Craftsbury, VT (October 25, 2020) – Three short days ago skiers from across the region competed in the second rollerski race of the summer – the Lost Nation Roll – on the Craftsbury Outdoor Center‘s new rollerski track. The anticipation of winter racing was palpable and this event was a great way to prepare, especially in light of many pandemic-related changes to our race season.

“It feels great to put a bib, it really gets me excited for the season to come.”
– Julia Kern, SMS T2/US Ski Team

“It’s fun to be here with the team, we get to put on a bib, it is timed, and there are splits. It just feels very real, this is the best way to get ready for the season”
– Jessie Diggins, SMS T2, US Ski Team

Teams competing at the event included the Craftsbury Nordic Ski Club, Craftsbury Green Racing Project, Stratton Mountain School T2 Team, Dartmouth College, Ford Sayre, Mansfield Nordic, and the Fort Kent Outdoor Center. While we would have loved to have more teams and individuals represented at this event and missed your presence, we are grateful that this crew was able to come out for a closely controlled, responsible day of racing.

The newly paved course with a fresh surface made zipping through the Craftsbury hills as fun as it gets. Both the men’s and women’s fields were quite competitive with multiple Olympian and World Cup athletes competing from both biathlon and cross country.

Women’s top-3:
1. Jessie Diggins, SMS T2/US Ski Team
2. Julia Kern, SMS T2, US Ski Team
3. Evelina Sutro, UVM/Craftsbury GRP

Men’s top-3:
1. Adam Martin, Craftsbury GRP
2. Ian Torchia, SMS T2
3. Akeo Maifeld-Carruci, Craftsbury GRP

Full results from Bullitt Timing can be found HERE.

A sweet visual recap courtesy of Bill Harmeyer HERE.

And a wonderful photo gallery from the day by John Lazenby.

Thank you to the Craftsbury Outdoor Center for hosting and to all the staff, athletes, volunteers, and coaches who made this event possible by following all necessary safety measures.

“Bib & Chips”
Available now on SkiReg.com
Closes December 1st.

NENSA and our venues are working tirelessly to produce a schedule of high level races that will keep competitors, officials and volunteers safe during the COVID pandemic.  As per our Eastern Cup COVID-19 Contingencies we identified a system that will allow for touchless registration and timing systems.  Competitors will purchase a race bib and rent and assigned timing chip.  Each competitor’s bib and chip will follow them throughout the season as a NENSA, U.S. Ski and Snowboard and/or FIS number does.  This effectively eliminates the need for typical registration / bib pick-up – eliminating a touch and gathering points at events.  This purchase will also help subsidize the cost of vetting participants: athletes, coaches, officials, volunteers – including health screenings and adherence to state and county travel guidelines.

These bibs and chips will be used exclusively for the FIS competitions hosted at Craftsbury and all Eastern Cups.  In order to compete in these events, you need to purchase your bib (you will keep it at end of the season) and rent your Zone4 chip (returned at your final start of the year).  Eastern Cup fields (Eastern Regional Qualifiers) will have unlimited field size. FIS races at Craftsbury will be limited to racers with current FIS licenses and the field size is currently capped at 120 participants.  If you intend to race in any of these races you need to purchase your NENSA bib and rent a chip.

Bib purchase and Chip rental ends on December 1st.  At this point competitors will be assigned bibs based on List 10 of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard National Ranking List.  Bibs will be distributed by Club / individually by mail or picked up at the Craftsbury Season Opener.

Craftsbury Season Opener #1 – December 5th

Craftsbury Season Opener #2 – December 12th

Eastern Cup Opener – Craftsbury – December 19th *(competitors race on 19th or 20th)

Eastern Cup Opener – Quarry Road – December 20th *(competitors race on 19th or 20th)

Craftsbury Race Into The New Year – January 2nd

Sugarloaf Eastern States Cup – January 23-24

Craftsbury Rodrigues Cup – January 30th

Gunstock Eastern Cup – February 6-7

Eastern Cup Finals – February 20-21

During a productive Junior Committee Meeting, the decision was officially made to move to a state-based model for U16 and Eastern High School Championships. Many factors contributed to this decision including a desire for as many skiers as possible to be able to partake. NENSA will work with each state to host championship events that fits safely within their state’s COVID guidelines. Plans are in the works for the exact format of these events but will likely include a unique challenge event in addition to racing, with metrics that facilitate competition between the states.  We are actively working towards a concrete plan within this new structure and we appreciate your patience and understanding as we all navigate this new world. Our goal is to offer fun, inclusive, and, above all, safe events this season. We will keep you posted as our planning progresses and we have more details to share!

