One race I’m especially targeting there is the 10 k skiathlon.

    The best advice anyone ever gave me about skiing or racing was ‘Execute the things in your control to the best of your abilities and don’t worry at all about the rest.’ S/o Maria Stuber.

    One of the best race memories I have is the 5 k classic mass start junior race in Houghton at the 2015 Senior Nationals… somehow??

    If I could meet one World Cup skier, it would be Baptiste Gros.

    If I don’t end up being a professional skier, I’ll probably be eating frosting out of the jar for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 🙂

    I’m missing four days of school to be here, and my teachers are probably thinking, ‘Get your priorities straight and come to class. Do you want to get your degree or not?!‘

    You can follow me on Instagram or Twitter @haiswirl.”

  • Patterson, Yeaton, UAF Take Victories at Alaska Nordic Cup

    Patterson, Yeaton, UAF Take Victories at Alaska Nordic Cup

    University of Alaska Anchorage freshman Hailey Swirbul skis through the stadium at Birch Hill Ski Area in Fairbanks, Alaska, in the Alaska Nordic Cup on Nov. 19, 2016. (Photo: Zachary Hall/UAA Athletics)
    University of Alaska Anchorage freshman Hailey Swirbul races through the stadium at Birch Hill Ski Area in Fairbanks, Alaska, in the Alaska Nordic Cup on Nov 19. (Photo: Zachary Hall/UAA Athletics)

    FAIRBANKS, Alaska – Scott Patterson is on a roll. The Alaska Pacific University (APU) skier has now won all of the ski races he entered this year – and over half the ski races held in this country in the 2016/2017 winter to date – after picking up wins on both days of racing in the Alaska Nordic Cup at Birch Hill Ski Area in Fairbanks, Alaska, this past weekend, Nov. 19-20.

    APU’s Jessica Yeaton was also a double winner on the weekend. And in the collegiate ranks, the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) maintained its hold on the Alaska Nordic Cup against the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA).

    Skiers from both universities competed with a new lease on athletic life, after learning earlier this month that the ski programs would not be cut at either UAA or UAF.

    The Alaska Nordic Cup is an early season, relatively low-key (but nonetheless International Ski Federation (FIS) sanctioned) competition between Alaska’s only two NCAA nordic programs. Prior to this season, in which UAF switched its conference affiliation from the Central Collegiate Ski Association to the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA), it marked the only time outside U.S. nationals that Alaska’s college skiers might compete head to head until, potentially, NCAA Skiing Championships in March.

    The Nordic Cup is held each year in November, alternating between the Fairbanks and Anchorage areas. 2016 marked the 13th annual Nordic Cup competition. The UAF Nanooks enjoy a healthy historical advantage over their southern rivals, the UAA Seawolves, entering the weekend with an 8-3-1 all-time record (eight wins, three losses, and one tie) in the first 12 years of the dual meet. Scoring is typically based on an individual race on Saturday plus a relay on Sunday. Lowest combined time wins.

    But despite a strong team showing from UAF that carried the Nanooks to victory, and some standout individual performances from UAA, it was APU that owned the top steps of the podium throughout the weekend.

    (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
    APU’s Becca Rorabaugh (l) and Jessica Yeaton (r) at U.S. SuperTour Spring Series in March 2016. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)

    In the women’s race, Jessica Yeaton, an Australian national-team member who competes for Australia internationally but lives in Anchorage and trains with APU, finished Saturday’s 6 kilometer freestyle interval start in 16:52.1, skiing smoothly in relatively cold and slow conditions. APU’s other entrant, Fairbanks native Becca Rorabaugh, finished second, 34.1 seconds back. Third went to Hailey Swirbul, 1:27 back, in the UAA freshman’s college racing debut. UAF skiers swept the next four spots, led by senior Nichole Bathe, the day’s final starter, in fourth.

    Yeaton appreciated the early season racing opportunity. “It was awesome to race up here on good snow,” she wrote to FasterSkier. Yeaton added, “The conditions were thin but still provided a really good opportunity for a race effort. We are lucky to have these early races to help prepare for the Supertour in a couple weeks – the [Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks] did a great job making them happen despite the lack of snow!”

    Swirbul, a Colorado native, echoed Yeaton’s praise for the venue and host club: “Thanks to Fairbanks for using their limited snow and delivering excellent (all things considered) courses and conditions for us to open our season this past weekend,” she wrote in a Sunday email to FasterSkier.

    Swirbul added, reflecting on the sensation of putting on a race bib once more: “As usual, it’s an interesting feeling to return to an on-snow race scene after long summer months without one… nerves, waxing, morning jogs and stretching, race strategy, etc. I sure enjoyed being back at it this weekend! I was satisfied with my and my team’s skiing this weekend, considering it is only November, and think we have great things ahead of us. We are all revving our engines preparing for a long winter ahead, ready to establish a new name for our team with many young skiers, and meanwhile prove to the president of our university that we are more than worthy of being part of a long lasting ski team at UAA! I am very excited for what the season has to bring for UAA.”

    Bathe, originally from Madison, Wis., was likewise pleased by the strong first-day showing of the UAF team. “I thought today went well especially for our whole women’s team,” she wrote in an email on Saturday. “To have four women right in there is always awesome and makes us excited for the season! It’s nice to see all the summer training pay off and start getting back into race mode again.”

    On the men’s side, the top-seeded Patterson took advantage of his position as the final starter to ski to the victory over several of his APU teammates, including David Norris in second.

    “Snow instead of ice made coming to Fairbanks [from Anchorage] for races an easy decision,” Patterson wrote. “Although I hadn’t raced here since high school, I have always enjoyed the Birch Hill trails. During the race, I had to remember how to race a little after getting some early splits that I was even with David and knowing his fitness through the summer and fall. Overall it was a great chance to chase out some early season rust and get ready for important races.”

    APU teammates and brothers Logan Hanneman (7) and Reese Hanneman (4) lead teammate Tyler Kornfield (17), Welly Ramsey (Mountain Endurance Sports) and Fredrik Schwencke of Northern Michigan University (far left) during their quarterfinal of the men's 1.5 k classic sprint on Saturday at U.S. nationals in Houghton, Mich.
    APU teammates and brothers Logan Hanneman (7) and Reese Hanneman (4) lead teammate Tyler Kornfield (17) during their quarterfinal of the men’s 1.5 k classic sprint at 2016 U.S. nationals in Houghton, Mich.

    Patterson completed the 8.25 k skate race in 19:36.3. Norris finished 16.7 seconds behind him. Tyler Kornfield rounded out the APU podium, finishing 1:03 back of Patterson.

    Patterson and Kornfield grew up in Anchorage. Norris is a Fairbanks native. Their good-natured geographic rivalry stretches back a decade or more, to when they were all competing in Alaska high school skiing. (“We hated the Anchorage guys,” Fairbanks skier Reese Hanneman told the Alaska Dispatch News “with more amusement than venom” in a summer profile. “We were like the rednecks from Fairbanks, out skiing in the woods, going up against the city boys.”)

    APU skiers took the top five spots on the day, with Anchorage skier Thomas O’Harra in fourth and Fairbanks local Logan Hanneman in fifth.

    The top college skier was UAF junior Max Donaldson, another Fairbanks product, in sixth, 1:37 back of Patterson. The top UAA skier was sophomore Toomas Kollo, from Estonia, 2:35 back in ninth.

    At the end of the first day of racing, the combined times of the top three UAA women put them just 23.5 seconds behind the top three UAF skiers. On the men’s side, UAF created a larger gap of 2:14.2 over UAA’s combined times, giving UAF an advantage of roughly 2:38 heading into Sunday’s relays.

    Sunday saw more of the same: APU took the easy win, Swirbul shined for UAA, and UAF used its depth and balanced performances to take the overall victory.

    APU entered only one team in the relay, but it included the top two finishers from each of Saturday’s individual races. Unsurprisingly, the team of Patterson, Rorabaugh, Norris, and Yeaton posted the fastest time in all four legs of the 4 x 4 k skate relay, finishing in 46:57.4.

