Skier of the Week: Stagecoach Classic

Skier of the Week

Stagecoach Classic

After finishing the Elite team race around the west trip we came home to our wonderful Competitive Team. It was soooo amazing to have the whole team together, we miss our peeps so much when they are missing! For this week we had the opportunity to do a one day race with everyone and was it AWESOME! We had a team dinner on Friday night and then left early on Saturday to drive to Devil’s Thumb Ranch in Colorado for the Stagecoach Classic. This race is what Nordic skiing is all about. It starts on the beautiful trails of Devil’s Thumb but soon winds up into trees. At times the trail is just a snowmobile wide with a track. It is truly the best ever!

Despite the idyllic setting there was some serious ski racing to be had as it is a Rocky Mountain Conference Nationals Qualifier and DU and CU both brought some skiers as well. Several athletes had very good races including Mason, who beat all but 1 of the CU skiers, Sam who skied like a beast and Elise who put the DU girls away. However, one athlete rose to the top!

Trevor Willoughby is the future of our team and we can say the future looks bright. He is on a team with some big dogs who have been skiing for more years and are seasoned veterans so he often feels that he is not good enough but that is far from the truth! His race points At this race bettered any of his teammates at the same age. A little patience and another summer of good training and he’ll really start flying!

In addition he has already taken a major step in team leadership by serving as Underclass Representative, actively helping the officers with EVERYTHING and working with our newest member of the team.

Speaking of flying, that’s exactly what he did at the Stagecoach Classic! The path of this race makes it difficult for coaches to see much of the race as there is not access to the course except on skis. Christi skied out about 5km to give feeds and when the lead pack came into sight there was a lot of brown & gold to be seen with the top men, Mason, Sam and Will, right in the mix. What was a little surprising was that Trevor was hanging not far off the back and he looked comfortable and relaxed. We weren’t able to see the rest of the race but that must have been where he stayed because the results showed a 5^th place in RMC and RMC points of ******! The best of his career by a long shot! This was also in a 15km, a distance that he had struggled with earlier.

We believe this finish to be an indication of things to come. Trevor will only improve and ski faster and with his devotion to the team his leadership will shine!

For that reason Trevor Willoughby

ROCKS OUR WORLD!