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.
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| Dashe |
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| Corbin & Parke |
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| Derek |
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| Friend of the Seawolves, Seth Downs |
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| Matteus |
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| Peter |
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| Garrett |
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| Matt |
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| Erling |
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| Former Seawolf (always a Seawolf) Brandon Brewster |
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| Trond |
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| Get in the van |
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| Alex |
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| Marlie |
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| Beth |
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| Matt |
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| Corbin |
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!
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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.
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| 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. |
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:
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| Carmen Nielssen - Alpine |
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| Tuva Bygrave - Nordic |
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| Jon Ronner - Alpine |
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| Anna Berecz - Alpine Assistant Coach |
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| Trond Flagstad - Head Nordic Coach |
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| Ainsley Proffitt - Alpine |
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| Ari Endestad - Nordic |
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| Sparky Anderson - UAA Ski Team Head Coach |
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| Ella Bromée - Alpine |
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| Leon Nikic - Alpine |
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| Tuva Granøien - Nordic Assistant Coach |
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| Adam Verrier - Volunteer Assistant Coach |
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| Beth Granstrom - Nordic |
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| Morten Kjerland - Volunteer Assistant Coach |
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| Derek Deuling - Nordic |
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| Astrid Stav - Nordic |
Nevertheless, we have a newly-crowned world champion on our
UAA Ski Team. Derek Deuling spent a portion of this month racing World Cup
races in Switzerland and competing at the Under-23 World Championships in
Slovenia. And it was there that Derek, along with his Canadian teammates, won
the world championship relay.
I heard the news of Derek’s glorious success from Trond
Flagstad, in our team condo, in Vail, Colorado, at around 4:40am. We three
coaches were kind of bleary-eyed from a weekend of racing and a lack of sleep
caused by getting up so early to drive to Denver for our flight back to Alaska
after our most recent road trip.
Trond emerged from his room as I was stuffing ski boots into
my duffle bag and trying to remember not to forget to fetch my jacket out of the closet or
to look under my bed for any socks that might have ended up there, and his
first words of the day were, “I think Canada just won the World Championship
relay.” It took a moment or two for that
to sink in, and actually it wasn’t really sinking in, so I just said, “Oh… OK…
Good”. I’m not much of a multi-tasker. When I’m doing one thing, I really can’t
let any other things intrude and get in the way of my focus on that one thing,
until that one thing is completed. So I kept focusing on packing my bags and
remembering not to forget to pack anything, but the little voice in the back of
my mind was telling me I should circle back to this World Championship news later, because if this news from Trond was true, then our Derek is a World Champion.
By and by, Tuva came downstairs and heard the news from
Trond. She said, “Oh… wow!” But I think she was probably in the same state of
mind as myself - almost as surprised that she was walking around the condo at
4:50am as she was to hear that the Canadians had won the U23 World Championship
relay.
A few minutes later, as we were shoveling in a little
breakfast and keeping an eye on the clock (because we were scheduled to be on
the road with all aboard at 5:45am), Trond announced that the Canadians had
definitely won the relay, and that it was raining in Planica, Slovenia.
Anyway, I guess my point in all this is to say that
everyone’s World Championship experience is unique and personal. But most of
all, I want to congratulate Derek Deuling and his Canadian teammates for
becoming Under-23 World Champions!
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| Derek (and Beth) |
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| The view from the top of the slalom course at Howelsen Hill. (from Ainsley Proffit's perspective.) |
This team enjoys coming to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. It's usually sunny, the snow is cold and dry, and there are good trails to ski on. And we usually get to cheer on our alpine teammates in a night slalom race at Howelsen Hill, just across the Yampa River from Steamboat's main street. The University of Colorado hosts their meet here each year. But this year, they're also hosting the NCAA Championships here in March. So we get to come back twice!
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| Waiting around for the awards ceremony post-race. |
Results from our Nordic team this past weekend were mixed, but with so many Freshmen on our team this year, it was a good opportunity to do some reconnaissance and become familiar with the race courses here in the land of "champagne powder".
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| The training conditions are excellent here. (Beth, Marlie and Pascale) |
Tomorrow's our last chance to familiarize ourselves with Howelsen Hill's race trails, as we'll drive south to Minturn, Colorado on Wednesday for the University of Denver's meet this coming weekend. But it'll only be another month or so before we're back in the 'Boat for the NCAA Championships.
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| Skiing at the Wiik's place. |
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| Ainsley Proffit. There's a reason her racing bib says "Leader". |
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| Trond has been letting me get out to ride the chairlift at Mt. Werner in the afternoons whenever there's an opportunity to squeeze in a few runs between nordic workouts. It's been excellent skiing. |
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| With our alpine teammates Carmen and Ella after the night slalom at Howelsen. |
