Anchorage, AK – The 2017-18 World Cup cross country ski season begins in Ruka, Finland on November 24th. APU will have 6 athletes competing for the U.S. (Kikkan Randall, Sadie Bjornsen, Erik Bjornsen, Rosie Brennan, Scott Patterson and Chelsea Holmes) and 1 for Australia (Jessica Yeaton). The domestic racing season begins on December 2nd in…
Nordic Skiing
[PRESS RELEASE] APU/U.S. Ski Team student-athlete Sadie Bjornsen skis to Bronze at the 2017 World Championships
Lahti, Finland. The 2017 Nordic World Ski Championships resumed today in Lahti. Today’s race was the Classic Team Sprint and skiing for the U.S. women were APU student-athlete Sadie Bjornsen and U.S teammate Jessie Diggins. Sadie skied first (the scramble leg) and brought the U.S. in 1st to the first exchange to Diggins. The race…
[PRESS RELEASE] Five Alaska Pacific University Nordic Skiers qualify for 2017 World Championships
Park City, Utah. The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association has named 17 athletes to the cross -country team that will compete in the International Ski Federation’s 2017 Nordic World Ski Championships next month in Lahti, Finland. Five of those 17 are APU athletes. They include; Kikkan Randall (9th World Championships), Sadie Bjornsen (4th World Championships),…
Eagle Glacier Collaboration
A new engineering project between UAA and APU looks to bring the two neighboring communities a little bit closer. Civil engineering students from UAA recently had the opportunity to travel up to the APU Thomas Training Center on the Eagle Glacier. The facility, nearly 5,000ft high up in the Chugach, gives APU Nordic athletes the…
Alaska Pacific University skier Reese Hanneman wins second National Championship
Houghton, MI – In the second race of the 2016 U.S. Cross Country Championships, Reese Hanneman of Alaska Pacific University won the men’s freestyle sprint. This is Hanneman’s first Freestyle Sprint National Championship title and second national title. Reese now has two sprint titles, one classic and one freestyle. Coming off a disappointment in the…
Alaska Pacific University skier Scott Patterson wins first National Championship
Houghton, MI – In the first race of the 2016 U.S. Cross Country Championships, Scott Patterson of Alaska Pacific University won the men’s 15 kilometer individual classic race. This is Scott’s first National Championship title as a senior athlete. Patterson normally a fast starter, took a little while to get going but once he was…
Scott Patterson wins Crow Pass marathon
Alaska Pacific University congratulates APU ski team athlete, Scott Patterson, on his first place finish in the Crow Pass Crossing (a marathon-length run over the mountains of Crow Pass). Not only did he win the race, he finished in 2 hours, 56 minutes, and 12 seconds. His time was the second fastest recorded in the…
What Do You Do When You’re Not Skiing?
Written by Lynn E. Paulson, APU staff writer I could hear the high-pitched, happy ruckus before I even entered the East Anchorage High School gymnasium, where the event was already in full swing. Over 200 girls, wearing hot pink “Fast and Female” t-shirts, were shooting hoops, lifting weights, walking slack lines, kicking soccer balls, hoola-hooping, tumbling,…
Second annual Best Chef on Skinny Skis fundraiser honors Nordic Ski coach, skiers and Alaska ski legend
Written by Dr. Lynn E. Paulson, Ph.D., staff writer at Alaska Pacific University In order to raise money for the APU Nordic Ski Center, Holly Brooks is working a lemonade stand on 5th Avenue, Sadie and Erik Bjornsen are waiting tables and mopping floors at Humpy’s, and Kikkan Randall roller-skis through Anchorage neighborhoods delivering pizzas,…
NPR audiences learn why everyday is championship day at University’s training site for Olympic hopefuls
It looks like any another Alaska glacier in summer. Impossibly blue skies alternating with wind, rain, fog and snow. Shale peaks and, of course, miles of ice. But for Alaska Pacific student athletes vying for a place on the U.S. Olympic cross-country ski team, Eagle Glacier in the Chugach Mountains is paradise. The site east…