After enjoying breakout performances at U.S. Nationals, St. Olaf skier Jake Brown and Alaska’s Nichole Bathe have been named the CCSA skiers of the week, the conference announced Wednesday.
Brown turned plenty of heads at Soldier Hollow, topping the CCSA podium and placing 11th overall in Saturday’s 30K mass start skate race against a highly-competitive U.S. Nationals field. The junior from St. Paul, Minnesota also landed among the top ten (seventh) in the region for the 15K classic event as well.
“I think it was probably among the best, if not the single best, performance ever for the St. Olaf program at the national level,” head coach Tom Jorgenson said. “I won’t say I was expecting that 11th place from Jake, but I also wasn’t surprised. His Birkie performance last year showed that he was capable of it. Long skate races are his thing, especially mass starts.”
Bathe, meanwhile, kicked off her CCSA career in style – the freshman led the region and placed 19th overall in the women’s 10K classic at U.S. Nationals. She followed that up with a 36th-place finish (fourth in the CCSA) in the mass start freestyle race, then qualified for the A final and took bronze overall in the classic sprint. Thanks to her performances at U.S. Nationals, Bathe earned a spot on the U.S. team at the World Junior Championships, which kick off Jan. 29 in Italy.
The Telemark SuperTour stop now beckons for the CCSA skiers, as they head to Cable, Wisconsin for the next round of NCAA qualifiers on Jan. 18-19.