Notes from the Coach: Season Catch-Up

First, we now have a Twitter account! Follow @StOlafNordic on Twitter!

Rather than offer a race-by-race account of everything that has happened from CCSAs until the end of the season, here is a quick recap of some highlights from the end of the regular season.

CCSAs, Al Quaal, Ishpeming, MI. More cold temps, extremely demanding course but with some fast times. Paige earned her second podium of the season in the 15k skate race, finishing 3^rd, and Jake finished 5^thin a bunch sprint for the line after pushing the pace hard on the last two laps. This was also Shelby’s first race back after an early-season foot injury, so it was great to have her back on the road and racing her way back into shape. Women finished 6^th on the weekend, only two points down to Green Bay, and the men finished 5^th. Results for all races are here: http://mobile.raceresult.com/details/index.php?page=4&eventid=24797&lang=en .

NCAA Regionals, Michigan Tech, Houghton, MI. Surprise! More cold temperatures. These were the last races of our regular season and would be the final deciding factor in NCAA qualification. Paige cemented her spot with a 5^th place finish on Saturday and a 4^th place college finish on Sunday. In Sunday’s skate race, Jake needed to put a big gap between himself and his UAF competitor for the final qualifying spot. He made the gap, but it wasn’t big enough to reclaim his spot. Some Ole seniors finished their regular seasons strongly: Kelsey had one of her best weekends, finishing 42^nd in the classic race and 38^th in the skate race. Gretchen was 45^th and 43^rd, respectively. Cole was also back after an Interim abroad to Cuba, trying to race himself back into shape. Regionals also cemented spots at Junior Nationals for Evan (an excellent 24^th and 25^th on the weekend) and Nora, who each had to place among the top 5 juniors on the final CCSA points list. As a team, the women finished a solid 5^th, and the men finished 6^th. Results for all races are here: http://mobile.raceresult.com/details/index.php?eventid=25144&lang=en . The final CCSA points lists are here: http://www.ccsaski.com/rankings/ .

D-Team: Battle Creek SuperTour, St. Paul, MN. While the travel team was in the UP again, the D Team raced at the SuperTours closer to home. All results can be found here: http://www.endurancepromotions.com/ . Nate Webster, Sam Longenbach, Leif Hanson, Josephine Brekke, Liza Dawley, and Amelia Schurke all raced in the JNQ division in one or both races. There was also a college division, which Paul Dau, Nate Lafond, and Kristen Mueller all raced in. This weekend was about getting some more racing experience at a high level, because there is a good chance some of the D Team will be moving up to the Travel Team down the line.

Post season

First and foremost…we had our annual D-Team/intrasquad sprint race, complete with qualifying, heats, and an A and B final. Sprint races are a blast, and we don’t get to do them that often in college, so we like to have one of our own just to stay in touch with the format for people that don’t have the opportunity to sprint during the regular season. In the men’s race, Nels took the top podium spot ahead of Jake and Nate Lafond, while for the women, Shelby, Gretchen, and Kelsey took the top three spots. Because our grooming equipment was being repaired, we did this race at Carleton, which was good because the CARLETON SPRINTS were about a week later. This was the first year that Carleton has put on a race, and by all reports, it was a blast. Nels proved himself to be something of a specialist at the Carleton sprint venue, taking the win in the final over Jake, with Joel 4^th and Cole 6^th. In the women’s final, Gretchen “Gretchy” Mueller was 5^th and Allie Aufderheide was 6^th. Full results here: http://skinnyski.com/racing/college/2014/carletonsprints.pdf

NCAA National Championships, Soldier Hollow, UT. I should let Paige tell you about these herself, but I’ll share my thoughts from a coach’s perspective: I had no idea what to expect at NCAAs. This was my first time there as either an athlete or a coach, and our program’s first time there since Linn Dale qualified in 2007. I was nervous as hell. The good thing was that we got out there almost a week early, which gave both Paige and I some time to adjust to the atmosphere and get things dialed in in terms of skis, wax, and training. We shared a wax room with Michigan Tech and St. Scholastica, and we all communicated well and shared wax ideas and kept the atmosphere light and relaxed when it could just as easily have been tense and foreboding. I think this relaxed but excited atmosphere, combined with the respect and cooperation among all CCSA teams there, was a huge reason for the combined success of our region that week. It wasn’t just one team against another, or every person for themselves. All the athletes, especially those within our Central Region, know each other and cheer for each other and congratulate each other after their races. All the coaches respect each other and know each other’s athletes, and help them as if they were their own. If we want to improve as a region, this is the kind of atmosphere we need to cultivate. It was a pretty special experience, and it makes me so excited for next year and hopefully the opportunity to do it all again. All results are here: http://www.barttiming.com/eisa/Results14/ncaa14.htm . Full video of the classic race is here: http://www.ncaa.com/video/skiing/2014-03-06/nc-2014-skiing-nordic-classical-full-replay . And full video of the skate race is here: http://www.ncaa.com/video/skiing/2014-03-08/nc-2014-skiing-nordic-freestyle-full-replay . Another note on NCAAs: In the past 10 years, only 17 of 400 possible All-American spots (top 10) have been taken by Division III (non-scholarship) skiers. One of those belongs to Paige.

