The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Nordic ski team is getting sick and tired of the wooden medal.

Battling the big boys of the Central Collegiate Ski Association — perennial powers Northern Michigan and Michigan Tech as well as surging St. Scholastica — the Phoenix have found themselves in the fourth-place position numerous times over the last few seasons. With a veteran squad coming off a strong fall training block, UWGB has never been better positioned for a breakthrough.

“I don’t see why we can’t be a top-3 team in our conference,” said head coach Sam Myers, who enters his fourth year at the helm with his entire 2024 roster intact. “We have the resources, we have good skiing here in Green Bay — great training. We just need to start putting it together.”

Myers — a former Phoenix himself — seems to have his alma mater headed in the right direction. While he experienced three different coaches over his five-year career, he’s offered stability as the school’s first full-time coach. That’s helped the team blossom from a three-person squad when he started to a 17-athlete roster heading into the 2024-2025 campaign, which kicks off next month in Cable.

“Over the last few years it’s been a lot of recruiting,” he said. “(It’s) really cool to see our team go from a rebuild to now we’re starting to look for those better results and putting the pressure on other teams in our conference.”

UWGB took fourth at the CCSA conference championships and the Central Regional, finishing behind Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan and St. Scholastica at both. Even though they finished off the podium, the 2023-2024 season included some nice milestones. UWGB had 11 athletes make the CCSA All-Academic team. The Phoenix also hosted their first home event at the Ariens Nordic Center in Brillion. On Jan. 18-19, the CCSA will return to the new state-of-the-art venue for a 15K classic individual start and a 4x5K mixed-gender relay.

But from strictly a performance perspective, it stings a little to fall short of the team’s annual goal of qualifying an athlete to the national meet.

“It’s just really important that we have that representation at the national level,” Myers explained. “We want to get back there.”

On the process side of things, however, Myers witnessed monumental growth in technique and tactics. The relatively warm season also provided additional opportunities to ski on klister, something he said the team doesn’t always experience.

“I think that was a bit of a learning curve as well,” he said. “It was a big learning year for sure. I think that will really help us down the road.” 

Lillian Franzen (25th), Silje Busklein (30th) and Jenna Johnson (32nd) were the top-3 Phoenix in the CCSA points standings, front loaded by NMU and Michigan Tech, which secured the top-8 slots. All three are back and will be joined by incoming freshman Hedda Samuelsson. Myers said the Ostersund, Sweden native has already made an immediate impact and put up impressive time trial and strength test numbers.

“She also obviously brings a unique outlook on skiing just because she’s coming from Sweden,” the coach added. “I think she’s definitely someone to look out for this upcoming season.” 

On the men’s side, the Phoenix are blessed to bring back all of their key contributors, too. Hometown hero Ryan Thieme paced UWGB at most meets. The senior claimed two top-10 finishes, earning second-team All-Region honors and finished as the team’s top skier at CCSA conference meet as well.

C.J. Young — the last UWGB skier to make it to nationals (2022) — will take advantage of his COVID fifth-year to lead an experienced men’s squad that also includes fellow Maple Grove skier Myles Brown, Thieme’s former Bay Port High School teammate, Grant Rocheleau, and the best skier to come out of Moorhead High School (this writer’s alma mater), Zaine Braaten. Noah Erickson, who finished 23rd in the overall points list, is back for his junior year.

“We’ve had a really young team for a few years now,” said Myers, who is enjoying having his current culture controlled by upperclassmen.

“We’ve been practicing all fall, doing a lot of roller skiing, running and bounding and its been really great so far. I can tell that the team has matured since last year,” the coach continued. “We function really well as a team and I do think everyone has kind of leveled up this year.”

Everyone seems fitter and stronger, too. Athlete buy-in to the long game is a big reason.

“When you look at skiing and improvement, you have to trust the process. It’s one of those slow-burn sports,” said Myers who has made the creation and execution of tactical race strategies and mental skills a focus for improvement this year.

“I think year after year we just see this improvement…I think there’s been a lot of growth, and I’m really happy about that,” he said. “It’s not one distinct thing you do that makes you better. It’s that whole entire process and you might not see that until a year later. You’re putting in tons of hours in the summer – you might not see that true improvement until the following race season.” 

