Ben Theyerl

When Matt McIntosh and his coach Green Mountain Valley School Coach Brandon Herhusky left Vermont, it was snowing. When they came back, it was snowing too. Somewhere in between though, the entire winter turned on its head back in their home state. When they left Vermont, the last American man to win an Olympic medal in cross country skiing was from Vermont. When they came back, he was too. But, there was a different name slotted in.

All that to say, with the Olympics and the promise they now realized with Ben Ogden for American skiing in the air, it’s been quite the time to be an American skier competing in Europe.

Over the past couple of weeks, Matt McIntosh got a hard-earned first start in the stars and stripes of the USA as part of US Ski and Snowboard’s U18 SuperTrip. Matt qualified based on his results at the US National Championships in Lake Placid last month. Joining him, New England got to send the always thoughtful, calm, and fun presence of Brandon Herhusky for the ride.

Matt has been a hardworking presence in NENSA’s programming, bringing a intrepid panache to the way he races, and also is well adept at offering thoughtful support to his peer competitors on training skis, in competition, or in the moments in between at places like REG Camp, Junior Nationals, and back with his club teammates at Green Mountain Valley School.

Brandon, likewise, has been a dedicated member of NENSA’s coaching community, always slotting in to offer not only his own developed expertise, but a concerted effort to build team mentality across coaches and skiers who come from diverse communities.

In other words, we couldn’t be prouder of who we as a community had representing us at USSS first step trip onto the world stage. What follows is a characteristically Brandon reflection on the type of program which scaffolds the journey for talented skiers from New England to the world stage.

By: Brandon Herhusky, Green Mountain Valley School Nordic Program Director

Over the past two weeks, I had the pleasure of accompanying New England and GMVS athlete Matthew McIntosh to Norway and Sweden as part of the U.S. Ski Team’s Super Trip, a unique blend of the traditional U18 Nations Cup trip and what was formerly the OPA Cup trip. We were also joined by fellow New England athlete Annie McColgan, a former Catamount who now races for the Mansfield Pro Team.

The trip included stops at the Norwegian Cup held at last year’s World Championship venue in Trondheim, Norway, and at next year’s World Cup Final venue in Ulricehamn, Sweden. It was an incredible opportunity to work alongside an outstanding staff of U.S. Ski Team and club coaches while supporting some of the best junior and senior racers in the country.

Matthew and I had some difficulty getting out of New England as an early January Nor’easter blanketed the region in snow. After a canceled flight out of Burlington on Sunday, we successfully made it across the pond on Monday out of Montreal to join the rest of the U.S. group. After a couple of easy days exploring Trondheim and getting skis dialed in, we were off to the races on Friday.

Friday featured a classic individual start with a 10km for the seniors and a 7.5km and 5km race for the juniors. While the temperatures weren’t quite as extreme as what racers faced in Craftsbury this past weekend, the races were pushed to the afternoon, giving many of our junior athletes their first experience racing under the lights. Waxing was straightforward, turns out Swix wax works quite well on the snow they do all their testing on. With solid conditions, the racing was on.

The senior and U20 fields were incredibly strong, featuring World Cup regulars who narrowly missed Olympic qualification and U20 athletes fighting for the final spots on Norway’s Junior World Championship team. The U18 field was slightly smaller and made up primarily of athletes from the Trøndelag region in central Norway, but you can never count out Norwegians on home snow. Matthew opened the trip with a strong 17th-place finish.

Saturday brought a skate sprint, and Team USA started strong with Ari Endestad from Alaska qualifying for the senior heats in a field that could go pound-for-pound with just about any World Cup sprint field. Unfortunately, a broken pole on the same corner that took out New England favorite Ben Ogden earlier this season knocked Ari out of contention.

The junior sprint combined U18s and U20s, so Matthew and the rest of team USA had their work cut out for them. While he just missed advancing, finishing six seconds out of qualifying. For me watching the sprint level of the Norwegian junior field, with team spots on the line, was incredible and was one of my highlights of the trip.