USSA Junior Nationals, Stowe, VT: Evan and Nora both qualified for JNs on the basis of their overall ranking in the CCSA (top 5 juniors). Evan decided that he would race for his native New England. His best race came in the 15k skate mass start, where he finished 27^th among U20 juniors. It was a great way for him to end a season of outstanding improvement. Before JNs, Nora had had a bit of a frustrating season. Her best races came early, at Senior Nationals back in Utah. Since then she had been struggling with some illness and a lot of general fatigue and lacking an extra gear. After Regionals, we decided that she would take some time off and take two weeks to reset and recharge, doing only enough to stay in contact with her top-end race fitness. It worked. Nora’s career-long goal at JNs had been to have an All-American (top 10) finish. She ended up as an All-American in every single race she entered this year, finishing 7^th in the skate race, 7^th in the sprint, 8^th in the classic race, and 3^rd in the relay with teammates Sonja Hedblom and Kristen Bourne. Again, it was a great way to end her season and look forward to next year. Results for all races are on Summit Timing: http://summittiming.com/races/race_results.php .

USCSA National Championships, Lake Placid, NY. Full results for all races are here: http://www.uscsa.com/national-championships/nordic-results-nationals-2014 .

8.5k skate: Fresh snow and fairly warm conditions were nice, since we've spent so much time skiing and racing in the bitter cold that we've had this winter. In the women's race, Paige won by an almost unfathomable two and a half minutes. Our two other seniors, Kelsey and Gretchen, were 6th and 13th. Shelby Ahrendt, a freshman who showed a lot of promise this year, was 12th. In the men's race, Jake won by well over a minute, which was encouraging for him after just barely missing out on NCAAs during the regular season. Joel, in his first college race back from a long season of illness, was 3rd, despite still not feeling his best, and Nels had one of his best races of the season in 5th. Cole Hendrickson was 14th. Men won as a team and the women were a close second.

Classic sprint: This came in the middle of the giant snowstorm we had out there, so Mike and I were kept busy skiing in the tracks to keep too much snow from building up in front of our skiers. Paige again won handily, and Shelby had probably her best classic race of the year in 4th. Gretchen was 10th and Kelsey was 13th. For the men, Jake was second, which was again really encouraging for him because he is usually also more a longer-distance skate specialist. Joel was 5th and Nels was 10th for two more All-A spots, and Cole was again 14th. Men again won as a team, and the women were second to Wyo by only one point.

15k classic: The organizers ran this race on a brutally hard course. Our team handled it well though, and Kelsey and Shelby placed a strong 8th and 10th, while Gretchen was 13th. We decided before the race that Paige should sit out the rest of the week to preserve her own health and her future ski career. The women still managed to finish 3rd as a team, only two points behind Colorado Mesa. In the men's race, Jake and Scott (the St. Scholastica skier who stayed with us for the week) skied together the entire race, almost two minutes in front of everyone else, and neither was able to break the other. They are good friends and were tied in the overall, so they decided to tie for race as well. Nels finished 8th and Joel 11th, while Cole continued his run of 14th place finishes. Cornell had an outstanding day as a team to win, so we finished 2nd, coming out on top of a tiebreak with Wyo.

Skate sprint relay: This was a new race format this year. We had a team of three, in which each person took turns skiing around the 1.4 km sprint loop, a total of three times each and nine times as a team. It's a format that shows up regularly on the World Cup and in the Olympics, and it's a lot of fun to race and watch. Our women, despite not having Paige racing, battled with Mesa for second for probably 2/3 of the race before Gretchen put in a strong move to open a gap and Kelsey brought it in to place second behind Wyoming. Our men, all strong skaters, skied away from a lead pack of 4 about halfway into the race and coasted in for the win.

Overall: Kelsey and Shelby both finished in the top 10 overall, and Gretchen was 12th. As a team, our women were second to Wyoming. For the men, we went 1, 3, 5 in the overall with Jake winning on a tiebreak, Joel taking third on a tiebreak, and Nels taking 5th outright. Cole finished 15th overall, and the men won handily as a team. Both men and women won the President’s Cup, which combines Alpine and Nordic team scores.

It’s hard to wrap up an entire season with just a few lines, so I’ll let all the words on this blog and all the pictures we share on Facebook and all the results scattered across the Internet do the talking. As a coach, I am beyond proud of everyone on the team for making this the best St. Olaf Nordic season in recent memory. You guys rock. And to everyone reading this blog: thanks for reading, for following, for supporting our team in any capacity. You rock too.