    University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves skiers Hailey Swirbul (l) and Casey Wright (r), photographed on the UAA campus in Anchorage, Alaska, in October 2016. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)
    UAA skiers Hailey Swirbul (l) and Casey Wright (r), on the UAA campus in October 2016. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)

    The top college team was Nanooks A (Donaldson, Sarissa Lammers, Michael Fehrenbach, and Bathe), finishing just over three minutes behind APU in 50:10.1. Donaldson and Fehrenbach posted the fastest male collegiate times of the day in their legs. Seawolves ‘A’ (Kollo, Swirbul, Marcus Deuling, and Casey Wright) was less than eight seconds behind the Nanooks in 50:18. Swirbul was again the fastest collegiate woman on the day, while Wright similarly recorded the day’s fastest anchor leg.

    Nanooks ‘B’ was next, followed by Seawolves ‘B’. Ultimately, the time gaps from day one grew, and UAF finished with a 4:08 cumulative advantage over UAA, taking home its ninth Nordic Cup overall and second in a row.

    UAF nordic coach Nick Crawford said in a Sunday press release, “The Seawolves had a good day today and it was very exciting to watch the race unfold. The margin between our two teams was much smaller today, so it made it that every skier had to race hard which isn’t always the case in relays. The victory was for sure a team effort today with both the men and the women putting together good races. We really enjoy the collaboration we have with our Anchorage rivals.”

    UAF skier Anna Darnell expressed similar sentiments, telling the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, in light of the recent political rollercoaster of threatened cuts to both schools’ ski programs, “We feel a lot closer to the UAA team after this.”

    Meanwhile, at the top of the results sheet, Patterson’s brace of victories on the weekend, combined with his easy victory at the Race to the Outhouse #1 outside Palmer, Alaska, earlier this month, meant that the APU skier has now won every single race he has entered this winter, as well as 60 percent of all the ski races held in this country this year. (The Mat-Su Ski Club held a pair of 5 k skate and classic races at Hatcher Pass on Nov. 19 and 20.)

    “I’ll have to get a time turner for the coming weekends,” Patterson wrote in an email as he reflected on his current track record, “so I can continue to win every single race in the U.S.”

    This particular race was slightly more competitive than the Race to the Outhouse. FasterSkier unofficially calculates the USSA race penalty (a measure of the strength of the field) for Saturday’s men’s race as an impressive 29.03, well below the USSA minimum penalty of 35 for a College Event or Regional Scored Event. (The penalty for the women’s race was unofficially a higher, but still respectable, 60.52.)

    Reflecting the cosmopolitan nature of NCAA skiing, competitors in the 45-racer FIS/USSA field hailed from at least eight foreign countries, including Canada, Norway, Germany, Australia, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Estonia. They were joined by roughly 200 more skiers in the day’s other races, ranging from kindergartners in snowsuits who skied a 500 meter course without poles to the 60- and 70-year-old age brackets in the community 4 k race.

    The strong community support, and college athletes who had finished their race but stayed to cheer on their teammates, combined to make the atmosphere as electric as can be found for American cross-country skiing. Dozens of spectators lined a late-race climb back up to the stadium, where racers were met by an even larger, frenzied crowd cheering them on.

    The University of Alaska Fairbanks ski team poses with the trophy for the Alaska Nordic Cup at Birch Hill Ski Area in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Nov. 20, 2016. (Photo: Nick Crawford/UAF Athletics)
    The University of Alaska Fairbanks ski team poses with the trophy for the Alaska Nordic Cup at Birch Hill Ski Area in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Nov. 20, 2016. (Photo: Nick Crawford/UAF Athletics)

    Conditions were, as the athletes acknowledged, undeniably snow rather than ice (as on the Anchorage trails these days), but unfortunately not that much of it. Fairbanks has seen approximately five inches of total snowfall so far this winter. The impeccably maintained trails at Birch Hill meant that racers found a base of roughly two inches of compacted snow, with some leaves and sporadic dirt showing through, but no rocks. Most skiers in the FIS race competed on their prior-generation race skis.

    Although the official high for the day at the Fairbanks airport was a barely FIS-legal 1° F (-17 degrees Celsius), temperatures at the relatively elevated Birch Hill were comparably temperate, hovering around 10° F (-12 C) throughout the afternoon.

    At least in the sunlit stadium. Racing at Birch Hill on clear and cool winter days can be an oddly hellish experience. Not because it is unenjoyable – far from it; the trails are a delight to ski, and the snowy birch forest is sublimely beautiful – but because it evokes the sensation of voyaging into the underworld and back again. The stadium is in the sun, and elevated, and relatively warm; many trails drop down leaving the stadium, sending the skier into the realm of dark and cold. And so one goes from light to dark, sun to shade, warmth to cold, and back again with each new trail, the stadium become a modern-day Cumae (entrance to the underworld in classical mythology) and the skier Heracles or Odysseus, re-enacting the journey between worlds.

    RMISA college racing resumes early next year with the Utah Invitational at Soldier Hollow on Jan. 7.

    Results: Day 1 | Day 2

  • Alaska Skiing Saved: Local Supporters Gather at Suddenly Joyous Rally

    Alaska Skiing Saved: Local Supporters Gather at Suddenly Joyous Rally

    A supporter holds an updated sign at the #savealaskaskiing rally in Anchorage, Alaska, on Nov. 10, 2016. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)
    A supporter holds an updated sign at the #savealaskaskiing rally in Anchorage, Alaska, on Nov. 10. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Thursday morning, University of Alaska (UA) President Jim Johnsen announced that the NCAA had declined to reach the school’s waiver request that could have led to the end of NCAA skiing in both Anchorage and Fairbanks. Thursday afternoon, the UA Board of Regents officially voted to support the president’s recommendation to leave both schools’ athletics teams intact.

    Thursday evening, it was time to celebrate. The previously scheduled #savealaskaskiing rally in Midtown Anchorage quickly became rebranded as something more jubilant. The food trucks were still there, the DJ was still there, and the supporters were still there, a cross section of the Alaska skiing community past and present. But the mood was suddenly upbeat rather than funereal.

    The Alaska Dispatch News reported that a crowd of “about 250” gathered on the lawn outside the Anchorage public library. FasterSkier estimates the crowd size as closer to one third of that. But no matter their numbers, they were there, and they were happy.

    “This is a huge relief for all of us [on the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) ski team],” said Charley Field, a junior alpine skier from Pemberton, B.C., addressing the rally. “I’ve never felt so relieved.”

    Field recounted that she had applied to only a single school, UAA, when making a college choice, and was thrilled to be able to continue there. “I’ve always wanted to graduate as a Seawolf,” Field said.

    University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves skiers Hailey Swirbul (l) and Casey Wright (r), photographed on the UAA campus in Anchorage, Alaska, in October 2016. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)
    UAA skiers Hailey Swirbul (l) and Casey Wright (r), photographed on the UAA campus in Anchorage, Alaska, in October 2016. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)

    Another athlete, nordic skier Casey Wright, also spoke. The junior skier and Australian national had been defiant even in the face of adversity, telling FasterSkier two weeks ago – the day after news first broke of the ski team’s apparent demise – that “we’re going to rally together, and we’re going to have a memorable season.”

    Wright was happier at the rally, but no less confident. “We’re all going to try our absolute best to kick some butt” this year, she told the crowd, “and show everyone what it means to be a Skiwolf.”

    A common theme among all the speakers was heartfelt gratitude at the groundswell of support from across the state and around the world.

    “I can’t say thank you enough to all the people who wrote letters and signed the petition,” Field said. “We’re so blessed.”

    The UAA ski team released a video earlier Thursday thanking supporters for their help.

    André Horton, an Anchorage native, former member of the U.S. Alpine Ski Team and one of the guiding forces behind the formal #savealaskaskiing movement, expressed similar sentiments.

