2015 Utah Skiing Season Outlook

12/30/2014 12:00 AM | Skiing

Dec. 30, 2014

Utah Athletics on Twitter
Utah Athletics on Facebook
Utah Athletics on YouTube
Utah Athletics on Instagram

Utah Skiing on Facebook
Utah Skiing on Twitter

The Utah ski team looks to have a strong 2015 campaign, returning seven All-Americans and 10 skiers who competed in last year's NCAA Championships in addition to several recruits with a wealth of international experience. Director of Skiing Kevin Sweeney is excited about the upcoming season.

"I believe we have an extremely competitive team," Sweeney said. "We have a lot of returning athletes, and those athletes have seen success but have also seen some harder times. This is an amazingly mature group. They are taking care of business. We have returning athletes in each discipline. We also had a very successful recruiting period and have attracted some high-level international skiers. We're extremely excited to have this level of talent come here. It says a lot about our program and the opportunities we are presenting to recruits."

Returning All-Americans include Sloan Storey and Niklas Persson in nordic and Chloe Fausa, Ana Kobal, Kristiina Rove, Joergen Brath and Andy Trow in alpine.

Incoming recruits include 2014 Olympians Dominic Demschar (alpine, Australia) and Veronika Mayerhofer (nordic, Austria). Nick Hendrickson spent five years with the U.S. Nordic Combined team.

"There will be some tremendous intersquad competition to see who will end up going to NCAA's," Sweeney said. "Obviously that is a great situation to be in, but it's also got to be managed. I do think we have some title contenders in this squad, and knock on wood that at the championships those pieces fall in place. I think we have skiers at that level, so that is very exciting to think about. Certainly what we are focusing on is the championship, there is no question about that.

"We are putting up some great numbers in regards to our overall fitness. We have taken full advantage of our sport scientist, and the strength and conditioning is the best I have ever seen it. I feel really good about the continuity of the entire team. I think both alpine and nordic have had a lot of fun together. We've had some training together, mixing it up, and speed and agility training - that's been very successful. I don't feel like I'm on my heels trying to play catch up or trying to fix problems."

Sweeney is encouraged by what he has seen during the fall training period.

"We've had a really successful fall training period," Sweeney said. "We had relatively few injuries and we've had some very decent rehabs from some previous injuries. The fall training period, in the big picture, is very short, and it's intense, and I think we've come through it very well. Things will kick off in January and we know that's when we need to start to be fast."

Post by Utah Ski Team.

Nordic

"I'm looking forward to having an experienced team this year," Utah nordic head coach Abi Holt said. "I think some of the returning athletes are finding their confidence in their sense of leadership on the team, which I think helps for the incoming athletes and for the team presence and feel. I'd say we are a more confident team this year.

"Sloan [Storey] and Niklas [Persson] are captains this year. They are both All-Americans, they have a lot of RMISA experience. Both are definitely leading the charge through fall training and the push into the winter and setting the tone for both fun and wanting to win some races."

Two-time All-American Persson leads the men's side, which returns every skier from last season. He finished third in the 10-km classical last year at the NCAA Championships and earned his first career win at the Pat Miller Invitational in the 15-km classic. Person has six career top-5 finishes and 19 career top 10's.

Junior Noe Bellet and sophomore Kevin Bolger also represented the Utes at the NCAA Championships last year. Bellet's best finish last year was second in the 10-km freestyle at Montana State, and the two-time NCAA qualifier has four career top-5 finishes. Bolger had three top 10 finishes during his freshman campaign, including a fourth-place run in the 15-km classical at the Pat Miller Invite.

Sophomore Oscar Ivars served as an NCAA alternate in his first season, finishing in the top four three times during the year. He finished second in the 15-km classic at the Pat Miller Invite. Junior Tucker McCrerey qualified for NCAA's in 2013 and has eight career top-15 finishes.

Joining this experienced group is Hendrickson, a five-year member of the U.S. Nordic Combined Team. He was a member of the 2011 World Championship team and competed at the World Junior Championships from 2007-11.