Our final race in Trondheim was a 10km skate individual start, typically Matthew’s strongest event. Starting late in the field, he was surrounded by some of the best Trøndelag had to offer. After catching the athlete who started directly in front of him, the two skied the remainder of the race together, fighting for every second. Matthew crossed the line in 6th and was rewarded with a pair of Norwegian wool socks for the effort.

The next morning, we loaded up the vans and headed to Sweden. While some staff drove the gear across, I traveled with the athletes by plane to Gothenburg. After picking up vans, we drove to our home base in Borås, about 30 minutes from the venue in Ulricehamn. Once settled, we headed out to check the tracks. The track was flatter than the championship courses in Norway, but had a rock-solid skate deck that making for fast fun skiing. Although we knew things would change as snow was imminent in the forecast.

This race series combined the Nordic Nations Cup, featuring the top six U18 athletes from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and the U.S. with Sweden’s Smart Energy Cup, their equivalent of the Super Tour. The fields were stacked with current Swedish World Cup skiers and rising stars you’ll likely see dominating the World Cup in the next four to five years.

Our first race in Sweden was a 10km classic in true championship conditions. Several inches of snow fell overnight and continued throughout the day, leaving tracks either filled in or blown out from early wax testing. In tricky conditions, athletes had to stay tough and really finesse their kick. Matthew put together an excellent race, finishing in the top 3^rd of the field of both U18 and uU0 athletes combined.

The following day brought sprint action. Although the snow had stopped, the tracks remained soft and choppy. With no major climbs or descents, the 1.6km course was a nonstop, lung-busting effort. Similar to the new U18 sprint format being tested in New England, 60 athletes advanced to the heats, starting with five rounds of 12 athletes. Matthew qualified 33rd, placing him on the second row right behind fellow American Ian Carmack.

After the quarterfinals, the field was cut down to two traditional heats of six, with only two athletes advancing from each quarterfinal, making the racing incredibly cutthroat. Matthew gave it everything he had and narrowly missed advancing, ultimately moving up to an impressive 23rd overall.

The final race of the trip was our first mass start, with juniors tackling four laps of a 3.75km course. The race went out fast and strung out quickly as a small group of Scandinavians broke away early. With six races in a short window, fatigue was definitely setting in, but Matthew stayed tough and didn’t give an inch, finishing a rock-solid 18^th, arguably his most impressive effort of the entire trip.

One of the biggest highlights came from the U18 girls on the final day. Several American athletes pushed the pace hard from the opening lap, completely blowing apart the field. When it was all said and done, all five U.S. starters finished in the top 15, an incredible display of our nation’s depth and strength. This is a group to keep a close eye on moving forward.

Annie also put together a phenomenal weekend in Sweden, stringing together some of the strongest races of her career, and this is an athlete who was runner-up at last year’s NCAA Championships at Oak Hill. She finished in the top 20 in all three races, highlighted by a 12th-place finish after advancing to the semifinals in Saturday’s sprint. If you caught Saturday’s Olympic women’s skiathlon, you likely noticed just how high the level of Swedish women’s skiing is right now.

As I write this, Matthew and I are flying high above the Atlantic, heading back stateside and looking forward to rejoining our GMVS squad before we head down to Oak Hill for the final Eastern Cup of the season. This was my second U18 trip as a coach but my first Super Trip, and I couldn’t speak more highly of the opportunity it provided. The athletes experienced some of the highest-level U18 racing in the world, lived the World Cup lifestyle of multistop travel, and had the chance to be mentored by some of our country’s best senior racers.

The senior athletes deserve a ton of credit for fully embracing the U18s and forming one cohesive team representing the stars and stripes. I also want to thank the National Nordic Foundation for making opportunities like this possible. As we watch this year’s Olympics and (hopefully) see Americans on the podium, we should all feel confident that the next generation is ready to step up, and poised to bring serious firepower to the 2034 Games in Salt Lake City.