    “At one point yesterday,” Horton said, “the Board of Regents was getting one email [from #savealaskaskiing supporters] every two minutes. … I think if I were them, I would be uninstalling Outlook right now.”

    Horton audibly choked up as he addressed the assembled crowd. “They say there’s a rivalry,” Horton said, in reference to perhaps exaggerated antagonism between Anchorage and Fairbanks, “but when someone threatens our sport, we all pull together.”

    (A contemporaneous march in Fairbanks also featured strong turnout, including at least one marcher dressed as a polar bear in homage to the University of Alaska Fairbanks mascot, the Nanooks.)

    Another speaker, Anchorage’s Holly Brooks, echoed Horton’s reaction to the rapid rise of #savealaskaskiing.

    “It’s amazing how fast this community came together,” Brooks said from stage. The sheer numbers of people who signed the petition (over 5,000 as of Thursday evening) show “how amazing this small ski team is.”

    Former Whitman College and USST skier Holly Brooks addresses the crowd at the #savealaskaskiing rally in Anchorage, Alaska, on Nov. 10, 2016. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)
    Former Whitman College and USST skier Holly Brooks addresses the crowd at the #savealaskaskiing rally. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)

    Brooks attended Whitman College in the early 2000s, and skied collegiately there. But the Whitman ski program was cut a few years after she graduated. “That pulled at my heartstrings,” Brooks recounted, “and I wanted that not to happen again.”

    Brooks recounted that if she hadn’t skied in college, she wouldn’t have come to Alaska, wouldn’t have coached high school skiing, let alone for Alaska Pacific University, and never would have made two Olympic teams. NCAA skiing was very important to her in her journey to the Olympics, Brooks said, her relatively lackluster results as a college racer notwithstanding.

    “It was a really important time for me, even though it was not my fastest time as a skier.”

    Current UAA skier Hannah Rudd, a freshman from Plymouth, Minn., is working on becoming a faster skier right now.

    “Right now, we’re just really focusing,” Rudd told FasterSkier in an in-person interview when asked about the current priorities of the nordic team. “We’re getting into a lot of intensity right now. For sure, we’re going to keep on fighting for the team, but we are really focusing on our skiing and trying to have the best year that we can possibly have, so we can really prove ourselves.”

    Recounting recent events, Rudd said, “This whole last week has been quite, like, an emotional rollercoaster. But we woke up this morning, just thinking it was a regular day. We went to practice, and we could see, like, a big smile on our coach’s face, and he was like, ‘We have been saved!’ And it was one of the most exciting things that has happened.”

    Rudd said that it had been “amazing” to see 5,000 people sign a petition and stand up for college skiing in Alaska. “I come from Minnesota,” Rudd said, “where it’s a pretty big ski community, but Alaska – the ski community is just phenomenal. It’s been just so good to hear everyone’s responses and support. It feels good to have someone behind us.”

    Charlie Renfro, a lifelong Alaskan and former UAA skier, helped to organize the #savealaskaskiing movement and provide an avenue for that support. He was unapologetic about doing all this work even when college skiing – even in Alaska – typically suffers from a low profile within the American ski community.

    “I think it’s just really important to this community to have skiing be really visible,” Renfro told FasterSkier in person. “We’re a winter city, Fairbanks is a winter city, we believe in skiing. I think as long as there’s snow on the ground here, and as long as people are recreating outside, I think skiing needs to be represented at the university.”

    Renfro was optimistic about the next steps for this cause.

    “I think just figuring out how to harness this momentum that we’ve got going [will be the next challenge],” Renfro said, “and to be able to really get this group of people that’s supporting skiing to be able to reach out and fund the cause monetarily. And we’re not totally sure how we’re going to do it yet, but we’re just really happy that we’ve been able to unify, and hopefully moving forward we’ll be able to mobilize monetarily like we have for this.”

    Horton sounded similar notes, in an in-person interview before the rally, when asked what happens next year.

    “That is a 50-million dollar question,” Horton said, referring to the total amount cut from UAA’s budget this year alone.

    UAA assistant nordic coach Sara Studebaker-Hall (center, white hat) at the #savealaskaskiing rally in Anchorage, Alaska, on Nov. 10, 2016. Former UAA skier and current USST member Sadie Bjornsen (pink jacket) is to her left. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)
    UAA assistant nordic coach Sara Studebaker-Hall (center, white hat) at the #savealaskaskiing rally. Former UAA skier and current USST member Sadie Bjornsen (pink jacket) is to her left. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)

    “I think today’s success was very exciting for the community, yes, but I told everyone it should be a scaled success,” Horton said. “Meaning, we know cuts are going to be inevitable in the future. But what this has done is it’s galvanized very disparate communities of skiers all into one group. So I think, going into the future, we’re going to have a unified group of people able to make corrections in our spending, so that we can actually afford skiing the way we should.”

    Horton also addressed the question he had occasionally received over the past few weeks – why did someone who didn’t even ski for UAA care about this program?

    Horton’s answer was instantly relatable to any nordic skier who has ever pored over a USSA points list or sought out an event with a more favorable race penalty: “I’m very thankful, because I would have never made the national team [without UAA], because I utilized UAA’s points base,” Horton said. “Meaning like, without their rankings, I would not have been able to go to the Lower 48 and actually have a chance. So there are several races I know that were key, where I could ski fast enough against UAA guys that, by the time I got to the Lower 48, my rankings were there.”

    From a less utilitarian perspective, Horton also addressed the importance of visible role models. “As a younger kid even,” Horton continued, “you look up to these, like, really fit ex-World Cuppers that are at UAA, and that was pretty cool. And to go further with that even, if UAA goes away, I feel for the younger base of athletes. They won’t have that base I did. And you can’t replace it. If you rebuild a program, it takes years.”

    Horton’s views on the role of college skiing in developing American athletes were readily applicable to either nordic or alpine skiing. “I always told people this analogy,” Horton recounted: “For every one college athlete, you have 200 juniors. Just how the funnel works, how the pipeline works. So it’s like a pyramid, you know. You got your World Cuppers, your U.S. Ski Teamers, and your college skiers at the top. So every one of those you lose, you lose that junior base.”

    In the rally itself, Adam Verrier, a local longtime volunteer assistant coach for the UAA nordic team, closed by acknowledging future budget cuts and the need for secure funding moving forward. “This isn’t over,” Verrier said.

    The rally’s final speaker, Tlisa Northcutt, the development director for UAA Athletics, was glad to share the link to the Annual Fund to support UAA sports. The comparable site for UAF Athletics is here.

    Soon after Northcutt finished speaking, the rally dispersed. Junior skiers from local training group Alaska Winter Stars flocked to the waffle truck. Happy Skiwolves danced in front of the stage. The next morning, they would wake up and go to training.

  • Alaska Skiing Saved? NCAA Does Not Reach UA Waiver Request

    Alaska Skiing Saved? NCAA Does Not Reach UA Waiver Request

    University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves celebrate the news that their program will not be cut on the UAA campus on Nov. 10, 2016. (Photo: UAA Athletics)
    Happy skiers: University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves skiers celebrate the news that their program will not be cut, on the UAA campus on Nov. 10, 2016. (Photo: UAA Athletics)

    Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Andrew Kastning.

    ***

    Supporters of #savealaskaskiing have won a tentative victory, as the NCAA’s decision not to take any action on the University of Alaska’s waiver request has significantly changed the university’s options heading into today’s Board of Regents meeting.

    University of Alaska (UA) President Jim Johnsen said in a press release, “As a result of this nonresponse from the NCAA, I will recommend to the Board of Regents that we not reduce teams at this time. Similarly, given the complexity associated with the consortium option as discussed with the Regents, I will recommend against pursuing that option at this time as well.”

    The NCAA Division II Membership Committee had met in Indianapolis on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. In order to cut skiing at either Alaska university, the committee would have had to approve the UA waiver request, which sought to bring the number of teams at both the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) and University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) below the NCAA-required minimum threshold of 10 teams per school. The Board of Regents would then have to recommend eliminating skiing at either or both schools.

