St. Olaf Nordic Team

Boy was this weekend a chilly one.  Grand Rapids, MN is usually known by our team as the coldest place on the planet, and the races this weekend definitely solidified that idea. This race weekend was definitely a tumultuous one, with lots of highs and lows.  It was also unique because the travel team was joined by some of our juniors who raced in the JNQ sprints on Sunday. Friday, the college teams raced a 5k/10k interval start classic race. It was around mid 20s, snowy, and windy.  The boys raced first, and Jake Brown posted the top place for the men's team in 17th, with Evan Kendall in 23rd.  Paige Schember was 6th in the women's race, 14 seconds back. Nora Gilbertson was 17th.  Both St. Olaf teams took 4th place. Saturday we awoke to sunshine and absolutely frigid temperatures, with a -30 degree windchill. However, the races were still on.  The girls raced a 5k skate first, with Paige taking 6th again and Nora placing in placing in 20th. Kelsey Cork ...

This past weekend, we lost an extremely influential and valued figure in ski community.  Igor Badamshin has coached a vast majority of skiers who train or grew up in the Midwest and New England regions, and was known for his unwavering generosity and warmheartedness.  Igor simply always "gave back".  He took what he knew from his years of skiing and fostered the love of the sport in young children and newcomers, giving every ounce of his passion back to the ski community and making a lasting impact on each life he touched.  He was a coach to be remembered, a wonderful role model, and an inspirational man and athlete. The Midwest was extremely fortunate and grateful to have him.  He will be missed by all.

Last weekend challenged the travel team with what could be described as one of the more tactically and mentally demanding courses we've raced.  Telemark Lodge in Cable, Wisconsin represents one of the icons of the ski world and is home to the start of the Great American Birkebeiner.  Junior National qualifiers and college races have been held there before, but the course we raced this weekend is a new one. In fact, it is the first course to have climbed to the top of Mount Telemark since the Birkie course climbed the hill in the late 1970s. And boy, did we climb that hill. There was a 1.1 mile sustained climb built into the course, so after skiing around the stadium you hit the first k marker and started climbing. And climbing. And climbing. Finally around 3k you reached the top of the hill (literally where the chairlift drops off), skied a U-turn, and came shooting back down the side of the mountain. After a quick 1/2k through what felt like the mountain biking course (supe...

Adventures in the Beehive State We never truly determined why Utah is called the "Beehive State." Even Nora, our resident beekeeper, couldn't solve that riddle. But we did solve the altitude riddle at US Cross Country Nationals at Soldier Hollow in Heber City, Utah! Nora, Paige, Evan, Coach Tom, and I ventured out to the sunny side of America from January 1-9 and, in doing so, traded Minnesota's polar vortex in for 30-degree temperatures and sun (plus some snow for variety on the mass-start day). Is that an ice castle?!?!?!? Yes, it was, but really more of an ice maze. THEY HAD AN ICE CASTLE. (we didn't go inside it) Man did it feel good to get back to big-time racing! Truth be told, we all had our ups and downs. Nora crushed the sprint, making the junior B-final, and Paige placed in the top 50 in both the 10km classic and skate sprint. Evan and I both raced best in the mass starts and had our own follies in the sprint (Evan lost his pole right out of the gate and...

Our first official weekend of racing was the Wausau, Wisconsin JNQ/College races! On Saturday we raced skate sprints, and on Sunday we raced a classic distance race. It was a balmy weekend with hardly any sun, but the Olaf team put our talents to the test. Special shout out to Mike Smith , who made the appearance to help out with waxing! Finals hit all the college skiers pretty hard, so this weekend was a tough one because Christmas break had just begun and we were all mentally and physically exhausted. On Saturday the majority of the team qualified for the skate sprint heats, and had a refresher course on how to race head to head.  The sprint race course itself was challenging, with an steep incline leading into a gradual climb to the finish, making the heats very tactical. Highlights: Almost everyone qualified! Nora finished 2nd in the Junior B Final, Paige finished 3rd in the Senior A Final, and Liam finished 4th in the Junior B Final. Sunday was the classic distance on an ext...

The first weekend back from West Yellowstone we drove up to Duluth Marshall High School to race against St. Scholastica in a dual meet. "Cold" would be a major understatement when describing conditions.  Duluth had just gotten dumped with fresh powder, and when we began the race it was slightly under balmy zero degrees Farenheit. You could say it was a bit frigid. Anyway, we raced our first skate distance races of the year, women skied a 5k and men skied a 10k. Although the snow was slow, it was a great chance to get our racing legs back and find out what needs to be done on race mornings to be successful. We had a great time with the Scholastica team and were grateful they could host us for the day. Paige Schember won the women's race with a time of 15:47.1, and Nora Gilbertson was the next Ole in 9th place.  Kelsey Cork took 12th.  On the men's side, Jake Brown was the top Ole, placing in 4th with an overall time of 27:59.9.  Joel Bransky was 8th, Liam John pla...

My goodness. Many apologies for the lack in posting, the St. Olaf ski team did not fall off the face of the earth, we are still working harder than ever! The next few posts will cover our trip to West Yellowstone, a dual meet with Scholastica, the JNQ/open races at Wausau, U.S. XC Senior Nationals in Soldier Hollow, Utah, the Minnesota College Championships and St. Olaf time trials, and our upcoming races at Telemark Lodge in Cable, Wisconsin this weekend! So much to catch up on it's a little overwhelming. First on the agenda: West Yellowstone While a trip out to West Yellowstone offers the chance for phenomenal training on gorgeous trails at a higher altitude than Minnesota, it also offers the valuable chance for a team to truly bond together for the first time of the season. There's nothing like 18-hour van rides, living in a cozy cabin for a week while sharing bathrooms, cooking, cleaning, eating, sleeping, and training together to throw a team into sync with one another...