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The Craftsbury Outdoor Center is pleased to announce five new additions to the Green Racing Project (GRP) for 2012. The GRP works to provide an environment where post-collegiate skiers can focus on a high level of training, while also work on a broad range of projects supporting the mission of the Outdoor Center. Thanks to their ski speed and mission-related abilities, we are excited to welcome Amy Glen, Alex Howe, Nils Koons, Caitlin Patterson, and Gordon Vermeer to our program.
Amy Glen is the first of two Alaskans to join us this year. The Anchorage native will be making the short drive from UVM to Craftsbury as she joins the team. During her last two seasons as a Catamount, she never finished lower than 10th on the EISA circuit, capping her collegiate career edging Dartmouth’s Sophie Caldwell to take the NCAA title this spring in her stronger discipline of classic skiing. In addition to her collegiate career, Amy has competed internationally at the FIS Junior World Championships in 2009 and 2011. Beyond her athletic accomplishments, Amy excelled in the classroom as a biology major. She was the 2011 winner of the NCAA Elite 88 Award, given to the student-athlete with the highest GPA competing at the NCAA Championships. Glen owns a 3.96 GPA at UVM and was the second straight Catamount to earn the honor, joining teammate Caitlin Patterson who won the award in 2010. This background should equip her to contribute to the Center’s green mission in a wide variety of ways.
Amy’s UVM teammate Alex Howe is another skier that will be heading only a little further east this year. The Gilford, New Hampshire native caught the eye of collegiate coaches by skiing to a junior national sprint title. In college, Alex was a regular in the top-ten on the EISA circuit, with a win at St. Lawrence and several podiums to his credit during his time at UVM. He capped his collegiate career with matching 17th placings as part of Vermont’s NCAA championship team this spring – his second consecutive trip to NCAAs with the Cats. Off the ski track, Alex was an agriculture major, complementing his broad background of personal experience from his family farm in raising crops and animals that will be sure to be put to use at the Center.
Nils Koons has been involved with the GRP and Craftsbury in a variety of ways during the past season. In 2012, the Dartmouth grad will be moving from training partner to a full member of the squad. The Maine-iac Kiwi was a four-time member of Dartmouth’s NCAA team, four-time All-East team member, won several carnivals both classic and freestyle, and was a podium regular throughout his time with the Big Green. More recently, Nils led GRP men with a third at this winter’s Boulder Mountain Tour, posted four top tens at SuperTours this winter, and won the 2012 Craftsbury Marathon among other races. Nils has an engineering degree, and lots more hands on experience from his family’s small farm to draw on as he completes his mission-related work around the Center.
Caitlin Patterson is the third Catamount of the 2012 GRP class. The civil engineering major from Anchorage, Alaska has enjoyed quite a career at UVM. She completed her college racing career with a total of 13 EISA carnival victories, including seven wins in eight races during her junior year. Caitlin is a four-time NCAA squad member with six top ten finishes at the NCAA Championships, including a 2nd and 5th place this past March in the freestyle and classic events respectively. She has also raced for the US team at the 2010 Junior World and 2011 U23 World Championships, where she placed in the top 20 both years. Off snow, Caitlin was the 2010 NCAA Elite 88 Award winner and was selected as UVM’s 2012 Student Engineer of the Year. Caitlin hopes to apply her engineering and problem-solving skills to a variety of projects at the Center, with a special focus toward food-related, structural, and erosion/general environmental projects.
Gordon Vermeer joins the Green Racing Project from Minneapolis, Minnesota, by way of Dartmouth. The Big Green skier made impressive strides during his collegiate career, capping it with a 2012 EISA campaign that saw him on the second step of the podium at Williams’ and Middlebury’s carnivals, and a regular in the top ten with first team, All-EISA honors. His regular season work earned him a trip to NCAAs, where he posted a 13th in the 10k freestyle. Gordon is majoring in Economics/Math – with a focus on Finance and Statistics, with his current interest the energy sector and efficiency issues. These skills, as well as a love of the outdoors and hunting should stand him in good stead as he works to support the broader mission of the Outdoor Center.
To our new GRP members – welcome aboard! We look forward to working toward all our goals together. As always, the hardest part of the selection process was saying no to many interested and qualified skiers. We wish all of our applicants the best of luck with your training and racing development and encourage you to apply again in 2013 if you have interest and a continued need for support.