    But the NCAA declined to reach the university’s waiver request, apparently because UA was making a request that was in some way hypothetical or too early. (In legal terms, the waiver request was not yet ripe for consideration.) The problem, in the NCAA’s eyes, was that UA was seeking permission to drop below 10 teams before it actually did so.

    As Johnsen wrote in the press release, “the NCAA responded” to the waiver request by “saying that it was neither approving nor denying the university’s request. Rather it declined to take any action at all. The NCAA’s response indicated that it would consider a waiver request only after the university reduced the number of teams below the 10-team minimum. We know that such a step would risk a wide variety of financial and programmatic NCAA sanctions.”

    As a result of these implications, Johnsen wrote, he would recommend to the Board of Regents that either team reduction or a consortium model not be pursued at this time.

    Johnsen’s proposed alternative seemed to acknowledge the strength and volume of support from the recent #savealaskaskiing movement.

    “Instead of those options” of team reduction or a consortium model, Johnsen continued, “I will suggest we tap into the large outpouring of support from our student athletes, our communities and our alumni. It is clear that the ski community strongly supports the programs at UAA and UAF. Of course, much depends on our future budget. But given the volume of voices of support for athletics and the passion of their arguments, we will recommend instead to engage with these supporters to invite and encourage their financial support for the athletic programs they value so much.”

    “It is clear that the ski community strongly supports the programs at UAA and UAF. Of course, much depends on our future budget.” — University of Alaska President Jim Johnsen

    Johnsen concluded, “I look forward to a full conversation about this approach with the Board of Regents today, and I am confident we will find an appropriate way forward.”

    University of Alaska Fairbanks women's nordic-team skiers get together for a photo last season: (from left to right) Hannah Rowland, Anne-Tine Markset, Nichole Bathe, Martina Himma, Ann-Cathrin Uhl, and Sarissa Lammers. (Photo: Nick Crawford)
    Happy skiers: University of Alaska Fairbanks women’s skiers get together for a photo last season: (from left to right) Hannah Rowland, Anne-Tine Markset, Nichole Bathe, Martina Himma, Ann-Cathrin Uhl, and Sarissa Lammers. (Photo: Nick Crawford)

    The Board of Regents meeting began in Fairbanks on Thursday morning, and continues through Thursday and Friday.

    The meeting began with the President’s Report first thing on Thursday morning. Skiing supporters currently attending the Board of Regents meeting told FasterSkier, in a paraphrase of Johnsen’s remarks, that the UA President had specifically mentioned the strong outpouring of support from the nordic skiing community, and had explicitly stated that he did not recommend dropping skiing at this time.

    UAF head nordic coach Nick Crawford is pleased.

    Crawford wrote to FasterSkier, “We received great news today that the University of Alaska administration is not pursuing elimination of sports teams at either UAF or UAA at this time. While the NCAA did not formerly deny the waiver request to drop below 10 sports as we had hoped, their non-action appears to have the same result of maintaining a full sports program here at UAF. If the athletic department drops below the 10 sport minimum the NCAA would likely issue sanctions that would harm all of our sports ranging from reduced scholarship limits, financial penalties and bans on postseason play.  With the strong outcry of support from our ski community, it’s clear that the University administration now values collegiate skiing in Alaska much more than it previously did!”

    Crawford continued, in reference to the groundswell of support for #savealaskaskiing, “I’ve been overwhelmed with the support for our teams from cross country ski enthusiasts from across the state, country and globe! We’ve always known collegiate skiing in Alaska has had a strong base of support but it’s been incredibly moving over the last two weeks to see everyone coming out to support us in so many different ways! I would like to personally thank the Alaskan and United States skiing community for all of their efforts thus far!”

    UAA head nordic coach Andrew Kastning sounded similar notes of relief and gratitude.

    As Kastning wrote to FasterSkier, “We are very happy with the announcement to reverse the decision made a few weeks ago and can begin to breathe life into the future of our ski team. We had over 5,000 people sign the petition and who knows how many call and write the Board of Regents. That kind of reaction was impossible to ignore the best possible outcome for the near future has been made. I’m sure we will be tasked with tapping into all the vocal support we’ve garnered to help fund our program which is something I believe we can do given the amazing response we’ve received from all over the skiing world. I can’t thank these people enough, today’s announcement wouldn’t be possible without them.”

  • The Human Cost of Cutting NCAA Skiing: Athletes and Coaches React

    The Human Cost of Cutting NCAA Skiing: Athletes and Coaches React

    UAA present: The 2016/2017 University of Alaska Anchorage Ski Team (both nordic and alpine) poses at Kincaid Park in Anchorage. (Photo: Adam Phillips/UAA Athletics)
    The present faces of the 2016/2017 University of Alaska Anchorage Ski Team (both nordic and alpine) at Kincaid Park in Anchorage. (Photo: Adam Phillips/UAA Athletics)

    College skiing in Alaska is on its deathbed. (Or perhaps on its deathbed in Anchorage, and at least in the sick bay in Fairbanks.) FasterSkier previously posted thoughts and reactions from some of the more prominent University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) skiing alumni, including Olympians Brian Gregg and Sadie Bjornsen. But there are other people who stand to be even more immediately affected if the University of Alaska Board of Regents cuts college skiing after this season: the athletes who ski for UAA, and the people who coach them. Here we share some thoughts from those groups, in an attempt to understand the human cost of the proposed elimination of UAA skiing following the 2016/2017 season.

    Two Athletes: Hailey Swirbul and Casey Wright

    Hailey Swirbul, 18, is a true freshman at UAA. Born and raised in Colorado, she visited Anchorage for the first time on her official recruiting visit to UAA last fall. To her surprise, Anchorage was love at first sight (“I stepped off the plane and I saw those mountains glowing pink, and I was like, Whoa, this is magical. This is nothing like Fairbanks!”), and she happily committed to ski for UAA soon after. Swirbul competed and trained internationally prior to coming to UAA, including anchoring the U.S. women’s relay team at Junior World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in February 2015, and attending International Junior Camp in Norway that summer.

    Casey Wright, 21, took a slightly more circuitous path to skiing for the UAA Seawolves (fondly referred to by the team as the “Skiwolves”). Wright, an Australian, was born in Melbourne, and is a member of the Australian National Ski Team. She has raced for her country at several international competitions, including world juniors in 2013 and 2014 and World Championships in Falun, Sweden, in 2015. Wright previously skied in the U.S. for the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) Gold Team in Sun Valley, Idaho. (She is one of at least three Australian national team skiers who currently live and train in Anchorage, including Alaska Pacific University athletes Jessica Yeaton and Paul (PK) Kovacs.)

    University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves skiers Hailey Swirbul (l) and Casey Wright (r), photographed on the UAA campus in Anchorage, Alaska, in October 2016. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)
    UAA present: ‘Skiwolves’ Hailey Swirbul (l) and Casey Wright (r), on the UAA campus in Anchorage, Alaska, in October 2016. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)

    Both athletes spoke with FasterSkier in an in-person interview on the UAA campus on Oct. 28, slightly more than 24 hours after news came out that their program was slated to be discontinued at the end of this season. Both Wright and Swirbul were surprised and disappointed, but nonetheless impressively buoyant given the circumstances.

    And speaking of buoyant, it is not just an orthographic coincidence that you can’t spell “Seawolves” without “love.” Both athletes’ sincere love – for their sport, for each other, for their suddenly endangered ski program – was apparent throughout the interview, in which Wright and Swirbul at times literally finished each others’ sentences.

    This particularly came through in each athlete’s overriding concern at this moment: for others and for their team.

    “I’ve gone from initial, like, absolute being distraught to kind of angry, and now I’m trying to understand why, and trying to look in the future,” Wright said when asked how she was feeling. “For us at the moment, or for me anyway, it’s just, like, looking for out my team, looking out for my coaches, just trying to make sure everyone’s okay. I think that’s really my main concern at the moment – that everyone is coping as well as they could be.”