For the women, Storey is a three-time All-American, earning honors in both the 15-km free and 5-km classical in 2014. She recorded a pair of second-place finishes last year, in the 10-km classic at the Pat Miller Invitational and the 5-km classic at the RMISA Championship, and has four career top-5 finishes.

Sophomore Anna-Lena Heynen also represented Utah at the NCAA Championships last year. She had four top-10 finishes, including a third-place run in the 10-km classic at the Pat Miller Invite. Sophomore Josefin Nilsson, an NCAA alternate last year, had two top-10 finishes during her freshman campaign with a season-best fifth in the 5-km classic at the Colorado Invite.

Newcomer Mayerhofer has been on the Austrian ski team since 2006, and finished 13th in the 4x5-km relay with Austria at the 2014 Olympics. Natalia Muller, who is from Switzerland, spent last season going to school and racing in Norway. She made her first World Cup start at Davos in 2013, and competed at the World University Games year.

"One of the things unique about the women is that we have five women from five different countries, so they all bring a slightly unique and interesting perspective, which is a cool thing," Holt Said. "One of the advantages of having such an international team is that I can pull the best of each of their knowledge bases and they are all working together well."

Post by Utah Ski Team.

Alpine

"The strength of our team this year is the maturity of the team and the work ethic that we have," Utah alpine head coach Jaka Korencan said. "On top of that, we have unbelievable team dynamics. The team gets along really well and they are really pushing each other, and I think that everyone is getting better because of that. We spent the whole month of November in Colorado and we were really surprised how well we were skiing. It's really promising. We have an experienced team, and no matter what year they are on the team, they are all extremely mature. They are passionate about the sport and willing to work extremely hard both academically and athletically. They are doing extremely well in school as well. It's great to see. We miss so much classroom time and to see many them getting 4.0's is unbelievable."

The women's alpine team is stacked with talent, with three All-Americans returning in Fausa, Rove and Kobal. Fausa finished third in the giant slalom at NCAA's and had four podium finishes throughout the year. She also competed in NorAm Cup races and finished second in the giant slalom standings. Fausa starts the season ranked 56th in the world in the GS. Rove is a two-time All-American, earning honors in the giant slalom each of the past two years. The 2014 RMISA women's alpine MVP has two career victories and eight career podium finishes. Kobal is also a two-time All-American, earning honors in both the slalom and GS in 2013. She has six career podium finishes.

Junior Teagen Palmer and sophomore Lauren Samuels both served as alternates for NCAA's last season. Palmer's best finish of the season last year was 10th in the GS at the Colorado Invite, and she has two top-15 finishes. Samuels had five top-15 finishes with a top finish of sixth in the giant slalom at the Montana State Invite.

Freshman Nora Eide will begin her first season after redshirting last year. The daughter of former Ute All-American Bente Dahlum, Eide had three giant slalom FIS victories in 2013.

For the men, two of three All-Americans return in Trow and Brath. Trow earned All-America honors in the slalom in both 2013 and 2014. He has four career top-5 and 10 career top-10 finishes with one victory (RMISA slalom qualifier, 2013). Brath finished 10th in the giant slalom at NCAA's in his first season last year, earning four top-10 finishes along the way.

Junior Tim Hribar returns after redshirting with an injury last year. He served as an alternate at NCAA's in 2012 and 2013 and has four career top-10 finishes.

Three Utes join the men's alpine team - Demschar, Sasha Zaitsoff (Canada) and Endre Bjertness (Norway). In addition to competing in the 2014 Olympics, Demschar is a two-time competitor at the FIS Junior World Ski Championships (2012, 2014). Zaitsoff, who will not compete this year due to injury, had a pair of podium finishes during last year's NorAm Cup series and competed at the 2013 World Championships in Austria. He was ranked in the top 75 in the world in the slalom to start the year before the injury. Bjertness was third in the combined at the 2013 FIS Junior World Championships, finishing eighth in both the downhill and slalom.