Navigating the landscape

The path to a top-3 team finish won’t be easy for UWGB. Neither will punching anyone’s ticket to New Hampshire in March as several familiar foes return to the CCSA.

On the women’s side, Norwegians Henriette Nilssen – who won two races last year — and Victoria Dybwad are back for NMU. So is Lauren McCollor, who just missed a nationals berth because she was the fourth skier on a stacked Wildcats squad.

Michigan Tech lost its top two skiers in Anabel Needham (winner of three of the four freestyle events on the CCSA program last year) and Swedish star Olivia Laven. But the Huskies bring back Synne Maeland-Herheim and added Finnish transfer Julia Junkkala. Freshman Erica Kazin joins the program after placing sixth at the Minnesota state championships and qualifying for Junior Nationals each of the last two prep seasons.

St. Scholastica said goodbye to Mia Case but welcomed a Duluth-raised transfer from NMU in Lily Brown. Greta Leithheiser is the top returner from a points standpoint.

For the men, the Wildcats brings back its national-qualifying trio of junior Luke Fricker and seniors Kristoffer Karsrud and Mathias Haugen. Michigan Tech returns two of their top-3 athletes in Skylar Patten and Colin Freed while Henry Snider moved on to Team Birkie’s continental team. St. Scholastica graduated Chase High but brings back another Steamboat Springs skier in Sumner Cotton as well as Alexander Bertonneau, a former Summit Nordic Ski Club athlete.

Digesting all that, its safe to say finishing on the podium next year would require superb performances from the top-3 Phoenix in both genders.

“(It) requires a lot,” he said. “That’s putting a big race together for all those individuals.”

But excellence is a target worth pursuing.

“We have pretty lofty goals and it might take a couple years to get there, but each year we’re working towards it, we’re getting closer, we’re doing better — we’re seeing glimpses of that,” Myers said. “Hopefully we can get some good results, but ultimately it’s what can we learn along the way and how can we put that to good use and gain that experience for down the road.”

CCSA Points list (2024)

Women

National qualifiers (name, school, total points) {43 total skiers}

• Henriette Nilsen, NMU – 154
• Anabel Needham, MTU – 151
• Victoria Klevan Dybwad, NMU – 151
• Merle Richter, NMU – 148
• Synne Maeland-Herheim, MTU – 130
• Olivia Laven, MTU – 116

UWGB skiers (place, name, points)

• 25, Lillian Franzen – 46
• 30, Silje Busklein – 42
• 32, Jenna Johnson – 23
• 36, Kiera Rota – 11
• 38, Chelsey Johnson – 6
• 39, Grace Nemeth – 3

Men

National qualifiers (name, school, total points) {45 total skiers}

• Luke Fricker, NMU – 154
• Skylar Patten, MTU – 154
• Kristoffer Alm Karsrud, NMU – 151
• Colin Freed, MTU – 132
• Henry Snider, MTU – 124
• Mathias Indrelid-Haugen, NMU – 123

UWGB skiers (place, name, points)

• 15, Ryan Thieme – 82
• 23, Noah Erickson – 49
• 25, C.J. Young – 35
• 30, Derek Waddick – 20
• 31, Grant Rocheleau – 16
• 31, Myles Brown – 16
• 33, Declan Rodefeld – 15
• 35, Zaine Braaten – 7
• 43, Sam Folland – 1

CCSA 2024-2025 calendar

• Dec. 7 – Swedetown season opener – Michigan Tech
• Dec. 12-17 – Gitchi Gami Games Super Tour – Cable, WI
• Jan. 2-7 – U.S. cross-country ski national championships – Anchorage, AK
• Jan. 18-19 – Ariens Nordic CCSA Invite – Brillion, WI
• Feb. 1-2 – College of St. Scholastica CCSA Invite – Duluth, MN
• Feb. 15-16 – CCSA Conference champs – Houghton, MI
• Feb. 22-23 – NCAA Central Regional – Ishpeming, MI
• March 5-8 – NCAA champs – Hanover, NH