    Swirbul expressed similar sentiments: “One of the hardest things … that each of us are going to face is breaking up this team, ’cause we have such a young team, and we have so much potential, and it is horrible to see that go right now.”

    “We are really close,” Wright added. “I’ve never been on a team where I’ve had this connection with teammates, where it’s like – we’re just like a family, an extended family.”

    Indeed, Wright called the Skiwolves “my second family.” “It takes me, like, over 30 hours to get home,” she observed, reflecting the distance between Alaska and the antipodes. “This team is my family,” Wright stated, her voice and syntax breaking, “and – the thought of not being able to see all these people every day – like, after this year – or not even a year, after, what is it, going to be five months, pretty much, six months, is just like – it’s devastating. I can’t even fathom… that’s just heartbreaking.”

    Swirbul, discussing the Oct. 27 meeting at which they were told that their program was slated to be cut, continued with the familial theme. “One of our teammates actually paralleled it to a funeral, and it feels like our team is dying,” Swirbul said.

    “It feels like a death in the family,” Wright concurred.

    University of Alaska Anchorage skier Casey Wright carries the team flag of the Seawolves at the 2016 NCAA Skiing Championships last March at Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs, Colo. (Photo: Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos)
    UAA present: Casey Wright carries the Seawolves’ team flag at the 2016 NCAA Skiing Championships last March at Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs, Colo. (Photo: Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos)

    While both athletes underscored that the team was quickly becoming tighter than it ever had been, they admitted that they had begun thinking about what might come next if their program – and college scholarships – come to an end.

    (UAA Athletic Director Keith Hackett wrote in his public statement that “UAA will honor our commitment to those Student-Athletes who have been impacted by this decision by keeping them on scholarship through the spring of 2018.” But head nordic coach Andrew Kastning said that he was “a little surprised” to hear that his athletes only had two more years on scholarship (counting the 2016/2017 season), “because at one point when we thought that we were going to be – when the cuts were being talked about, [assistant nordic coach] Sara Studebaker had asked Keith what would happen to our athletes that are here. And he said, ‘Their scholarships will be honored until they graduate.’ But it didn’t sound like that was arranged, at least at this point.”)

    “It’s impossible not to think about [next year],” Swirbul, 18, said. “I’ve been thinking about it for the past couple months, unfortunately, especially when [my] parents have been encouraging me to look into that in case that happened, and it did. First off, I need to clear up what this whole situation with the scholarship in the coming years is. And that’s a huge factor in my decision. If that’s the case, then my first option would be to attend school here still, and potentially ski for APU [Alaska Pacific University]. Otherwise, I need to start applying to colleges all over again.” (While athletes who transfer schools are typically required to sit out a year before playing again at their new school, the one-year waiting period is waived when the athlete’s sport was cut at the previous school.)

    Swirbul reiterated that she yearned to stay in Anchorage: “I love it here. I don’t want to leave. Taking that away from me, taking that away from all of us, is just heartbreaking.”

    Wright, who turns 22 next month, had similar goals, but was still working with the NCAA to gain some clear answers to something as simple as how many years of NCAA eligibility she had remaining before she began the process of seeking out other schools. “I’m in a bit more of a difficult situation, being an international student-athlete,” Wright said.

    Erik Bjornsen (University of Alaska Anchorage) races in the men's 15 k classic race at 2011 U.S. Nationals in Rumford, Maine. (photo: Steve Fuller/Flying Point Road)
    UAA past: Erik Bjornsen (then UAA, now APU and USST) races in the men’s 15 k classic race at 2011 U.S. Nationals in Rumford, Maine. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad.com)

    “In order for me to achieve my goals,” she continued, “the best place for me to be, I believe, is in the U.S. It’s just, the calibre of skiing here is fantastic in order for me to develop and reach my goals. Although I don’t have as many years of eligibility left, so that would be a difficult one to try and convince another team to take me on.” Wright also hoped to stay in Anchorage if at all possible.

    Wright recounted her self-initiated “recruitment” into the UAA program (she had been skiing with the SVSEF before she began reaching out to American NCAA ski teams), and how it led to the current team at UAA. “Andrew was the only one that responded to an Australian girl contacting him saying that I was a skier,” Wright said. “I don’t think anyone else believed me.”

    UAA originally didn’t have scholarship space for her, but a space then opened up on short notice. “So I pretty much just jumped on a plane and came here. … It was the best decision I could have made. It’s just been incredible,” she said.

    Wright recounted the process by which this year’s team – which, she pointed out, skews young and blonde – was assembled soon after she came on board. “Andrew was talking about all these freshman girls we’ve got coming in. He was like, ‘We’ve got a lot of 18-year-olds.’ It was like, ‘Oh boy, we’re going to have a lot of Justin Bieber [Swirbul cracks up], and teeny-bopping around’ – but it’s been nothing like that.”

    Swirbul: “Wow, thank God.”

    Wright: “He just kept signing girls.”

    Swirbul: “And they’re all blonde and they’re all freshman.” (This is almost literally true.)

    Wright: “Andrew has dubbed us The Blondetourage. That pretty much sums us up.”

    On a more serious note, and discussing the process that led to the ski team being cut, both athletes were quick to reject a reporter’s suggestion that they might feel betrayed.

    “I absolutely would not say betrayed,” Swirbul said. “And I think that’s how the coaches feel. They feel like they betrayed us – I think some of them are blaming themselves for this. And that’s the hardest thing for me to see, is thinking about my teammates and my coaches that might not have a clear path of where to go in the next few years. I think that I’ll figure something out, and a new door will open. I just worry – I feel so much for the people that don’t have that clear path.”

    Swirbul also disagreed with the premise that skiing had been singled out in some manner. “I I don’t think we were necessarily singled out,” she said. “But I can’t understand why they would cut skiing in Alaska. I don’t understand that. And I don’t think they understand why they cut us. I don’t know. … Were we singled out? No. Are we some of the best academic and hard-working people at UAA? Yes. And I don’t think they would purposefully single out those types of people to remove.”

    “Were we singled out? No. Are we some of the best academic and hard-working people at UAA? Yes. And I don’t think they would purposefully single out those types of people to remove.” — Hailey Swirbul, UAA freshman nordic skier

    Finally, Swirbul graciously declined an invitation to compare the ski team’s record of success to the consistent mediocrity and decades-long trend of losing seasons that plague the UAA hockey team.

    “I would never wish this upon anyone else, and I can’t say that I would rather have the gymnastics be cut, or the hockey be cut – because this sucks. And I don’t want anyone to go through this,” Swirbul said.

    At the same time, Swirbul expressed some confusion as to whether it was really money or something else that was driving the decision to submit skiing for proposed elimination.

    Sadie Bjornsen (University of Alaska Anchorage) skis to a third place finish in the women's 5 k classic race at the 2009 NCAA Championships in Rumford, Maine. (photo: Steve Fuller/Flying Point Road)
    UAA past: Sadie Bjornsen (then UAA, now APU and USST) skis to a third place finish in the women’s 5 k classic race at the 2009 NCAA Championships in Rumford, Maine. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad.com)

    “Actually, what the director [Hackett] ended up saying,” Swirbul recalled of the Oct. 27 meeting, “was that it doesn’t even come down to money at this point, it’s more NCAA rules. They’re cutting our teams from 13 to nine. And so they need a 10th team, potentially. And they said, ‘If we do need a 10th team, if that waiver goes through and we need to find a tenth team, they will find the money to do that somehow.’ However, they can’t let us find the money to fund ourselves. I don’t even know what they’re talking about. They said there’s money there if they need to have a 10th team.”

    Wright expressed similar sentiments: “We want the opportunity to, if it is down to money, we want the opportunity to fundraise. We were told that Alaska wasn’t a giving state, that people here don’t want to give money, that’s what he told us, which, we don’t believe that’s true, considering that APU is able to fundraise six figures annually.”

