By Gavin Kentch
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It is fall. Time to check in with the nation’s seven main professional ski clubs in advance of the increasingly imminent race season. First up this year: 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, Emma Reeder, Erin Bianco, Graham Houtsma, Kate Oldham, Luke Allan, Max Kluck, Nina Seemann, Reid Goble, and Willson Moore. Oldham is on the U.S. Ski Team.
What’s different now from when I did this last year? While last season saw several young athletes join the team, there is a bit less movement this year. That said, Noel Keeffe has moved on, while Emma Reeder, Kate Oldham, and Luke Allan all join the team. Reeder is from Avon, Colorado; Oldham is from Carbondale, Colorado; Allan is from Ottawa, Ontario.
What were some results highlights of last season? Erin Bianco spent Period 1 on the World Cup, placing 43rd, 47th, and 47th in three sprint quals, and 16th in a team sprint along with Lauren Jortberg. Back in Europe again for Period 3, she logged an ohsoclose 33rd in a classic sprint qual in Falun, along with making the heats in a team sprint and finishing 15th. Her teammate there was Emma Albrecht, as BSF carried the flag for the American women that day. In domestic racing, Bianco had four top-six finishes on the SuperTour or at U.S. Nationals, including placing as the second, fourth, and fourth American in national championships.
Emma Albrecht similarly raced both at home and abroad, though she spent the lion’s share of the winter racing domestically. She had three World Cup starts in Period 3 [just to grievously editorialize for a second here, consider the expenses incurred by an American athlete trying to make it on the World Cup who has to pay for two-plus weeks’ worth of European lodging and travel in order to race for a total of approximately 20 minutes and 36 seconds; you can donate to BSF here and/or NNF here if you are so moved following said consideration], placing 15th in the Team BSF team sprint mentioned above and 41st and 49th in a pair of classic sprint quals.
On this side of the pond Albrecht was a consistent top-10 finisher on the SuperTour, including third in the classic sprint in Cable, sixth in the 20km classic in Cable, sixth in the 10km skate in Cable, seventh in the 10km skate at Lake Placid, and seventh in the Birkie, which starts in, well, Cable. She was the fifth American in the classic sprint at U.S. Nationals.
Graham Houtsma had a clean sweep of podium positions on the SuperTour across the season: first in a classic sprint in Cable in December, second in a skate sprint in Cable in December, third in a 10km skate in Lake Placid in March. The first of these results was described on this website as coming in “an enthralling all-out sprint” with Adam Witkowski, then of SMS. Other top-ten domestic results included seventh in a 10km skate and tenth in a 20km mass start classic, both in Cable in December. Illness unfortunately curtailed the middle part of Houtsma’s season, but he rebounded by Spring Series with the Lake Placid podium mentioned above.
Max Kluck’s strongest results last season came north of the border at Canadian Nationals, where he was ninth in the classic sprint and 13th in the 10km skate in Canmore in March. Top results stateside were 13th in a skate sprint, 19th in a 10km skate, and 20th in a 7.5km classic, all in either Bozeman or Lake Placid SuperTour stops. Kluck was 23rd in the skate sprint in Anchorage in January that is technically a SuperTour race, but that has the depth of field of the prior three races that week that were all part of U.S. Nationals.
Nina Seemann had a busy and international race schedule last year, as she marked both her final year skiing collegiately with Dartmouth and her first year with the BSF Pro Team.
Across 21 races in three countries, results highlights were probably led by placing as the third American in the classic sprint in Anchorage in January, giving the then-22-year-old her first career national championship podium. Close behind were four top-five finishes on the SuperTour, including third in both a 20km classic and a 10km skate. On the collegiate circuit, Seemann was second in the 10km classic at the Middlebury Carnival, then 8th and 22nd at NCAA Championships. Finally, Seemann made her fourth career World Juniors or U23s team, placing 20th in the classic sprint, 31st in the 20km classic, and 51st in the 10km skate at World U23 Championships in Schilpario.
In other news Seemann also “has several pet ducks,” her Dartmouth bio informs me, a fact that I was delighted to learn. I hope that you are delighted by this datum, too.
Reid Goble had a strong week in Anchorage in January, finishing ninth (seventh American) in the national championship 10km skate and fourth in the SuperTour skate sprint. He had six additional SuperTour top-ten results, in both skate and classic sprint and distance.
