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Zak Ketterson

Ketterson and Ogden Take Classic Sprint Win on New Tracks at Mt Van Hoevenberg

By Rachel Bachman Perkins and Ben Theyerl After a brief break, the SuperTour picked up in Lake Placid this weekend, with a fluoro-free Period III kicking off with a 1.5-kilometer classic sprint. The frigid forecast called for overnight lows of -5 Fahrenheit, with a wind chill as low as -23F. Highs during the day were only predicted to climb into the low single digits. Qualifiers were scheduled for 10/10:45 am, with quarterfinals for the open...

Race Rundown: Ketterson and Ogden Win SuperTour Classic Sprint in Lake Placid

Here’s a quick results recap from today’s SuperTour classic sprint in Lake Placid, NY. Stay tuned tomorrow for detailed coverage including comments from athletes.  Period III of SuperTour racing kicked off in Lake Placid this morning with a frigid classic sprint. Recent improvements at Mt Hoevenberg included a new 5-kilometer World Cup and 1.5k sprint course, where athletes faced off today. On the men’s race, Zak Ketterson (Team Birkie) skied the fastest time in the...

Klæbo Wins Second Tour de Ski; Røthe Reigns on Alpe Cermis, Ketterson 48th

Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award.  To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com.   We began this year’s coverage of the Men’s Tour de Ski with a prelude from 5 time Tour de France champion Bernard Hinault. So let us begin this coda with him as well. On the cycling classic Paris-Roubaix, “the hell of the north”...

Klæbo Pulls Away for Fourth Stage Win in 15k Mass Start Classic to Build Overall Tour Lead

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award.  To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. From Switzerland, to Germany, to the Italian Dolomites, the 2021/22 Tour de Ski continued today with its fifth of six stages, a 15-kilometer classic in Val di Fiemme. Dwindling from...

Klæbo Runs Away with Third Stage Win in the Classic Sprint; Ogden 22nd, Jager 27th

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award.  To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com.   As we begin Stage 4 of the Tour de Ski, the first classic sprint since the opening race of the season in Ruka, Finland on November 26th, we...

Klæbo Skates Away With the Win in TdS Stage 3 15k Mass Start Free; Schumacher 25th

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award.  To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. Traveling Northeast from Lenzerheide, Switzerland to Oberstdorf, Germany, home to last year’s FIS World Ski Championships, athletes lined up for Stage 3 of the Tour de Ski for a mass...

Keeping It In the Family, Iivo Niskanen Adds Another 15k Classic Victory to His Resume

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award.  To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. Lenzerheide, Switzerland was tucked into a snow globe today, as snow fell steadily in fat flakes throughout the races. The wax technicians had their work cut out for them as...

Klæbo Takes the Win in Tour de Ski Stage 1 Freestyle Sprint; Ogden and Bolger Qualify Top 10; Three Americans in Heats

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award.  To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com.   To set the scene for the Tour de Ski, briefly turn to an episode from the event that inspired it. Cue “the Badger,” Bernard Hinault, who at the...

SuperTour Racing Continues at the Gitchi Gami Games in Cable, WI

By Rachel Bachman Perkins and Gavin Kentch After a successful opening weekend of SuperTour racing in Duluth, Minnesota, athletes, coaches, and techs made the short trek down to Birkieland for three days of racing out of the Birkie Trailhead in Cable, Wisconsin. APU skiers Rosie Frankowski and Tyler Kornfield came into Friday morning as the points leaders for the early-season SuperTour races. By Sunday afternoon, the leaders were, unofficially, Alayna Sonnesyn of SMS and Zak...

Team Birkie at Altitude: Park City and Canmore for Camp

At the end of October, Team Birkie headed west for three-weeks. Leaving the midwest in search of a higher altitude training venue and snow, they headed first to Park City, UT, then north to Canmore, Alberta, where winter has already settled in. Coach Caitlin Gregg had several objectives for the camp, primarily related to training time above sea-level. Her first goal for the team was to get in a three-week altitude block, in order to...

Elite Team Preview: Team Birkie

Team name and location: Team Birkie; Minneapolis, Minnesota (also Hayward, Wisconsin) Coach: Caitlin Gregg (co-coach), Leo Hipp (co-coach), Jeremy Hecker (technique coach and wax tech) Current roster: For the men: Zak Ketterson, Christian Gostout, Andrew Millan, Tony Mathie, Brian Gregg; Women: Ingrid Thyr, Julie Ensrud, Jordan Schuster, Abbie Drach, Amanda Kautzer (focusing on biathlon) What’s new: “Everything,” Gregg writes. While elite teams have existed in the Midwest in the past, Team Birkie is new this year....