    The Alaska Dispatch News, or ADN, has reported that the annual budget of the APU program is “about the same amount” as that of the UAA ski team. “With APU always in financial straits,” the ADN wrote, “the team raises most of its own funds.”

    While it is hard to quantify the generosity of a state, some indication of Alaskans’ attitudes toward charitable contributions may be gleaned from the success of Pick.Click.Give, a program that allows Alaskans to voluntarily choose to donate a portion of the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD), the share of oil revenue that is annually given to most Alaskans. Last year 5.5 percent of Alaskans who filed for a PFD online made a donation through the program, donating an average of $108 per person from a revenue check that this year came out to $1,022 per person.

    “If we were given the opportunity to raise funds,” Wright continued, “or to meet a target, or who knows what … we would have done it. We would have been knocking on doors, asking for people to donate, selling cookies like Girl Scouts. We would have had a bake sale. I think that’s what hurts the most, is that we couldn’t do anything, we weren’t given the opportunity to save ourselves; it was basically said, ‘This is out of your hands.’ … That kind of stings as well, when we’re told, ‘You just have to sit back and wait,’ which skiers aren’t good at doing. If there’s something that we can do, we want to do it.”

    The Coach: Andrew Kastning

    Head coach Kastning, 34, now in his sixth season at UAA, also yearns to take action and find a solution. He and his wife, former Whitman ski coach Calisa Kastning, have a new house in Anchorage and two young girls. “We got another kid on the way, coming in March,” Kastning noted. “So the stakes to figure something out are kinda high.”

    Kastning spoke with FasterSkier by phone on Oct. 29, shortly before the lifelong Cubs fan watched Chicago lose Game 4 of the World Series 7-2 to the Cleveland Indians.

    Andrew Kastning teaching the 7th grade boys to V2 in Kiana, Alaska. (Photo: Celia Kastning)
    Coach Andrew Kastning teaching seventh-grade boys to V2 in Kiana, Alaska, on a Skiku ski outreach trip to rural Alaska. (Photo: Celia Kastning)

    Beyond the obvious, there are several aspects of Kastning’s situation that are particularly poignant. The first is that, as he said, “I’ve got the team now that I’ve always wanted. And nothing against the teams I’ve coached before, but since I got to Alaska I’ve been trying to get kids – young, promising Americans combined with experienced international racers. And for the most part, it’s been experienced international racers that I had.”

    Until, Kastning continued, “I turned the corner when Hailey signed a year ago. She signed early, and that opened the door, opened the eyes of other American recruits coming out of high school to look at Alaska. And this is the team that I’ve always wanted to coach. Because we have so much talent and they’re so young, and so moldable, and they’re getting along so well … it’s been awesome to do that. It makes the sting of it a little bit extra, because there are eight freshmen on my team and four sophomores. And so we’re set up well to be stronger and stronger.”

    But this is cross-country skiing, a sport where your speed this season is largely determined by how much you were training the year before (and the year before that, etc.). And it appears that Kastning will only have one season in which to help his athletes achieve their best. “We’re just trying to get the best peak performance that they have within them,” Kastning said, “and I know they’ll ski their hearts out.”

    Kastning remains clear-eyed about the artificial limitations of taking what should be a four-year progression and compressing it down into one season. “It would be a Disney story to win the NCAAs this year,” Kastning said. “However, looking ahead in the next two to four years, given this group of kids, I don’t think that’s out of the question. The way they’re working together, and the talent level that they have.”

    “It would be a Disney story to win the NCAAs this year. However, looking ahead in the next two to four years, given this group of kids, I don’t think that’s out of the question.” — Andrew Kastning, UAA head nordic coach

    The other reason this is especially poignant for the Kastning family is that together they’ve been through this drill before. Twice. Kastning was assistant nordic coach at the University of Nevada, Reno, in the late 2000s, until he saw the writing on the wall and left for a more secure coaching job elsewhere. A year later, the Nevada athletic director – a man named Keith Hackett – announced that skiing was going to be cut at Nevada.

    UAF's David Norris. Photo, Kris Dobie.
    UAF past: David Norris (now APU) racing at U.S. nationals in Rumford, Maine. (Photo: Kris Dobie)

    (Hackett would take the same job at UAA in 2012. His official UAA bio notes, “UAA’s skiing, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and men’s cross country [running] teams have all produced top-four national finishes since 2008.”)

    Kastning’s then-girlfriend, now-wife, Calisa (Schouweiler) Kastning, was coaching at Whitman at the time. Until, Andrew says, “Calisa called me at the conclusion of the 2009 NCAA mass start races – I was still in my ski boots – and she was in tears, telling me that her program had just ended. … And it was a shocking announcement. And they had no chance to fight it, and no ability to fundraise to keep it going, and even a few donors there came through with a big chunk of money that wanted to keep the team, but the athletic department stood their ground and said ‘no.’ ”

    Andrew happened to visit Calisa in time to attend the final team gathering for the Whitman College Blues ski team (most famous skiing alumnae: Holly Brooks ’04 and Laura Valaas ’06).

    “And it was heartbreaking.”

    “I wasn’t even involved with that program at all,” Andrew said. “But then through my girlfriend at the time, to see those kids trying to cope with the last team gathering – which we’ll have to go through too if this decision stands – it was really hard. And I was just kind of a bystander in that situation. So I’ve already been through one final gathering for that team. And it was a little bit by happenstance, but I know what it’s like and I know what the emotional rollercoaster is that we’re going to have to go through until the end of the spring semester.”

    Andrew continued, looking ahead to a year full of lasts: “We’ll have Athlete of the Year banquets, with the whole athletic department, and it’s going to weigh on everybody’s mind there. And we’ll have our final team barbecue gathering where we name our most valuable players and our most improved, and all that. And normally we give framed pictures to our seniors, and talk about each senior athlete and what they’ve contributed to the program and say goodbye to them. And now we’ll probably have to make framed pictures of everybody, and try and talk about everybody. Which will take all night, because they’re all such awesome kids.”

    Local skiers show their support for #savealaskaskiing over breakfast. (Photo: Holly Brooks)
    UAA breakfast present: Local skiers show their support for #savealaskaskiing. (Photo: Holly Brooks)

    Despite Andrew’s shared history with Hackett and shuttered ski teams, he hesitates to blame Hackett for the current decision at UAA: “I wish the president [UA President Jim Johnsen] had been there [at the meeting to make the announcement], because he’s the one that’s really pulling all these micromanagement strings above, and unfortunately Keith is having to, for lack of a better word, be his puppet, and take orders from the top. Because even though Keith cut skiing once [before], I don’t – at least I don’t want to believe that that was his first choice. It seemed like it was just a fait accompli, like it was agreed upon on both campuses that the ski team was an easy target. And that was going to be the first tree to fall.”

    (Many symbolic trees are falling on the UAA campus these days. A survey of faculty and staff released earlier this week showed that “more than half” of current staff members “feel that morale [at UAA] is the lowest they have ever seen.”)

    As a small silver lining, Kastning appreciates that at least someone else had to give his athletes the bad news: “In a sense I was glad that Keith had to be the one to look them in the eye and tell them that their hopes and dreams were going to be crushed in Alaska.”

    A final season to remember

    It is clear from coach and athletes alike that, while news like this could potentially cleave some teams apart before the season even began, it is instead leading the 2016/2017 Skiwolves to cleave together even stronger than before. Here’s the final word from the athletes:

    Swirbul: “It’s quite bizarre that they’re cutting out this part of Alaskan culture in Anchorage. … And we’re hosting nordic U.S. Nationals in two years – Anchorage is hosting that – and there won’t be a college team here. That’s ridiculous. That’s outrageous.”

    Wright: “It’s almost comical to think that we won’t be there in green and gold on the start line. It’s really heartbreaking. It’s just sad.

