After 27 years of leading the Dartmouth men's nordic team and 10 years coaching with the U.S. Ski Team, Sun Valley native Ruff Patterson is venturing into the next chapter of his life and heading back west.
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Returning to Her Roots: Trygstad-Saari Becomes Elite/Post-Grad Coach with Bridger Ski Foundation
Lander KarathMay 30, 2014
A return to one’s roots can often lead to new opportunities. Such is the case with Kristina Trygstad-Saari, a Bozeman, Mont. native and Bridger Ski Foundation alumnus who has now taken the position as the ski club’s new elite and post-graduate coach for the 2014/2015 season.
The Bridger Ski Foundation announced Monday that it named Kristina Trygstad-Saari, one of its former elite athletes, head coach of its elite nordic team. Trygstad-Saari, 29, will take over day-to-day coaching and race travel while Dragan Danevski continues as BSF program director and head coach.
Wednesday Workout: Lickety-Split Christmas Zone 4 Intervals
BrainspiralDecember 25, 2013
Merry Christmas! On the rare chance that you can sneak out for a workout during the busy holiday season, try the following 45-60 minute workout from Sam Tarling of the Maine Winter Sports Center.
Kowalczyk, Poltoranin Take First Two Muonio Races; Americans and Canadians Jump in the Mix
BrainspiralNovember 17, 2013
Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk and Kazakhstan's Alexey Poltoranin got off to a strong start this weekend, winning two of three opening FIS races in Muonio, Finland. Americans Kris Freeman and Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess made it into the top-30s, and several other North Americans competed.
With nearly two dozen athletes, the MWSC in northeastern Maine is shaping up to be a national powerhouse in both cross-country and biathlon. "From my perspective as director, this group is more of a team than we've ever had," says director Will Sweetser. "There is no doubt that our program will have one of the best men's distance teams in U.S. XC."
With his four years of NCAA eligibility completed, Sam Tarling will return to his roots to begin his professional career. The Maine native and 2011 NCAA 10 k freestyle champion for Dartmouth College will again race in the white and blue of Maine Winter Sports Center next season.
The qualification criteria for the U.S. Ski Team's National Training Group now includes a top-three finish from NCAA Championships, signaling a change in the way the national team involves collegiate skiing in its development pipeline.
After a one-year hiatus, our Skier of the Year awards are back. We start with the collegiate category, where for the first time in FasterSkier’s history of giving such prizes Americans took both of the top honors: NCAA freestyle champions Miles Havlick (University of Utah) and Joanne Reid (University of Colorado).
To finish off six races in three countries over nine days, Sadie Bjornsen capped off her European race season with a second place finish at OPA Cup Finals in a close race with Germany's Sandra Ringwald. Sam Tarling led the U.S. with a 23rd in the men's race and Paddy Caldwell skied the sixth-fastest course time to finish 12th in the junior race.
After taking third in the prologue at OPA Cup Finals in Toblach, Italy, Sadie Bjornsen followed up on Saturday with an outright win in the second stage of the mini-tour, a 5 k individual classic. Sam Tarling led the U.S. in the men's 10 k and Paddy Caldwell had his best classic race of the year in the junior division.
Caitlin Patterson and Erik Bjornsen led the Americans on Thursday at the U23 World Championships in Liberec, Czech Republic. Patterson was 14th in the women's 10 k freestyle and Bjornsen skied his last few kilometers with the race winner to place 15th in the 15 k.
Here you were thinking Torin Koos was a sprinter. Think again: he won his eighth career national title on Sunday in the 30 k mass start classic, his second of the week. He bested Erik Bjornsen and David Norris in second and third in a close, hard-fought race at Soldier Hollow.
The action at the 2013 U.S. Cross Country Ski Championship heated up this morning when the senior men started off the day with the 30 k classic mass start. Six laps of the challenging 5 k loop at Soldier Hollow made for an exciting race as eighteen skiers were together in the lead pack for the majority of the race, but during the final kilometers only a handful of men were in contention for the national title. As they climbed Soldier Hollow's fabled Hermode's Hill for the final time it was Torin Koos (BSF) who made a decisive move to claim the national title with Erik Bjornsen (USST/APU) and David Norris (MSU) finishing second and third respectively. Check out our footage of the race.
Note: This article has been updated. Peering up at a sign inside a pizza joint in Colville, Wash., Sam Tarling saw an opportunity. Like so many other spontaneous offers 21-year-old Dartmouth College racer seized to get out West, Tarling jumped at the chance to eat for money. With an evening to kill and a stomach of steel, Tarling reasoned he couldn’t lose. The defending NCAA 10-k champion trumped similar challenges in the past. Three quarters...
FasterSkier Collegiate Skier of the Year Collegiate Skier of the Year (women): Maria Graefnings (SWE/University of Utah) A senior at the University of Utah, and a native of Falun, Sweden, Graefnings dominated the RMISA circuit during the regular season, winning seven of eight starts. Graefnings transferred to Utah from the University of Nevada when that program was cut. In addition to her success in the western region, Graefnings won the NCAA national title in the...
NCAA 5/10 k skate race There are always a lot of questions and unknowns coming into the NCAA nordic competition every year. The best athletes and schools from one region rarely get to compete head-to-head with athletes and schools from a different region until they travel to the collegiate nationals, making NCAA’s the first time they get test their mettle against the rest of the nation’s elite. It was fitting then, that the first race...
The temperatures were bitter cold in Hanover, New Hampshire this morning – when the first racer started it was a slight 5 degrees Fahrenheit – but the tracks around Oak Hill were hard pack and fast. Despite the hype around their home carnival – slated as the 100th annual – the Dartmouth team kept their focus and showed their home town crowd how a ski race is won. Sam Tarling led the team to victory...
Flora Flies to SuperTour Win in Lake Placid
Nathaniel HerzJanuary 14, 2011
Lars Flora finally got the hard course he was looking for. After the two distance races at last week’s U.S. national championship were held on relatively pedestrian courses—to Flora’s disappointment—Friday’s SuperTour race in Lake Placid, a 10 k classic, featured five trips up an unrelenting, steep climb: a full kilometer from the landing of the town’s Olympic ski jumps, all the way up to the take-off point. Flora (APU) made the most of the challenge,...
Take a 12-mile ferry ride from Rockland, Maine to North Haven Island at the end of October, and you might find yourself watching the Maine Winter Sports Center’s (MWSC) annual Lobster Roll rollerskiing race. The perfect roads and low traffic, “make for one of the most scenic rollerskiing experiences possible,” according to Andy Shepard, President of the MWSC. On October 30, athletes from MWSC, Bates, Colby, Bowdoin, UMO, UMPI, along with other individuals, undertook the...