U23 World’s 15 k / 30 k Mass Start Rundown

U23 Women’s 15 k Mass Start Sweden-Sweden-Sweden: Ebba Andersson, Moa Lundgren, and Emma Ribom went 1-2-3 for the all Sweden podium. If one thing is certain from our race coverage this season, we know Sweden is ready for World Cup podiums now. The U23 sweep in Oberwiesenthal, Germany at these U23 World Championships likely means more to come. Andersson crossed the finish line alone in 35:44.4. Lundgren came across 37.1 seconds back, Ribom 45.2 seconds...

For the men, Zak Ketterson (USST/NMU) was the only American qualifier in 15th (+5.65) in the U23 World Championship men’s skate sprint in Oberwiesenthal, Germany. Logan Diekmann (Univ. of Utah) was the next American finisher in 44th (+12.36) followed by Zane Fields (Ford Sayre) in 45th (+12.82) and Hunter Wonders (APU) in 52nd (+14.03).  On the Canadian side, Graham Ritchie (Big Thunder Nordic) was the top qualifier in 6th (+3.37), followed by Antoine Cyr (Skinouk)...

Canmore NorAm/SuperTour/Nationals Classic Distance

Day two of the first NorAm and SuperTour weekend was interval start classic, with 10km for the men and 5km for the women. The US SuperTour athletes took the chance to show their depth today, packing the top ten of the open categories. The 154 men raced first, with the U.S. Ski Team’s Zak Ketterson winning comfortably in 27:33.1. National team member Antoine Cyr was second at 15.0 back, followed by CGRP’s Ben Lustgarten at...

Ben Saxton Sweeps Sprint Titles at Nationals

Link to skate sprint photo gallery. “I just love going fast. There are few things that can match the primal joy that comes from racing as fast as possible and beating someone. I definitely don’t always beat people, but that feeling is worth chasing again and again.” That quote comes from a younger, twenty-one-year-old Ben Saxton, when FasterSkier reached out to the SMS T2 skier after being named to his first World Juniors team. Saxton...

Tuesday Race Rundown from U.S. Nationals

U.S. Cross-Country Ski Nationals at Craftsbury, Vermont  1.5 k Freestyle Sprint In the men’s 1.5-kilometer freestyle sprint on Tuesday, the final day of racing at U.S. nationals, Ben Saxton (SMS T2) won the final in a time of 2:58.51 minutes. Saxton was fifth in qualification behind fastest qualifier on the day Logan Hanneman (APU). Hanneman went on to place second in the final, crossing the finish line .32 seconds after Saxton. Noel Keeffe (University of Utah),...

Ben Saxton Claims First Career U.S. National’s Sprint Title

  Link to Cross-Country Nationals Classic Sprint Gallery. With the thirty men who qualified for the men’s classic sprint heats on Friday in Craftsbury, VT. winnowed down to six in the final, Ben Saxton had already made made his mark in the quarterfinal. The SMS T2 skier laid down the fastest qualifier in 3:18.58 minutes. He won his qualifier ahead of second place skier Zak Ketterson (who eventually made the finals as a lucky loser)...

Spring Series Rundown: Diggins Anchors Another Stratton Mixed-Relay Win

2018 U.S. SuperTour Finals (Craftsbury, Vermont): Mixed relays For the second-straight year at the SuperTour’s season-ending Spring Series, the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) T2 Team won the mixed relay, with three of the four athletes who raced on last year’s 4 x 5-kilometer mixed relay squad. Simi Hamilton, Sophie Caldwell, Paddy Caldwell, and Jessie Diggins combined for the win on Sunday in Craftsbury, tagging off in that order, with Diggins crossing the finish line first...

Ishpeming SuperTour Rundown: Norris Tallies Two Wins, Three Podiums

U.S. SuperTour (Ishpeming, Michigan): Friday, Saturday and Sunday The SuperTour circuit ventured to the Al Quaal Recreation Area in Ishpeming, Michigan, this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday for three days of racing Feb. 16-19. Day 1 In Friday’s 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprints, Kevin Bolger of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) posted a 2.69-second victory in the men’s final over his teammate Jack Hegman in second and 3.02 seconds ahead of David Norris of Alaska...

Under 23 Questions: Zak Ketterson

In an effort to showcase the North Americans who competed at last week’s International Ski Federation (FIS) 2018 Nordic Junior/U23 World Championships in Goms, Switzerland, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 20-year-old Zak Ketterson, of Northern Michigan University, who represented the U.S. at his first U23 Worlds (after competing at 2016 Junior Worlds in Romania). Last week in Goms, Ketterson...