Alphabet Soup Races: CCSA Regionals, USCSAs, and NCAAs

Our final races of the regular season found us in the annual sardine-mobile to Marquette, MI. After a mix-up with some rental vans, we finally scrounged up enough vehicles to get us to regionals. Saturday featured a 5 and 10 k skate race at Al Quaal. Jake put in his highest placing performance of the season, finishing 4th, with Nels in 30th and Leif and Mitchell in 34th and 35th respectively. Piper showed how far she has come in her first year skiing since high school, finishing a strong 23rd. Amy also showed off her improvements in skate skiing this year, finishing 36th with Nora in 37th and Allie close behind in 38th. Laura and Shelby were 41st and 42nd out of 52.

Sunday’s 15/20k classic mass start was a grueling test on the steep climbs of the Teal Lake loop. Jake skied to 11th place, securing his qualifying spot at NCAAs! Jake was St. Olaf’s second NCAA qualifier in two years, after Paige qualified last year. Nels, Leif, and Mitchell battled to 27th, 33rd, and 34th. In the women’s race, Nora closed out her regular season racing with a 25th place finish. Our other women were grouped closely together, with Piper in 33rd, Laura 37, Amy 38, Shelby 40, and Allie 41.

A frenzy of packing, changing, and eating commenced immediately after the classic race, because a few hours later we were scheduled to fly from Green Bay to Chicago, en route to Portland and Bend for USCSA Nationals. We made our flight with time to spare, and after a couple hours’ delay in O’Hare (surprise!) we landed in Portland at about 2 AM. Driving the three hours to Bend did not seem like the best idea at that time, so we stayed the night in Portland and were able to enjoy the beautiful weather, green grass, and the smell of crabapple blossoms the next morning before leaving for Bend.

No rest for the travel-weary, however. Our first race at USCSAs, the 7.5k individual start classic, was scheduled for the very next day. Conditions all week were somewhat challenging for waxing, because we needed to strike a balance between the cold, fine, dry snow in the shade, and the warm, grainy, wet snow in the sun. Our skiers handled the changing conditions well, though; in the women's race, Nora was 2nd, Piper was 3rd, Laura was 8th, and Shelby was 14th. In the men's race, Leif was 3rd, Nels was 8th, and Mitchell was 16th. As a team, both men and women were 2nd to Wyoming.

Leif striding out in the classic race (photo courtesy of Allie A)

The skate sprint on the next day was an even better race. Our skiers used some smart tactical racing to move through the heats to some strong finishes in the final. Piper and Nora qualified 1st and 2nd respectively, before finishing 2nd and 1st in the A final, with Shelby 5th. Laura finished 5th in the B final to earn 10th place overall. Nels skied very strong all day to finish 2nd, while Leif and Mitchell (both of whom are better distance skiers) finished 17th and 18th. As a team, our women won while our men were 3rd.

Piper (left) and Shelby (right) in a sprint heat (photo courtesy of Allie A)

We took advantage of our off day to catch up on some rest and check out some local cuisine before jumping back into things with the 15k mass start skate race. We had anticipated that this would be our toughest race of the week as a team, but our skiers handled it well. Piper, a strong distance and skate skier, finished 2nd and Nora finished close behind in 3rd. Shelby finished a strong 8th, and Laura, feeling some fatigue from the previous several days of racing, finished 19th. Our women finished 2nd as a team, by a margin of only one point. For the men, Nels fought to a 4th place finish, with Leif 13th and Mitchell 25th. The Ole men finished 2nd as a team. Many skiers characterized the skate race as their physically hardest effort of the season.

Finally, the classic team sprint relay fell on the last day of competition. As a coach, this was probably one of the top three coaching days of my career. Prior to the race, we discussed the possibility of double poling the entire course. This strategy is more often used by men on the World Cup, and carries a bit of risk with it, because you don't have the sticky kick wax on the bottom of your skis to help you get up the hills. But on courses with fewer or more gradual hills, it can be faster over the entirety of the race. Everyone was on board with the strategy, so we waxed skate skis for both men and women. The Ole women are all exceptionally strong in their upper body, and in short, they blew everyone else out of the water. No one else had thought of double poling the course, so it was fun to feel like we had outsmarted everyone else. Our men did the same, but by this time the other teams had realized that double poling was faster, so our men finished a close 2nd to Wyoming.

Cheering after the relays takes many forms... (photo courtesy of Allie A)

Overall, our women won for the week, and our men were 2nd. After attending eight different USCSA national competitions as both an athlete and as a coach, I have to say that this year's was clearly the best. It was well organized with clear communication, there was strong competition but with a feeling of camaraderie among all teams, the location and weather were gorgeous, and I felt like we skied up to our full potential as a team. I'm proud of our work out there.

                                              We could ski here more often. Back row: Joel, Tom, Nora,                                                      Piper, Mitchell, Laura, Leif. Front row: Nels, Allie, Shelby

Following is a list of All-Americans for the week:

Nora Gilbertson (4x 1st team)
Piper Bain (4x 1st team)
Shelby Ahrendt (2x 1st team, 1x 2nd team)
Laura Moore (2x 2nd team)
Nels Thompson (2x 1st team, 2x 2nd team)
Leif Hanson (1x 1st team, 1x 2nd team)

Mitchell Miller (1x 2nd team)

The afternoon of our last race in Bend, I caught a flight out of the Bend-Redmond airport to get to Albany, where I met Jake the next day for our week at NCAAs in Lake Placid. Hopefully Jake will have a chance to share his own account of that trip, but here are my thoughts: The skate race result was not what either of us were expecting (36th), but as a coach, I am exceptionally proud of the effort that Jake put in. If you ask him, he’ll tell you about wobbly and burning legs, tunnel vision, and nearly crashing from skiing so hard. He left everything out on the course, but it just wasn’t his day to feel good and have a good result. The classic race was much better, and fully in line with where he has been skiing in the CCSA all season. In fact, his 5th position in the CCSA was his best of the season! Jake skied a smart race to finish 28th, earn three team points for St. Olaf, and again, I am so proud of the improvements that he has made in classic skiing to be able to have that race be his best of the week. Hopefully we can continue this trend of advancing at least one skier to NCAAs every year in the future. 

On the whole, this was a remarkable season. We aren’t the fastest team in the CCSA, and we probably never will be. But we put up a fight, each and every weekend, like that rampant lion on our sleeves. I’m proud of the work we did this year, and of the experience that everyone on the team helped to create.  I can’t wait to do it again.

Lion pride pyramid!