FAI

It's Alaska Nordic Cup weekend.

Fairbanks, in the Golden Heart of Alaska

 

When you're on this ski team, you learn to make air travel a low-stress activity.

Every year around this time, UAA and UAF get together for our annual showdown to establish December dominance. At the moment, we're one race into our two-race contest. We raced today. Tomorrow we race again. Then we fly home to Anchorage.

We do some ski-testing on this team.

The Alaska Nordic Cup venue switches back and forth between Anchorage and Fairbanks each year. Last year was Anchorage. This year it's Fairbanks. When we come to Fairbanks, we've always raced at Birch Hill, the trail system located about five hundred feet higher in elevation than the city of Fairbanks. This has historically been of critical importance, because Fairbanks is frequently a COLD and windless place, where the cold air settles into the valleys, and the hilltops can be significantly warmer in comparison. Birch Hill is often far warmer than the UAF campus. International Ski Federation rules wouldn't allow racing at downtown Fairbanks temperatures during large parts of the winter. But Birch Hill is often well above the FIS limit even when it's brutally cold downtown.

Constance and Trond. Talking race strategy.

Trond, testing the course at race-speed.

But this summer, a new racing trail was built on the UAF campus, and we're contesting the Alaska Cup on this new racing trail. The timing couldn't be better. It's warm and rainy in Anchorage this weekend. The Alaska Nordic Cup is a good excuse to leave town for a few days. Meanwhile, Fairbanks is comfortable, with plenty of snow. I can't think of a better place to go ski racing this weekend than on the UAF campus. 

Tuva and Trond. Dinnertime's a good time to work out the program.

UAF has a good record against us in this event. I'm no statistician, but the word on the street is that Nanooks have, historically, won the Alaska Nordic Cup more often than the Seawolves.

Matteus

At this point, one race into the two-race weekend, we're in position to buck the trend. We currently hold a 51 second lead over the Polar Bears, and we're hoping to protect it - a task made more manageable by the fact that the team results are scored based on total time of the top three skiers for each time. Today's race was 10 kilometers. Tomorrow's a sprint. It would require overwhelming dominance to overcome a 51-second deficit on a sprint course that will only take around three minutes to complete. To be more succinct: we're glad we skied well today.

But we're looking forward to doing our best, and improving, tomorrow.

This is Beth. Maybe you've heard somewhere along the way that there's a "golden hour" for photography: one hour after sunrise and one hour before sunset. Fairbanks' "golden hour" lasts about fourteen minutes.

Astrid

I really like how this racing trail is surrounded by the academic campus. It makes for a very nice milieu.

Marit

And whom can we thank for this new racing trail that we've been enjoying this weekend?  The guy in the middle. That's John Estle. He designed the new race trail. The guy on the right is Derek Deuling. He's a Seawolf. His mom, Amanda, was once a Nanook, and she was coached by John Estle. The guy on the left is Peter Alden. He was Derek's mom Amanda's teammate, when they were both Nanooks, and coached by John Estle. 

As for Dereks's mom, Amanda, here's an old photo from her time as a UAF Nanook, back in the good old days:

Southcentral Racing

 The Seawolves like to race. We'll race anywhere. Government Peak. Kincaid Park. You name it. Wherever there's a race, the Seawolves are gonna be there. 

Dashe

Corbin & Parke

Derek

Friend of the Seawolves, Seth Downs

Matteus

Peter

Garrett

Matt

Erling

Former Seawolf (always a Seawolf) Brandon Brewster

Trond

Get in the van

Alex

Marlie

Beth

Matt

Corbin

Winter Begins

It’s been quite some time I last wrote any kind of post for the UAA Nordic Ski Team blog. A few people have reminded me that every time they check out the website, there’s nothing new there. I appreciate the fact that they bothered to look. I don’t have any excuse for it. That’s because I don’t have excuses; I have reasons. And I guess the reason is because every time over the past six months that there’s been a choice of whether to write a blog post or do something else, I’ve chosen the other thing.

But recently, as I was swatting a hockey puck around an alpine lake with a couple of Seawolf alumni and telling them how excited I am about the training and team culture in the group this fall, it occurred to me that I really ought to document our Seawolf experiences in the blog. After all, it’s a special thing to be on an NCAA athletic team, and most of us only get four years of it, at most. 

This fall, we took an already-kind-of-big Nordic team and made it a little bigger. Our new skiers have brought nothing but enthusiasm to the group, and from what I’ve seen this fall, the members of our group aren’t afraid to challenge each other. I’ve seen interval workouts where every one of the boys was leading the group at one point or another during the hard stuff.  They go after each other in workouts, but they also support each other, and there is no established “pecking order”. Seawolf alumni will know what I’m talking about when I say Trond gets that gleam in his eye when he talks about how excited he is about this group, and the direction we’re going. Coaching is really fun!

Clearly, training was done during the summer break. There were lots of PRs in the standard fall time trials, indicating that our skiers not only want to ski faster – they also are willing to do the training to make it happen. And our new Seawolves have fit smoothly into the team culture – they’re fully on board.

But fall training officially ends tomorrow. Tomorrow is our first race of the season. It’ll probably be our toughest competition of the year, too. Gus Schumacher will be there. You may recall he won a World Cup last winter. Rosie Brennan will be there. She’s ranked seventh in the world. If our Seawolves want a low-FIS-point result, this weekend is the time to get it.

Racing season starts tomorrow morning. With this crew, I’m really excited to see what happens during the next five months!

Marlie & Beth. Earlier today. At Government Peak. Preparing for tomorrow's race - our first of the season. Are we ready? I guess we'll find out tomorrow morning around 10am.

2024 Seawolf NCAA Championship Fan Guide

I'm pleased to announce that the day you've been waiting for has finally arrived!  It's time for the annual Seawolf NCAA Championship Fan Guide! On the one hand, the NCAAs will take place in Steamboat Springs, Colorado - one of my very favorite places for ski racing. On the other hand, I'm writing this from the Seattle airport, where our connecting flight to Colorado has just cancelled, throwing into question our travel itinerary for the next several hours (or days).

Be that as it may, the following are the Seawolf athletes and coaches on this year's NCAA Championship team:

Carmen Nielssen - Alpine

Tuva Bygrave - Nordic

Jon Ronner - Alpine

Anna Berecz - Alpine Assistant Coach

Trond Flagstad - Head Nordic Coach

Ainsley Proffitt - Alpine

Ari Endestad - Nordic

Sparky Anderson - UAA Ski Team Head Coach

Ella Bromée - Alpine

Leon Nikic - Alpine

Tuva Granøien - Nordic Assistant Coach

Adam Verrier - Volunteer Assistant Coach

Beth Granstrom - Nordic

Morten Kjerland - Volunteer Assistant Coach

Derek Deuling - Nordic

Astrid Stav - Nordic

The racing begins tomorrow, with the mens and womens giant slalom.  We are ready. 

Go Seawolves!