Madison Nordic Ski Club is thrilled to be sending four junior skiers to US Junior National Championships in Soldier Hollow, Utah and two skiers to the Canadian National Championships in Canmore, Alberta over the next two weeks. All of the skiers competed this winter in the Central Cross Country Skiing Junior Cup series where top athletes from the central region race to earn a place on the Central Cross Country Skiing Great Lakes Team.
Madnorski Head Coach Zach LaFond Hudson said it was a great season despite the little to no snow we had in Madison. These skiers train all year round with trail running, hill bounding, functional strength training, and of course rollerskiing–maybe some of you have seen this group on the Capital City Trail on rollerskis! Many of these athletes also build fitness with other sports like cross country running in the fall and track in the spring. The ski season is short and they need to be ready in early December to compete. Skiers can’t wait until there is snow to get fit! “Skiers are made in the summer” as the saying goes. During the season, the team trained almost exclusively on machine-made snow at CXC Trails in Middleton.
All of these athletes have worked very hard to train for this final competition and we wish them all the best in their races. The National Championships have a series of races over a week with rest days sprinkled in between. They will be challenged with long distance races, sprint racing, mass start races, individual start/time trial racing, and team relays. They will do both classic and skate techniques throughout the week. Varying snow conditions and racing at altitude like at Soldier Hollow will further test these athletes. Please cheer on our Madison skiers as they compete in the next couple of weeks. Below are some photos as well as a few thoughts from these athletes as they approach their final competition of the season.
Sasha Guseva, US Junior Nationals Great Lakes Team, U16 Female
Sasha Guseva, an eighth grader at Badger Ridge Middle School in Verona, says she is very excited to race at Junior Nationals. Being selected on a regional Great Lakes team with other skiers from clubs in Wisconsin and Michigan is quite an honor. During the season, skiers get to know one another and they become ski friends. Sasha says she looks forward to “Getting the chance to compete at a higher level and at altitude (in Utah) with friends! And just getting to know everyone better in our free time and make memories.” Sasha described her best race this season as one where “everything just felt right, the weather, conditions, my mood. It all just fit together like a puzzle, it was an amazing experience!”
Kyra Vander Zanden, US Junior Nationals Great Lakes Team, U16 Female
Kyra Vander Zanden is a ninth grader at Madison East High School. She enjoyed running cross country in the fall on the high school team and was eager to race this winter. The photo above shows Kyra racing at the Wisconsin State Spring Championships at the Ariens Nordic Center in Brillion, WI. Most of the races our athletes did was on machine-made snow loops like the one they have at Ariens Nordic Center. Kyra however said her best race was the one in Houghton Michigan at the Michigan Tech Trails which had natural snow. She said “It was a 7.5k skate race and very hilly with very mushy conditions (fresh snow), but I feel like I’m good at pushing through tough conditions and I feel like I’m good at pacing myself on longer races. At this point, I prefer longer races because I have time to be strategic during the race and I have a high pain tolerance.” (Photo credit: Ben Hamilton)
Niels Stringer, US Junior Nationals Great Lakes Team, U16 Male
Niels Stringer is a ninth grader at East Madison High School. Niels has great self discipline and trains in Michigan at a family retreat during most of the summer. This is Niels’ second time to US Junior National Championships. Last year he competed in Lake Placid, New York as part of the Great Lakes team. Niels says “I am very excited to get the chance to race out west at Junior Nationals in Soldier Hollow. I am looking forward to learning more about racing at a higher level and am hoping that I can achieve some solid results.”
Sophia Locher, Canadian Nationals Great Lake Team, U18, Female
Sophia Locher is a junior at Madison West High School. She is a comitted athete as well as a certified coach from US Ski and Snowboard and teaches the Madnorski trail kids program when she is not training with the Madnorski team. Sophia felt like her best race of the season was up at the Birkie trails for the Wisconsin State Distance Championship race in February. “I felt the best about my skate race at state distance because I met all of my goals and kept pushing even though conditions weren’t ideal. It was also super fun racing in the (natural) snow and was a big step up from what it was like last year!” (Photo credit: Kathy Collins)
Marlo Hunter, Canadian Nationals Great Lake Team, U16 Male
Marlo Hunter is an avid biker, rollerskier & skier, and took up sailing this past summer. Marlo is known to be the teammate who rollerskis (or bikes with rollerskis on board) to team rollerski practice — adding significant distance to the regular training planned! Marlo says, “The race I felt best about this season was my final JNQ in Houghton. It was classic individual 5k and I needed a good result to get to Canadian Nationals. I was able to push through and got 7th place on the day!” He adds, “This will be the first International ski race I’ve down so I am really excited!” (Photo credit: Chris Schmidt, Studio 13 https://photos.xmatic.com/Nordic/2025-CCSA-CHAMPS-GLD-CUP)
Carla Schwitters, US Junior Nationals Great Lakes Team, U20 Female
Carla Schwitters graduated last year from high school and skied with the Ice Age Nordic/Madnorski program during her high school years. Carla’s Ice Age coaches Dale Fanney and Don Fariss have provided coaching to Carla throughout her ski career and has seen Carla train hard in the off season with rollerskiing and weight training. This past winter, she still was involved with the Juniors program, traveling with the team to Ironwood in December, and working as a volunteer to help with the DEVO training group. Carla decided she wanted to race the CXC Cup races this winter and had great success qualifiying as a U20 for the US Junior National Championships! Way to go Carla!!
Gratitude to their Coaches
All these skiers greatly appreciated the support and dedication from their Madnorski Coaches over the past years. A special shout out to Head Coach Zach LaFond Hudson who for the past two years worked with them and gave them support at the qualifying races both this season and last season with wax support and race support. Mention also goes to the stellar team of assistant and volunteer coaches as well as former Madnorski Head Coaches Jacob Huseby, Jay Sween, Chris Pappathopolous and Stacey Marion. Together, they all built a love and dedication to the sport of Nordic Skiing.