With the news that Jason Cork will be joining the U.S. Ski Team staff as the
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With the Atlantic Ocean to their left and the Pacific Ocean more than 3,000 miles to their right, Carolyn and Santiago Ocariz started striding toward the latter, one at a time across the United States. The newlyweds from Wisconsin weren’t entirely sure where they were going, or the reaction they’d receive while rollerskiing across states like Alabama and Mississippi, but they had a tentative route and plenty of inspiration to keep them going. Every mile...
When observing results like Jessie Diggins (CXC/USST)
Now in Green, Stuber and Cook Settling into Vermont
Alex KochonJanuary 30, 2012
BENNINGTON, Vt. – Inside an organic lunch spot in downtown Bennington, two Wisconsin natives glanced at an oversized chalkboard filled with sandwich options. A moment later, they turned to each other to confirm they had made up their minds. Maria Stuber and Bryan Cook hadn’t lived in the area long, yet they already figured out the basics. Bennington, southern Vermont’s largest city, wasn’t huge, but it had more going on than the hamlet of North...
Field Report from Alaska Winter Stars For the 30k Classic Mass Start, we waxed David Norris with LF Moly then HF Red, then JetStream Red with some XCold Powder mixed in. For his kick, we started with Base Green binder and then covered it with layers of the new Nordic Grip Red. His skis were good and he ended up 2nd behind Noah Hoffman. Jan Buron, Head Coach, Alaska Winter Stars Field Report from the...
RUMFORD, Maine — The stadium at Black Mountain held its collective breath as spectators waited for the lead pack of the women’s 20 k classic mass start to come through for the last time at the U.S. Cross Country Championships. The question in everyone’s mind was, could Jessie Diggins (CXC/USST) pull off yet another win? The race came down to tactics — the top five women stayed in a tight group for the first five laps,...
RUMFORD, Maine — On a comfortably cold day at Black Mountain, Jessie Diggins (Central Cross Country/USST) extended her winning streak to 11 this season—her second national title of the week at the 2012 U.S. Cross Country Championships. Dasha Gaiazova (Canadian National Ski Team/Rocky Mountain Racers) finished second, while Diggins’ teammate Caitlin Gregg (CXC) landed on the podium for the second time this week in third. Despite her dominance of the domestic circuit so far this...
CXC Women Open Nationals with Podium Sweep
Alex KochonJanuary 3, 2012
RUMFORD, Maine – Standing opposite of six bodies storming toward the finish at the 2012 U.S. Cross Country Championships on Tuesday, a spectator a few hundred meters away might have struggled to pick out a specific racer in the Central Cross Country crew. There were three of them in the women’s 1.4 k freestyle sprint A-final at the Black Mountain on Tuesday — all in red, all blond and all at the front of...
Diggins, Bender Still Going Strong for CXC
Alex KochonDecember 18, 2011
ROSSLAND, British Columbia — Some 2,500 kilometers or 1,550 miles away from Wisconsin, the Central Cross Country (CXC) ski team was feeling a little travel-weary as it rolled into Rossland on Monday. After almost five weeks on the road, some of its members decided to remedy their bodies and minds with a distance ski on the Rossland-Paulson classic-only trail. A little confusion led Jessie Diggins and Jennie Bender to the wrong trail, Seven Summits, where...
Toko: Kick Waxing Tip from Marty Hall
FasterSkierDecember 6, 2011
Here is something I’ve just started doing with Toko Base Green. I did this twice last year with huge success – both for kick and glide. I decide on the kick wax of the day for kick, let’s say blue to make it easy. Then I’ll put on a coat of the base green and heat it with a heat gun and then cork it in real good. Then I add another coat of the...
Jessie Diggins (CXC/USST) continued her early season dominance in the 10 k classic in Bozeman, MT on Sunday. Her 35.7-second victory over Maria Graefnings (University of Utah) was her third-straight win of the weekend. Kate Fitzgerald of APU finished third (+1:06.7). “I really had a lot of fun today,” said Diggins. “Sometimes when people say ‘have fun out there’ I think it’s more likely that the race is going to hurt like crazy. But today’s race...
It seems that Central Cross Country (CXC) is the team to bet on this year; at least one woman from the Midwestern squad has been in the top two in every race on the SuperTour thus far. Together, Jessie Diggins and Caitlin Gregg have taken up half of the podium spots available in the past six races, and on Saturday they continued their dominance by going 1-2 in both the morning skate sprint prologue and...
Janice Sibilia waited nearly two years for this. Most of the New England Nordic Ski Association had. Upon hearing the good word that the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) approved NENSA as a Community Olympic Development Program about two weeks ago, Sibilia wasn’t sure where to start. The competitive programs director will find out more at a phone-update meeting with USOC representatives on Tuesday. In the meantime, Sibilia could revisit all the ideas she came up...
Toko: Post West Yellowstone Report
FasterSkierNovember 29, 2011
Wax report from CXC Team This year in Yellowstone, we brought a relatively small group (seven) of skiers and only one coach, so waxing had the potential to get hairy if conditions got completely sketchy. Luckily, we had awesome snow and weather for the four races, so we managed (with help from James Kyes and Bill Pierce from FAST Racing) to produce great skis with minimal drama. Toko/Ian does a great job of producing race...
After her first World Cup in Drammen, Norway last winter, which immediately preceded World Championships, Jessie Diggins came to a realization about professional ski racing. “I get it now — why people work so hard, train for so many years, push themselves right to the edge in races,” she wrote. From the tone of her writing, Diggins is clearly having a blast being a professional skier. Her enthusiasm for the sport is palpable; it’s as...
Note: This is the second profile in a new series about working out with high-performance athletes. While Alex Matthews was in Middlebury to observe and report, she focused on the kids who trained with U.S. Olympian Garrott Kuzzy at a summer camp. MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Leaning on the back of his Volkswagen station wagon, Garrott Kuzzy smiled as his training partners arrived at the Middlebury College parking lot. All seven poured out of two vehicles....
Watt and Bender Top Podium at Inaugural North Shore Rollerski Marathon
Audrey ManganSeptember 18, 2011
While most of the spotlight was focused on Lake Placid this weekend, about 60 skiers from around the country toed the line in Duluth, MN for the first ever North Shore Rollerski Marathon on September 17. Topping the podium for the 26.2 mile point-to-point tour of Lake Superior’s north shore were Duluth native Andre Watt (Rossignol), who won a close race against Central Cross Country’s (CXC) Brian Gregg, and Jennie Bender (CXC), who beat runner-up...
For Central Cross Country’s Jennie Bender, summer is for both building strength and taking time out for unstructured workouts. The winner of the classic race at last year’s Birkie tries to balance the exact focus of specific strength training with free form over distance. By losing track of time on a long run or canoe paddle, she gets inspired to challenge herself with a grueling intensity session. Her go-to intervals, usually done on classic skis,...
Kuzzy on Leaving CXC
Audrey ManganJune 23, 2011
In April, CXC skier and USST alum Garrott Kuzzy announced