    “But we’re going to rally together, and we’re going to have a memorable season. And people are going to remember the Seawolves. It’s not that we’re just gonna hang our heads low, and walk out from our last race. We’re going to go out there, and people are going to know that we’re there. We’re going to be there loud and proud. And I think that’s going to be – that’s the thing I’m looking forward to most this season, is that we’re going to make it one that people are… next season they’re going to miss us, because we’re not on the start line with them.”

    Swirbul: “Nice. That makes me hyped.”

    Wright: “I think that makes everyone hyped right now. We’re going to make this season count.”

  • Questions Swirl Over University of Alaska’s Waiver Requests to NCAA

    Questions Swirl Over University of Alaska’s Waiver Requests to NCAA

    The Alaska Airlines Center, home to the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves athletics program in Anchorage, Alaska, photographed last month. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)
    The Alaska Airlines Center, home to the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves athletics program in Anchorage, Alaska, photographed last month. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)

    The University of Alaska system structured its recent waiver requests to the NCAA partially around a presidential directive to preserve men’s hockey at any cost, then backed away from that suggestion in a public explanation of its actions, an analysis of the school’s official waiver documents suggests.

    University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Athletic Director Keith Hackett and President Jim Johnsen announced last week that men’s and women’s skiing at both UAA and the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) were among the sports targeted for elimination in a waiver request submitted to the relevant NCAA membership committee. At the time, Johnsen told the Alaska Dispatch News that “hockey survived largely because the NCAA requires a school to offer two men’s team sports and two women’s team sports,” and that the only men’s team sports at both UAA and UAF are basketball and hockey. (NCAA bylaws consider cross-country skiing to be an individual sport.)

    But the official waiver requests submitted to the NCAA were somewhat less circumspect. “The President of the University System has stated that Alaska Anchorage shall make every effort to retain men’s hockey,” UAA’s waiver request stated. And “the President of the University System has stated that Alaska Fairbanks shall make every effort to retain men’s hockey,” UAF’s waiver request stated in near-identical language.

    (The waiver requests are substantively identical, but were written, or at least edited, by different people. Run-on sentences, typographical errors, and citations to nonexistent bylaw provisions that are present in the UAA waiver request were corrected in the UAF version of the same document.)

    The 13 sports currently sponsored at UAA are as follows:

    Table of 13 sports currently offered at University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), prior to its waiver request to the NCAA in November 2016. (photo: screenshot from UAA waiver request)
    Table of 13 sports currently offered at UAA, prior to its waiver request to the NCAA this month (Screenshot from UAA waiver request)

    The 10 sports currently sponsored at UAF are as follows:

    Table of 10 sports currently offered at University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), prior to its waiver request to the NCAA in November 2016. (photo: screenshot from UAF waiver request)
    Table of 10 sports currently offered at UAF, prior to its waiver request to the NCAA this month. (Screenshot from UAF waiver request)

    The team sports offered at UAA, according to NCAA Division II Bylaws Section 20.10.3.3, are men’s basketball, men’s ice hockey, women’s basketball, and women’s volleyball. This bylaw defines all other sports at UAA (cross-country running, skiing, indoor and outdoor track, and gymnastics) as individual sports.

    At UAF, the team sports are men’s hockey, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and women’s volleyball. Cross-country running, skiing, swimming, and rifle (riflery) are all defined as individual sports.

    UAA and UAF are currently both members of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, or GNAC. UAA and UAF both wrote in their waiver requests that they must sponsor basketball, volleyball, and cross-country running in order to remain a member of GNAC.

    University of Alaska Fairbanks women's nordic-team skiers get together for a photo last season: (from left to right) Hannah Rowland, Anne-Tine Markset, Nichole Bathe, Martina Himma, Ann-Cathrin Uhl, and Sarissa Lammers. (Photo: Nick Crawford)
    University of Alaska Fairbanks women’s nordic-team skiers get together for a photo last season: (from left to right) Hannah Rowland, Anne-Tine Markset, Nichole Bathe, Martina Himma, Ann-Cathrin Uhl, and Sarissa Lammers. (Photo: Nick Crawford)

    Waiver options

    UAA and UAF are both seeking relief from the requirements of Bylaw 20.10.3(a), which states that a Division II member school “shall sponsor” a minimum of “Five varsity intercollegiate sports, including at least two team sports, based on the minimum requirements of Bylaw 20.10.3.3 and involving all-male teams or mixed teams of males and females; and five varsity intercollegiate sports, including at least two team sports, based on the minimum requirements of Bylaw 20.10.3.3 and involving all-female teams.”

    There are therefore two parts to this bylaw: the requirement that a school have at least 10 sports, and the requirement that a school have at least two team sports per gender.

    Both UA schools are seeking a waiver solely of the 10-sports-total provision of this bylaw. It is unclear how much attention was paid to the possibility of seeking a waiver of the two-team-sports provision, in addition to or instead of the 10-sports-total provision. Gaining some leeway with regard to the two-team-sports requirement would potentially allow either school to look anew at hockey or basketball, the two most expensive sports at UAA by a substantial margin, as a potential target for cuts.

    Hackett, the UAA athletic director, was asked by email, “Did UAA consider seeking a waiver of the two-team-sports requirement, in addition to or instead of the ten-sports-total requirement?” He wrote back, “Yes, many months ago as part of Strategic Pathways. The answer is NO to the second part of your question.”

    Hackett was also asked whether men’s hockey could be said to be receiving special treatment from Johnsen, the UA President, when men’s basketball is also a team sport (as well as one required for GNAC membership).

    Hackett wrote, “Both waivers stated the same thing with regard to making every effort to retain Hockey at both Institutions as directed by President Johnsen. Both UAA and UAF are members of the GNAC and we wanted to be sure we would be able to maintain our Full membership with our primary Division II Conference. Men’s Basketball was not part of any discussion.”

    The budget for the UAA hockey team for the 2016/2017 season is, in round numbers, $1,347,000 dollars. The budget for the men’s basketball team is $467,000. The budget for the women’s basketball team is $446,000. The budget for each of the men’s and women’s ski teams (at UAA, this includes alpine as well as nordic) is $280,000.

    While direction from President Johnsen features as a significant part of the official waiver request that was submitted to the NCAA on behalf of both schools, this presidential involvement is not mentioned in the Frequently Asked Questions document posted on the Strategic Pathways website.

    “In the waiver application why was hockey named specifically as a sport to keep when it is the most expensive sport?” asks question 2 of the FAQ document.

    The answer given there is, “In making these decision [sic], cost was a driving factor, but it was not the only one. We applied a set of reasonable criteria that included keeping specific sports required by GNAC in order to keep our membership in that conference, making sure we are adhering to the gender equity requirements of Title IX, keeping the strong instate rivalry between UAA and UAF and cost.”

    Additional surprises?

    While all previous reporting on this story, in FasterSkier, the Alaska Dispatch News and elsewhere, has focused on UAA’s announced plan to eliminate four sports (men’s and women’s skiing and men’s and women’s indoor track), the official request submitted to the NCAA actually mentions the possibility of cutting a fifth sport if financially necessary:

    Detail from waiver request by University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) to NCAA in November 2016. (photo: screenshot from UAA waiver request)
    Detail from waiver request by University of Alaska Anchorage to NCAA this month. (Screenshot from UAA waiver request)

    The language in the footnote – “two (possibly three) male sports and two female sports” – suggests that, if a fifth sport were to be cut, it would be a third men’s sport. Assuming for the moment that basketball and hockey are “protected” (by virtue both of being team sports and of UAA not having sought a waiver to the two-team-sports requirement), that leaves men’s cross-country running and men’s outdoor track potentially vulnerable as a fifth sport to be eliminated.

    (Analogous language in the UAF waiver request mentions cutting only two sports, men’s and women’s skiing, alongside reducing scholarships among the remaining eight sports.)

    Furthermore, both schools’ waiver requests seek a waiver of the 10-sport requirement for a set period, five years, and promise to “evaluate its options to return to the 10-sport minimum required for compliance with Division II membership criteria” at the start of the 2021/2022 season.