NENSA is excited to be partnering again with Swix! This year Swix is offering discounted outerwear (training jacket, puffy coat, and training pants) to all NENSA-affiliated BKL Clubs. If your club is interested, please email Kelley Roche at [email protected] so she can get an online shop set up for you. Online club shops will be open for a few weeks for club members to place orders as supplies last. One shipment per club will then be sent to a club coach who will distribute the gear. All items will be embroidered with the NENSA logo. Reach out soon if you want orders to arrive before the holidays!

NENSA recently hosted our fall Coaches Symposium with both in-person and virtual program offerings that allowed over 100 coaches from far reaching areas of New England and beyond to engage with each other and learn from our knowledgeable presenters, clinicians, and panelists.

All of our presentations are now available to our community on NENSA’s YouTube.  Please take the time to subscribe to our channel as we continue to build content on this platform.

Before the Symposium, Stratton and Green Mountain Valley School teams coordinated with NENSA to create a fast XCX course including two bicycle ramps and lots of sweeping corners.  Seventeen athletes wore the NENSA bibs for the first time since March and helped us refine and practice safety procedures.  You can find results HERE and course video HERE.

The in-person clinic took place in southern Vermont at the Ball Mountain Dam and Stratton Mountain School, and featured classic and skate technique progressions that wrapped up with some run throughs of the Rollerski Ramps! SMS coach Alex Jospe and NENSA’s Youth and Introductory Program Director, Kait Miller, headed up with classic portion of the clinic while NENSA’s Competitive Program Director, Justin Beckwith ,and SMS T2 Athlete Bill Harmeyer ran the skate portion. Virtual offerings included presentations, webinar footage from the Equinar Junior Camp in Norway, and discussions with guest panelists, NENSA staff, and U.S. Ski & Snowboard representatives.

The virtual presentations kicked off Saturday evening with the notoriously speedy Ludvig Jensen sharing his knowledge and experience live from Norway. Next we learned about Injury Presentation, Strength, and Mobility by watching some webinar footage from the Norwegian Junior Camp featuring a discussion with Doctor Petter Soerensen along with demonstrated exercises. We also heard from U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s Cross Country Sport Development Manager Bryan Fish and enjoyed an informative discussion with experienced Physical Therapists Pete Dickinson and Brie Beckwith. The evening wrapped up with a recorded presentation on The Female Skier by Guro Stroem Solli, a current researcher and former Norwegian National team member. This presentation was followed up with an enlightening experience-based discussion led by coaches Maria Stuber and Alex Jospe as well as current US National Team Biathlete, Kelsey Dickinson. 

Sunday’s virtual programming consisted of three presentations beginning with An Overview of L100 Coaching Certification: Content and Process with U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s XC Sport Coordinator, Adam St. Pierre. Next up we heard from Bryan Fish about Building Comprehensive Community & Club Engagement & FAQ’s about North American Fluoro Free Policy. The symposium wrapped up with a presentation from Kait Miller on BKL Philosophy and Long Term Athlete Development with a special focus on mindfully coaching in a pandemic.

We are grateful to all our panelists, presenters, clinicians, and attendees for taking the time and energy to make this symposium a fantastic learning experience for all involved! Stay tuned for updates about potential U.S. Ski & Snowboard L100 certification opportunities and NENSA’s new L50 Regional Coaches Education Certification that is currently in the works.

The decision has been made with the wonderful folks at Quarry Road Trails and the Quarry Road Ski Club that the BKL Festival will move to a regional model of operation for 2021. Our goal with the BKL Festival is for our young skiers to enjoy a fun, safe, and inclusive capstone to their winter season, and we believe this can be best achieved through a district/state-based model where each region hosts a Mini-Festival.

NENSA will work with our dedicated BKL District Chairs and Leaders in each state or region to host a Mini-Fest event that fits safely within their state or region’s COVID guidelines. Goody bags and graduation certificates will be mailed to District Chairs for distribution. More information will be available at the beginning of November. In the meantime, stay tuned for the upcoming 2021 Mini-Fest theme announcement! We appreciate your flexibility and understanding with this change.

