Welcome back to this, the latest installment in this year’s preview of the six main professional ski clubs in this country. Previously this fall: Team Birkie.
And now here’s Andy Newell and the crew in Bozeman:
What is the official name of this ski team? Bridger Ski Foundation Nordic Pro Team, also known as “BSF” or “Bridger”
Where is it located? Bozeman, Montana
Who’s the coach? Andy Newell
Who’s on the roster this season? Anders Weiss, Emma Albrecht, Erin Bianco, Graham Houtsma, Max Kluck, Nina Seemann, Noel Keeffe, Reid Goble, Willson Moore
What’s different now from when I did this last year? The rest of this section comes from coach Andy Newell, who is kindly doing my work for me here:
“We had some turnover this year and focused on recruiting some younger athletes with big potential.
“Logan Diekmann is living in Utah now and will do some light ski racing next year. Sarah Goble is retired and currently in law school in Missoula. Hannah Rudd is taking a step back and is currently in nursing school at MSU [Montana State University]. Simon Zink is now targeting marathons with my new team NTS/Enjoy Winter.”
“New additions for 2025:
“Max Kluck: Max grew up in the BSF club and has worked with us in the past. He still has three years left at Utah, but trained with us in the summer and will do several training camps with us. He is an incredibly talented sprinter and has a big engine from cycling racing. Max has a lot of potential to grow over the next few years.
“Nina Seeman: Nina is finishing up at Dartmouth this year and is now part of the Pro Team. Nina has trained with the BSF summer crew for several years so she fits in nicely with our team and is one of the most naturally talented skiers we’ve seen.
“Anders Weiss: Was a guest athlete with the pro team last year and we added him to the full time squad this year. Anders is an accomplished distance racer, placed second in the [Boulder Mountain Tour] last year, and can also sprint well when his engines are firing.
“Emma Albrecht: Just graduated from MSU and has also trained with our summer group the last few years. She also got her first World Cup start in Canmore last year. Emma got a late start to skiing but is one of the most athletic people I have ever seen. Can literally do backflips and no-handed roundoffs from her gymnastics background. I’m really excited to see what she can do as she builds a stronger ski base.
“Max, Nina, and Anders will all be shooting for U23 Worlds spots and the rest of the team will focus on early-season SuperTour races and U.S. Nationals. Erin Bianco will return to the World Cup for Period 1 sprint starts. Noel Keeffe, who ruptured his Achilles last year, has had a long road to recovery and we continue to try to keep him injury-free. He will probably ease into the season more but we know he has the capability to be a World Cup–level sprinter too.”
What were some results highlights of last season? Emma Albrecht made her World Cup debut in Canmore; she started all four races there, with top finishes of 39th and 40th in the two distance races and sprint-qual marks in the 40s. She was also very nice in the mixed zone, and quite unaffected when she spoke honestly about the trials and tribulations of being a 20-something college kid who had had to pay her own way to the races and who was competing with probably the jankiest equipment in the World Cup field. In other races, Albrecht finished 20th and 28th in the sprints at U.S. Nationals, and had a best SuperTour finish of 21st, in Anchorage in December. She had several top-20s on the RMISA circuit.
Erin Bianco was a fellow World Cup debutant last season, placing 35th in the sprint qual in Oberhof in January to open her World Cup career. She had a rough time of things in Europe after that, suffering a heavy crash while racing the mixed relay in Goms and having to sit out the sprint the following day. But she rebounded in Canmore to make her first World Cup sprint heats, finishing 29th, then was 36th through 44th across four more World Cup sprints to close out the season, two of them in Europe. As Newell noted, Bianco will return to Europe for Period 1 World Cup racing; she currently has start rights for the classic sprint in Ruka and the skate sprints in Lillehammer and Davos. In domestic racing, Bianco had four top-ten finishes in national championship races last year.
Reid Goble joined the crew of BSF athletes starting on the World Cup via Nation’s Group spots. He was 44th and 50th in the two distance races in Canmore, then 64th in the interval-start skate race in Minneapolis. Domestic highlights included a strong weekend in the December Besh Cup at Kincaid, where he was second in the 10km skate and third in the classic sprint. Goble had four additional top-12 finishes on the SuperTour.
Graham Houtsma was the fourth team member to dip his toe into the waters of World Cup racing last season. He was 49th and 56th in the distance races in Canmore, and 58th in the classic sprint, making his World Cup debut in an unexpected sprint start off of six hours of sleep. Houtsma had a healthy nine top-10 finishes on the SuperTour or at Nationals, highlighted by fourth in the skate sprint at the Craftsbury SuperTour stop and fifth in the 10km classic at Mt Van Ho. Houtsma was also seventh, fifth American, in the skate sprint at Soldier Hollow.
Nina Seemann made her third World Junior or U23 team in the past four years, racing to 28th in the skate sprint and 34th in the 10km classic in Planica. Other highlights from European racing included OPA Cup finals in Toblach, where she was 24th in the classic sprint and 32nd in the 10km skate. In domestic racing, Seemann was 11th and 17th in the Anchorage SuperTour in December, 11th and 15th at U.S. Nationals in January, and had two fifth-place finishes in EISA racing.
Max Kluck had consistent finishes in the 20s on the RMISA circuit, then broke out for a 10th in the 5km skate at Vail in the Denver Invitational. He had two top-30 finishes in SuperTour sprints, and one top-30 at U.S. Nationals. Willson Moore had four top-30 finishes on the SuperTour, with a best finish of 18th at Mt Van Ho in January. Anders Weiss was second in the Boulder Mountain Tour; eighth, ninth, and eleventh in his three best SuperTour races; and 52nd and 55th in two OPA Cup races in his senior European racing debut.
Noel Keeffe was a presence in SuperTour sprint heats, with best finishes there of 14th and 16th. He was also 14th in the skate sprint at Spring Series in Duluth to close out the season. Keeffe did not begin his race season till late January as he continues working through injury.
What does the coach have to say?
Here’s Andy Newell once more:
“Prep period went well. This year Kaelyn Woods, Aubrey Leclair, and I ran the BSF summer training groups. We had the largest college group yet (25 athletes plus 10 pro team members) and it’s been fun to see Bozeman emerge as the largest training hub for college aged athletes in the country.
“The Pro Team and I traveled to Sweden for a training camp in August. Tunnel time and some rollerski races. We will be in Park City in October for the annual USST camp, and will do a Canmore, Frozen Thunder camp in early/mid November.
“I’m really excited to see what this crew can do this year. Our ultimate mission is to put as many folks on the World Cup as possible. We really value the Bozeman ski community and the greater BSF club. It’s an impressive nonprofit with nearly 700 people in its nordic programs. The number of kids we are getting out on skis in Bozeman is motivating. So in addition to putting Pro Team members on the World Cup we want to establish a sustainable Olympic development hub here for future generations. We are still working on the funding piece which takes time. But what we have in spades and what we value most is amazing team culture, which is EVERYTHING!”
How can you get more information or follow the team? website | Instagram | blog | Newsvlogget (vlog/newsletter)
See also:
“Who Woke Me Up?” podcast Episode 11: Andy Newell Has Seen Some Things
“From Colby to the World Cup” (piece on Erin Bianco from Colby alumni magazine)
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, last season’s GoFundMe may be found here. Thank you for your consideration, and, especially, for reading.
