By Gavin Kentch
Alayna “four-time Birkie champion” Sonnesyn, the pride of Wayzata High School, highlights several new additions to Midwest training group Team Birkie, the team announced in a press release earlier Friday.
This year’s World Team, née Pro Team, counts Sonnesyn along returning Midwesterners Kevin Bolger (Lakeland Union High School and Nordicwerks) and Zak Ketterson (Jefferson High School and LNR). They are joined by two new additions, Mariel Merlii Pulles and Christopher Kalev. Pulles and Kalev are both recent graduates of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Both UAF skiers grew up in Estonia; they did not ski for a high school in Minnesota or Wisconsin.
Sonnesyn skied collegiately at Vermont, and previously spent six years skiing professionally for SMS T2. She announced her cordial departure from the Stratton-based team earlier this month, writing on Instagram, “Change is hard. Change is good. After plenty of consideration I have decided to part ways with the @smst2team next season. Although I will continue to cheer for the team, it is time for me to try something new.”
Team Birkie’s Continental Team, née Elite Team, this season features Luci Anderson, Gretta Scholtz, and Henry Snider. Anderson graduates from New Hampshire this spring, and Snider from Michigan Tech. Scholtz is a 2024 graduate from Colby College.
Reading this year’s roster against last year’s, it appears that Anabel Needham and Rose Clayton have moved on from the development team, and that Gus Schatzlein and Amanda Kautzer have moved on from the pro team. Lindsay Williams joins Jessica Yeaton and David Norris as Team Ambassadors.
“This is an exciting step forward for Team Birkie, from a competitive perspective,” said Team Birkie Head Coach Chad Salmela in a Friday press release. “The size and quality of this group perfectly blends the vision we have of mentoring developing athletes with a robust, high-quality, world-class training group.”
You can find out more about Team Birkie’s athletes and programming here.
You’re reading this on Nordic Insights, one man’s labor of love dedicated to publicizing American nordic skiing. Last season’s GoFundMe is literally the only reason why I turned a profit in year one of Nordic Insights, and in turn the only reason why there is a year two of Nordic Insights for you to be reading now: I was okay with working for very little money to get this love letter to American cross-country skiing off the ground, but I didn’t want to lose money for the privilege of doing so. If you would like to support what remains a brutally shoestring operation, this season’s GoFundMe may be found here. Thank you for your consideration, and, especially, for reading.
