The Nordic Ski team will travel to Bend, Oregon to compete in the 2025 U.S. Collegiate Ski & Snowboard National Championships from Mar. 10 through Mar. 15. Eight men and four women from the team have qualified to compete in the challenging series of races. This includes four long and difficult races in the short span of five days.
Coach Christi Boggs shared how the team has prepared for nationals. Boggs provides a flexible yet structured year-round training program. Athletes have competed nearly every weekend since January. Many races have been outside of the conference, such as a SuperTour in Wisconsin, in order to expose the team to high levels of competition.
Coach Boggs spoke on having skiers race in more competitive settings. “It builds their confidence so they can feel like they can race with anybody as well as in those spaces,” said Boggs. “All of them ski so well and with so much confidence and such determination. I am really proud of watching them ski so well at the end of the season like this.”
The team has also shown their dedication off the mountain as well, with ten of the twelve nationals qualifying athletes also receiving the Academic All American title. This is given to those with a 3.3 or higher GPA. The team has reached one of the highest average GPAs at 3.8, with a strong number of athletes maintaining a 4.0 this semester.
Lifetime skier and men’s Team Captain Eliot Kramer shared his excitement for the opportunity to race at nationals. “We have worked so hard for this,” said Kramer. “Since the week after nationals last year, we have all put hundreds of hours in cross-country skiing, and now that’s paying off.”
Kramer has been cross-country skiing since he could walk and has been racing competitively since junior high school. Women’s team captain, Sammy Veauthier is also a lifelong skier and is returning to Nationals for her fourth and final year.
“This year is a bit bittersweet for me, just because I will be graduating, but I’m excited to go, and really excited about how our team has been doing,” said Veauthier.
Both captains described the intense preparation leading up to their week at Nationals. The team not only spends time training on the snowy trails but continues their hard work in the offseason as well. In the summer, athletes condition by trail running and strength training. Additionally, they replicate the motion of skiing through rollerblading.
Outside of physical training, the team prepared for competition by scouting their competition and gauging the scores of past races. This left both the men’s and women’s teams feeling hopeful to place within the top three teams in Oregon.
“I think they have some real opportunities to get on the podium at nationals, and that’s super exciting for us,” said Boggs.