NENSA will be releasing Event Host Guidelines and BKL Club Best Practice Recommendations soon. You can read through our current COVID Considerations and Event Contingency Plans HERE.

Come experience this new teaching phenomenon IN-PERSON tomorrow at Stratton at our technique clinic and Coaches Symposium! 3 Hrs. left to register!

REGISTER HERE

THIS WEEKEND!

NENSA would like to thank Marty & Kathy Hall for the wonderful opportunity they have given to NENSA, and our ski community, with the Marty & Kathy Hall $10k Challenge~ The Hall “Mark of Excellence” Award!  Not only have they helped NENSA financially with a recent $10k donation, but they are also offering this additional $10k Challenge, which will support both individual athletes and the top school or club.  Their generosity will add a great challenge aspect to our competitions this year!

The $10k Challenge is split into two $5k awards ~ spreading their generosity over more programs and athletes:

#1:  $5000 will be awarded to the top school or club in New England based on the top 20 overall finishes (20 male & 20 female) for the App Gap Challenge and Lost Nation Roll Rollerski races, four Eastern Cup weekends, and select Popular Races.  At the end of the season, the school or club with the most points will be awarded $5000 by the Hall’s.

#2:  $5000 will be used for FIS podiums – NENSA will be supporting a robust FIS schedule this season and, thanks to the Halls, awarding cash prizes to top finishers similar to past U.S. & Snowboard SuperTour events and current Nordique Canada FIS events. For the first four FIS races, December – January, this Challenge will offer $1250 per race which will pay out for podiums ($300/$200/$150 per gender).  While there is no national SuperTour series this winter, the Hall Challenge will offer our top New England based athletes much deserved monetary awards this season.

In the words of Marty and Kathy, “It is with great pride that we give these dollars to join the fray and journey to international success—we need help though—please join the battle!”  Thank you again to the Halls for these very generous donations!

If anyone else is interested in supporting NENSA, and our programing this winter and beyond, please contact Amie Smith, Executive Director, at [email protected] or 781-864-0545.

NENSA just wrapped up a hybrid App Gap Challenge with invitational in-person and all-inclusive virtual components.  This rollerski competition was important for both the competitors and NENSA as we start to implement protocols of how our winter events will be conducted.  Athletes, parents and coaches were energized by and thankful for this iconic event.  Due to the event’s success and the safety compliance of all involved, we look forward to hosting several more rollerski events this fall – stay tuned!  As part of our strategy to continue fostering the competitive and social components of our programs during this health crisis, we were happy to support a strong showing of virtual competitors of all ages who were not able to physically attend – this model will remain in place until we are no longer in a pandemic.

Link to Event Video (edited by Bill Harmeyer, SMS T2)

For the in-person event, we had a total of 68 skiers from seven local teams race the 7.25k Classic App Gap Invitational over the course of 5 days within their team units. A silver lining to small teams racing over the course of a week was that all competitors competed on matched Swenor rollerskis. We had competitors from 5 local junior clubs – Stratton Mountain School (SMS), Green Mountain Vally School (GMVS), Ford Sayre, Craftsbury Nordic, and Mansfield Nordic – in addition to two professional teams – the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) and the Stratton Mountain School T2 (SMS T2) team. It was heartening and inspiring to witness the energy, excitement, and care that New England’s top junior athletes, World Cup competitors, Olympians, coaches, and family members alike brought to the event. We are grateful to everyone for carefully following COVID guidelines and helping us put on a fun and safe event.

Olympian and World Cup medalist Sophie Caldwell of SMS T2 captured the win on the open women’s side. She was closely followed by her teammates Katherine Ogden and Alayna Sonnesyn in second and third respectively. In the open men’s race, Ian Torchia, also of SMS T2, took a decisive win over CGRP’s Adam Martin. Craftsbury junior Finn Sweet had an impressive race rounding out the podium in third. For the junior women, Craftsbury’s Nina Seeman had a dominating performance taking the win by almost two minutes over her teammate Quincy Massey-Bierman in second. Hattie Barker of Mansfield Nordic placed third despite battling some wet weather on her way up the Gap. In the junior men’s race, Finn Sweet was followed by Charles Martell of Mansfield Nordic in second and SMS’s Fin Bailey in third.

