It was a season of extremes. Our athletes skied in -30F temps while training under a half-light November Yukon sun and melted when temps hit the mid 60’s in New England during our March Madness NCAA Championships and Nor Am Finals. Finding any middle ground? Well, that was a challenge. And while Anchorage experienced its lowest snow year in the history of record-keeping, our student athletes persevered. Training on short man-made strips of snow, the Alpiners ran a lot of sprint slalom while our Nordic group got used to the same scenery lapping the Kincaid white carousel.
While not ideal, the formula was potent enough to produce some pretty great results during the regular season. Ella Bromeé had four slalom podiums, Carmen Nielssen had a slalom podum and five top ten results, Ainsley Proffit put a gritty 4th place slalom finish together, Ashleigh Alexander carved up three top 10 giant slalom races and a 10th place slalom finish to boot, while Olivia Carrier had a very strong showing in her first year back from injury. Our Alpine guys battled hard all year. Jan Ronner led the charge with four top ten slalom results including a 4th place at Utah’s Olympic Park.
Arcing. Ashleigh. Alexander.
Run one of the Slalom during the Denver Invitational at Loveland Ski Area on January 7th, 2025 in Georgetown, Colorado.
On the Nordic side, Beth Granstrom had two top 10’s, Astrid Stav produced another pair, and the women’s team pushed into the top 15 all season long. Derek Dueling led the men’s group with six top 10 regular season finishes, Peter Hinds had three, Matt Seline yielded a pair, and Erling Bjoernstad showed some pace in the sprint races with three top tens. Garrett Siever, Murphy Kimball, and Corbin Carpenter all worked into the top group throughout the season making good progress.
With snow more or less absent from Alaska’s lower elevations, hosting the NCAA Western Regional Championships at home carried a giant question mark into late January. Luckily, we had just enough of a window for some snowmaking magic at Alyeska and Kincaid to put our venues together prior to the snow control deadline. Races on!
But as one would guess, our perfect cold and clear weather didn’t last. We combated the warm temps and rain by throwing 4.2 tons of salt over five days. It may have been wet at times, but we had the best racing surface of the season right here at sea level. When the salt dust had settled, the Seawolves qualified a group of 10 very talented athletes to the National Championships hosted by Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
We wrapped up the college season with five All-American finishes and an Elite 90 trophy, awarded to Carmen Nielssen for having the highest GPA over the most credits (a perfect 4.0 over three years) of all 148 championship competitors from 25 schools. Carmen also surprised everyone but herself with two top ten All American performances including a 30-place move-up – starting last out of the gate and catapulting to a 4th place GS finish. Corbin Carpenter joined the All-American party in the Men’s 7.5K Classic with a big 10th place result, along with Ella Bromeé’s 6th place women’s slalom finish and Jan Ronner’s 9th overall in the men’s slalom.
Corbin Carpenter. Movin’ on up.
Our program closed out 2025 with a respectable 7th place team finish after all four events were competed at the NCAA National Championships. Describing the field of 148 men’s and women’s Alpine and Nordic skiers as impressive would be quite the understatement. Many of these athletes are ranked among the top 100 in the world and have been competing at the World Cup and Olympic level. To be at this championship is an honor in itself. And while a top 10 national finish is a solid accomplishment, our goal is stand on top of the podium as the first DII school to win a team title amongst the big D1 programs. We’re close, and next year starts right now.
Graduating Senior Caeden Carruthers.
Winter this year – was limited to the month of November.