The second half of Goble’s season was marked by a Worldloppet intermezzo, as, on successive weekends, he finished 17th in the American Birkebeiner in Wisconsin, third in the Ganghoferlauf Leutasch in Austria, 16th in the Engadin in, well, Engadin, and 95th in the Birkebeinerrennet in Norway. (These are all FIS results; Goble could have been a spot or two lower in the overall standings if he was bested by athletes without a FIS license.) He then returned to the U.S. for Spring Series, with a top finish of eighth (sixth American) in the 40km classic national championship.
Anders Weiss had two top-ten finishes on the SuperTour, with the highwater mark second in a skate sprint in January at home in Bozeman. Weiss was also seventh in another skate sprint in Cable in February. Top SuperTour distance results were 11th and 12th, both in a 10km interval-start skate race.
Willson Moore, in his second season with the team, had three top-20 finishes on the SuperTour, including 14th in a classic sprint in Cable, 15th in a 20km classic in Cable, and 18th in the Birkie, which starts in Cable. His best result at U.S. Nationals was 46th, in both the 20km classic and the classic sprint qual.
Emma Reeder and Luke Allan both join the team this year, both by way of finishing decorated ski careers at Dartmouth. Reeder had six top-15 finishes in EISA racing last season, and a best result at U.S. Nationals of 28th, in the 20km classic. Allan had 10 EISA podiums, half of them wins, then was fourth and sixth at NCAA Championships. He was first, second, and fourth at Canadian Nationals in March, in the 30km classic, classic sprint, and 10km skate, respectively.
Finally, Kate Oldham was also not on the BSF Pro team in 2024/2025, as she finished up her senior year just down the road at Montana State. But her results were coruscating — she was by most measures the breakout American star of last season — so let me say a few things about them here. (If you’re reading this, Emma or Luke, nothing personal with giving you fewer column inches than Kate; I wrote all this out while I had somehow convinced myself that she was affiliated with BSF last season, then was loath to delete it once I had written it. I typically just skim results for athletes who were not with a given team last year.)
In domestic racing, Oldham claimed a breakthrough national championship in the 10km skate in Anchorage in January. In her first race of the season. She was also third American in the 20km classic and fourth American in the classic sprint at U.S. Nationals. She was third overall in the skate sprint in Anchorage that is technically just a SuperTour race but still has a loaded field. (Three months later she was then third on the domestic podium in the national championship version of this event held at SuperTour Finals.) That’s classic, skate, sprint, and distance, bespeaking a well-rounded athlete. In related news, Oldham was the overall SuperTour leader, SuperTour sprint leader, and SuperTour distance leader for 2024/2025.
But that’s not all. She was 19th in her first ever World Cup start, a skate sprint in Engadin in January, moving up to 16th in Cogne a week later in a 10km skate, this in her fourth ever World Cup start. She then made a short trip down the road to Schilpario, placing 10th and 12th at World U23 Championships. Later that month she made her first World Championships start; her 22nd in the skate sprint left her behind only Julia Kern among the four American women in that race.
“I wouldn’t say I’m necessarily keeping the results from last season at the front of my mind,” Oldham recently said in the video linked above. “I think I’m focusing a little more on the process and the team.”
Oldham also said that her favorite post-race meal is french fries. We stan.
What does the coach have to say?
Here’s Newell:
“I’m feeling really good about where the team is at right now,” he recently wrote. “As always I’m most proud of the team environment we have created and how well all the athletes support one another and work together. Both Kate Oldham and Erin Bianco will start the season on World Cup period 1. Luke Allan, our new member, was supposed to start World Cup for Canada but we have changed his plans due to the Canadian Olympic selection process. It feels like we have great depth this year and a team with some notable standouts but also a group of athletes where anyone could be on the national podium on any day which is exciting.”
BSF profiles from prior years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022
How can you get more information or follow the team? website | Instagram | blog | Newsvlogget (vlog/newsletter)
See also:
“Kate Oldham is On the Rise” (profile by USSS press person Leann Bentley)
“Race Ready” podcast (not about BSF per se, but co-hosted by Newell; the show both educates and entertains, and I would be remiss not to mention it here)
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