    When asked whether he thought that elimination of a fifth sport would be necessary, Hackett wrote, “I certainly hope not. I am not sure there is a timeline in place for making any further team decisions. I have not spent any time considering additional sport team reductions.”

    When asked whether he expected that any eliminated sport would be able to return after having been cut for five years, Hackett wrote, “It would be difficult to ascertain.”

    Recent developments

    Since news of the waiver request first broke last week, supporters of the #savealaskaskiing movement have been busy. There is a website. (The team behind the website includes André Horton, currently a consultant with a lobbying and campaign management group but formerly a member of the U.S. Alpine Ski Team, as well as UAA head ski coach Sparky Anderson, Horton told FasterSkier in an email.) There is a march and public protest planned for Fairbanks next Thursday afternoon, Nov. 10, in connection with the upcoming Board of Regents meeting. And there are alternative budget proposals being advanced that claim to save an equal amount of money through administrative restructuring, while leaving academics and athletics programs unscathed.

    Manon Locatelli of the University of Alaska Anchorage double poles out of the start of the 2015 Seawolf Invite at Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo: Sam Wasson Photography / http://portfolio.samwassonphotography.com/about)
    Manon Locatelli of the University of Alaska Anchorage double poles out of the start of the 2015 Seawolf Invite at Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo: Sam Wasson Photography / http://portfolio.samwassonphotography.com/about)

    The University of Alaska Board of Regents heard public testimony for two hours on Monday afternoon. While the teleconference window was technically open to anyone who wanted to testify on any subject, firsthand reports from people who listened to the testimony suggest that the focus was overwhelmingly UAA and UAF skiing, and that all testimony on this subject was in favor of preserving the program.

    Nearly all “of the comments were regarding skiing,” wrote third-generation Alaskan, former UAA skier, and former Alaska Pacific University ski coach Charlie Renfro in an email to FasterSkier. The only exceptions were “a couple comments about other university programs that were/are on the chopping block.”

    “Something like 50 people were able to comment,” Renfro continued, “and I would say about 48 of them were very constructive and from people who are all very knowledgeable regarding the UAA/UAF programs – both nordic and alpine. Nearly everyone that called in, I knew personally from either nordic or alpine, past, present, athletes, coaches and parents. One girl, a ski alum who said she was calling from Copenhagen (it was 2am there) gave an incredibly concise, heartfelt speech. It was very moving. I hope the [Board of Regents] felt the same way.”

    Anchorage resident Ira Edwards, who previously skied on the UAF nordic team and currently works for the State of Alaska, Department of Natural Resources (ski fans may recognize Edwards’s name from his side job – he spent many years as Rossignol’s U.S. race service manager), expressed similar sentiments.

    Rossignol tech rep Ira Edwards provides race support at a race at Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska.
    Rossignol tech rep Ira Edwards provides race support at a race at Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska.

    “I have called into these before, for various other reasons” unconnected to athletics, Edwards told FasterSkier in a recent phone interview. “Generally, they have an hour and a half for testimony, or sometimes only an hour – they anticipated a higher call volume, so I think they bumped this one up – but I don’t think I’ve ever heard more than five or six people ever call in.”

    But on Monday afternoon, Edwards called in roughly a half hour after the public comment window opened, and was caller number 41 in the telephonic queue. He was the last person to be able to speak on Monday; the Board closed testimony immediately after he had finished speaking, after hearing two hours’ worth of comments. Edwards personally knew of a friend who was caller number 91 – that is, there were at least 50 more people after him who had hoped to speak – and suspects that there were a total of “well over 100 people” on the line who called in in an attempt to testify.

    Edwards recalls a total of three comments that were not about skiing (and one of those concerned the school’s running program). “There was not a single negative comment [about skiing],” Edwards said.

    Next steps

    Two things would have to happen for either or both of the UA system’s waiver requests to be approved: (1) first the NCAA Division II Membership Committee must approve the request, and (2) then the University of Alaska Board of Regents must approve the request.

    The membership committee holds a regularly scheduled in-person meeting in Indianapolis on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, Nov. 8-9. Committee chair Kevin Schriver told FasterSkier on Monday that the committee “will see if that [the UA waiver requests] will be a part of our agenda.” An agenda for next week’s meeting is not yet posted online.

    The University of Alaska Board of Regents meets the following two days, Thursday and Friday, Nov. 10-11, in Fairbanks. The agenda for that meeting “has not yet been posted,” a Board of Regents representative told FasterSkier in a Thursday afternoon phone call. They said it would be posted on Friday, Nov. 4.

    The Board of Regents agenda and related materials should be accessible from here once they have been posted. Information about a live stream of next week’s Board of Regents meeting is available on the same page.

    Differing perspectives

    While many Alaskans are banding together in support of the ski program at both schools, the specific mood on both campuses seems somewhat different, reflecting differing circumstances and divergent views of the possibility of the NCAA granting the relevant waiver request.

    In Fairbanks, ski team supporters are holding out hope that the NCAA 10-sport rule will operate as a bulwark to keep UAF from cutting the relatively low-profile sport of skiing.

    Nick Crawford, 28, who headed the Bogus Basin Nordic program as well as the Lathrop High School ski team, will assume the role of head coach of the University of Alaska Fairbanks nordic and cross-country running teams in July. (Courtesy photo)
    UAF head nordic coach Nick Crawford. (Courtesy photo)

    As UAF head nordic coach Nick Crawford wrote to FasterSkier last week, “For UAF specifically, I don’t think skiing will be cut as I don’t think the NCAA will grant the waiver to the ‘10 sport minimum requirement.’ One of the NCAA’s core values is to provide sporting opportunities from athletes of many different sports and the 10 sport rule is in effect to protect small sports like skiing. It’s a slippery slope to allow Alaska to cut ‘less well known’ sports like skiing and indoor track to continue to fund their more popular sports,  If the NCAA grants this waiver, it sets a precedent to eliminate non-revenue generating sports across the country with fewer and fewer sports offerings and that is not a direction I think the NCAA wants to go in.”

    One of Crawford’s athletes, sophomore skier Conner Truskowski, expressed similar sentiments and included a call to action, writing to FasterSkier, “When we first got the news we were all pretty bummed out and mad that something as Alaskan as skiing was being considered for cuts. However, now that we have had time to process what could happen, we are all motivated to prove to the NCAA and everyone else that we are willing to fight for the sport we love and prove that the ski community benefits from having us as a team here. I want to stress that no decision has been made yet and there is still time to let everyone in the decision making process [know] that skiing is valuable. We believe that the waiver will not pass because the NCAA does not generally allow exceptions to their rules. Because of all that has happened, we are training harder than ever to make our season the best one we’ve ever had. Again, I really want to make it clear that no decision has been made yet and to let everyone know that their voice can be heard in the decision. Let the NCAA know that Alaska skiing is valuable to the ski community, both locally, nationwide, and worldwide.”

    But at UAA, head nordic coach Andrew Kastning sounded somewhat more resigned, as if the NCAA were less of a bulwark and more of a Maginot Line.

    In a recent phone interview, Kastning told FasterSkier, “Ultimately, I have a sliver of hope that the waiver doesn’t pass, that the Regents can be swayed and decide that skiing has to be saved and they need to make another decision. So I feel like there’s a tiny chance for UAA to survive at this point. But it’s obviously a giant hurdle to clear when the athletic director and the president have publicly recommended that this is the route to go to save the school money.”

    While Kastning was clearly saddened, he saved his strongest disappointment for his athletes. “I ache the most for my athletes,” Kastning said, “the ones that I’ve coached and the ones that know how special the situation and an experience it is to go to UAA and ski race in Alaska, and travel around the American West. And also for the current team, that has just gotten here and has only been here for a year at most, and they’re really bonding well and working really hard to reach their goals. And because of some short-sighted decisions and a tough budget situation, are faced with having to find another path.”