Full App Gap Invitational Results HERE.

Our Virtual Challenge consisted of three categories: Climb in Time (total vertical in 30mins – 15mins for BKL), Climb over Distance (total vertical over 7.5k – 2k for BKL), and Climb the Whole Time (total vertical in two weeks). We also added a category that meshed all results across the hybrid event by comparing everyone’s average vertical feet per minute.

In the Climb in Time event, Mansfield Nordic’s Tristen Adie took the win climbing 1271 vertical feet. HSC Biathlon’s Marvin Wang placed second overall, and first for the men, ascending a total of 1216 vertical feet. In the Climb over Distance event, EMBK’s Leigh Neideck took the win in the women’s race and the BKL race climbing 185 vertical feet. On the men’s side, NWVE’s Chris Burnham outstripped the rest of the field climbing a total of 3006 vertical feet. Our impressive Climb the Whole Time winner is Peru Nordic’ Peter Minde whole climbed 10,771 vertical feet!

Full App Gap Virtual Challenge results HERE.

Thank you to our primary sponsors for this event: EnjoyWinter, Burkie and Cabot Cheese.

Top Places and Prizes:

Open Women
1) Sophie Caldwell – SMS T2 – M1 – Cabot Vintage Cheddar / Burkie Insulated Fuel Belt Case
2) Katherine Ogden – SMS T2 – SR – Burkie Insulated Fuel Belt Case
3) Alayna Sonnesyn – SMS T2 – SR – Burkie Insulated Fuel Belt Case

Open Men
1) Ian Torchia – SMS T2 – SR – Cabot Vintage Cheddar / Burkie Insulated Fuel Belt Case
2) Adam Martin – CGRP – SR – Burkie Insulated Fuel Belt Case
3) Finn Sweet – Craftsbury – U20 – Burkie Insulated Fuel Belt Case

Junior Women
1) Nina Seemann – Craftsbury – U20 – Anti-Freeze SuperPuff with NENSA logo
2) Quincy Massey-Bierman – Craftsbury – U18 – “2020 Happened” App Gap T
3) Hattie Barker – Mansfield Nordic – U18 – “2020 Happened” App Gap T

Junior Men
1) Finn Sweet – Craftsbury – U20 – Anti-Freeze SuperPuff with NENSA logo
2) Charles Martell – Mansfield Nordic – U20 – “2020 Happened” App Gap T
3) Fin Bailey – SMS – U16 – “2020 Happened” App Gap T

Upcoming Rollerski Races to come – please note The Maine Event is already on the calendar for October, 25th.

 

We are very excited to announce that App Gap 2020 is happening! It will come as no surprise to anyone that the format will be quite different than in previous years to ensure safety during this global pandemic. App Gap 2020 will take place between Aug 22 and 30 with multiple small physically distant in-person invitational rollerski races up the Gap for local clubs and a virtual event that is open to our whole NENSA community. While we would love to host an in-person App Gap for everyone, we simply cannot safely do that in this environment and we want our summer/fall events to be safe and successful so we can provide more opportunities this winter. We appreciate your understanding and hope you are excited to compete in the Virtual App Gap Challenge. There will, of course, be sweet prizes and the nature of a virtual event means anyone can participate regardless of their location! There are three virtual rollerski participation categories and we will be rolling out a team competition within these categories as well so stay tuned!

Climb in Time (single effort): how much elevation can you gain in 30mins (15mins for BKL)?
Climb over Distance (single effort): how much elevation can you gain over 7.5k (2k for BKL)?
Climb the Whole Time (multiple efforts): how much total elevation can you climb between Aug 22 and 30? Can you climb Mt. Everest (29,029ft)?! 

Register for the Virtual App Gap here.

Current NENSA members get a discount on registration and this will be our first event that we utilize SkiReg’s data entry and leaderboard platform! We hope that wherever you are, you can get out on your rollerskis and start climbing! Please reach out to [email protected] with questions.

AWARDS: Stay tuned to @nensa_nordic and Facebook for updates on Awards.  Prizes for all ages from Cabot Creamery, EnjoyWinter (Swenor, Bliz, and Anti-Freeze Face Tape), Swix, and more.