Nordic Bobcats race for success over break

The Bobcat Nordic team had a successful series of races over winter break at the WinterStart Supertour in Anchorage, Alaska, as well as at the U.S. National Championships in Soldier’s Hollow, Utah. The Supertour is recognized by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) as the highest level of competition in North America. The Supertour and U.S. Nationals also functioned this year as the qualifier for the North American World Cup circuit, held in Canmore, Alberta, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Minnesota Loppet Cup is the first World Cup event scheduled for the U.S. since 2020 when it was canceled due to COVID-19. Before that, the last Nordic World Cup hosted on U.S. soil was in 2001.

Kincaid Park, located on a peninsula surrounded by icebergs in Anchorage, is a former nuclear missile defense storage ground turned Nordic ski venue. It is also one of the home race venues for about a quarter of the Bobcat Nordic Team, where they pulled off some fairly impressive results during Period One of the North American Supertour WinterStart in mid-Dec. of 2023. Period One of the Supertour is a week-long series of four races.

Both the Supertour and U.S. Nationals are not NCAA-sanctioned races, but the Bobcat team still travels to the races and provides support for athletes. 

Nordic skiing consists of three main race types: sprints, interval starts and mass starts. In sprint races, the top 30 finishers in the qualifier move onto a series of bracket-style heats, where the top two in each heat advance to the next bracket. Mass and interval start races are typically distance races. In a mass start, the entire field starts at the same time, and in an interval start, skiers start at 15 to 30-second intervals.

Biomedical engineering junior Joel Power of Anchorage said about racing on his home turf, “It feels amazing. Reconnecting with this community who’s done so much for me as a ski racer is pretty sweet. Having so many people call your name and seeing all your friends from home, it’s pretty awesome.”

It seems like the home crowds were an advantage for the ‘Cats. The Bobcat Women started the week out strong with three racers —Emma Albrecht, Katey Houser and Rosie Whittington Evans— all finishing in the top 30 for the freestyle sprint on Dec. 12. Florian Winker, Kai Meyers, Joel Power and Emma Albrecht all earned top 30 places in the Dec. 13 classic interval start. Albrecht and Houser placed 22nd and 29th, respectively, in the classic sprint on Saturday, Dec. 16. Winker earned a top 30 finish in the men’s 10K mass start freestyle on Sunday, and Albrecht, Houser and Whittington Evans all earned top 30s in the Women’s 10k race. 

The 13 top 30 finishes prepared the Bobcats for their fantastic showing at U.S. Nationals in Soldier’s Hollow, UT the week of Jan. 1. Tilde Bångman took first in the Jan. 2 10K classic and fifth in the freestyle sprint on Jan. 4. Various other Bobcat skiers earned spots in various top 30s over the week of racing. 

As a result of her finishes in the Anchorage WinterStart Supertour, Albrecht was named to the U.S. team start list for the Canmore World Cup, held Feb. 9-13, 2024. Albrecht is a graduate student in the biological sciences program from Stillwater, MN.

You can catch the Bobcat Nordic skiers at the Crosscut Ski Area near Bozeman for the RMISA championships and NCAA qualifiers Feb. 23-25.