CCSA Skier Interviews

Chris Harvey | Julie Warneke | Bryan Cook | Kristina Owen

Chris Harvey, Michigan Technological University

1. Where are you from?
   Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
2. What high school or club did you ski for and what was your best result in high school?
   Eden Prairie High School Nordic Ski Team and Minnesota Valley XC Ski Club. My best result would probably be winning my conference and section meets.
3. What factors made you decide to continue skiing in college?
   It�s just part of who I am to continue competing at a college level, and Michigan Tech was the right place to continue running and skiing, while studying what I'm interested in.
4. What are you majoring in at Michigan Tech? What do you intend to do after college? Do you plan to ski after college?
   Environmental Engineering. A career in engineering. I hope skiing will be a lifelong sport, but probably not competitively
5. As a freshman, how has your adaptation to collegiate skiing gone? What, for you, has been the biggest difference between high school and collegiate skiing?
   College is great. The biggest difference would be the increase of volume in my training
6. What do you like best about Michigan Tech? What do you like best about the ski team?
   The best things about Michigan Tech are the ski trails and the snow. The people on the ski team are great. It�s awesome to be around people who have the same goals in skiing as you.
7. How do you feel about your season so far this year? Which result do you consider your best so far?
   I have been having a great season so far. I feel that I have improved a lot from last year. My best races so far this year have been the two 10kms at US Nationals.
8. What goals do you have for this year? What about long-term goals: what do you hope to achieve over the course of your collegiate career?
   This year I would like to finish in the top 10 at JO's and be in the top 15 on the CCSA points list, while being one of the top-five juniors on that list. I hope to make it to NCAA nationals in skiing and help our team to be one of the top-three teams in the CCSA. I would also like to be All-GLIAC (Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference) in cross country running.

Julie Warneke, St. Cloud State University

1. Where are you from?
   I'm from Elk River, Minnesota.
2. What high school or club did you ski for and what was your best result in high school?
   I skied for the Elk River Ski Team and Minnesota Biathlon. As for my best results, I won the NWSC Conference a couple times and I earned a spot on the All-State team my senior year.
3. Are you still involved in biathlon? Did you compete/train for biathlon during your freshman and sophomore years of college?
   I haven't done any serious biathlon competitions this year, but I'll show up for races if I can. During my first two years at college, I trained for biathlon very seriously, and went to the Junior World Team Trials both winters.
4. How have your experiences with Minnesota Biathlon helped your skiing?
   The coaching in biathlon improved my technique and taught my how to train hard and be dedicated to your sport. Also, the competitions were great race experience that really helped prepare me for the college races. The most important thing though was it made me love skiing and biathlon because the people are great, and it's just a lot of fun.
5. What led you to choose St. Cloud State University?
   The location allowed me to continue training for biathlon, it has inexpensive tuition, and it offers a wide variety of majors. Also the ski team covers all our expenses for trips, races, wax, and other equipment (except skis, boots, and poles).
6. What are you majoring in at SCSU? What do you intend to do after college? Do you plan to ski after college?
   I am majoring in biological medicine and I am getting a chemistry minor as well. After college, I plan to go to grad school for physical therapy and then I suppose it's time to find a real job. I plan on skiing for the rest of my life...it�s good for you and it�s fun.
7. What do you like best about SCSU? What do you like best about the ski team?
   My classes have been very good and the professors are very helpful when you ask questions. The ski team is a lot of fun. I've made some great friends and of course I get to ski! It's fun to be able a travel and race on the weekends. The trips are great! We went to West Yellowstone over Thanksgiving, and were out at US Nationals over Christmas break the last two years.
8. How do you feel about your season thus far? Have you met your goals?
   My season this year is going pretty well. My goal is to always keep improving every year, and I think I have.

Bryan Cook, Northern Michigan University

1. What high school or club did you ski for and what was your best result in high school?
   I skied for Rhinelander High School and my entire family usually traveled to all the Junior National qualifiers together. I had a few top-10s at Junior Nationals, which I would consider my best results in high school.
   
2. How has having a brother with the skiing talent and experience that your brother Chris Cook has helped you to develop as a skier?
   [ Chris was the 2003 NCAA Classic Champion and is a current member of the U.S. Development Team. --Ed ]
   Having Chris around all the time was, and still is, a huge motivating factor for me. My entire family has actually had the same affect that Chris has in the development of me as a skier. We have always gone skiing as a family and supported each other through the ups and downs of our skiing careers. A little inner-family competition is always fun as well.

   Photo: Ron Harvey

3. What do you like best about Northern Michigan University? What do you like best about the ski team?
   The Marquette community is very special as they are an extremely active and supportive community. The Marquette area is also a great place to live and train. The ski team is a great team with a bunch of motivated skiers and coaches. We all get along very well and we are able to push each other in every aspect. Sten [Fjeldheim] and Jenny [Ryan] are excellent coaches, and one of the main reasons I chose NMU was because of the great coaches and very competitive team. I really enjoy the team and the atmosphere around the team.
4. What are you majoring in at NMU? What do you intend to do after college? Do you plan to ski after college? What are your long-term goals as a skier?
   I am majoring in international studies and I plan to ski after college. I will never stop skiing and after college I am planning on skiing full time and pursuing my goal of becoming a competitive international skier.
5. How do you feel about your season thus far? Have you met your goals?
   I feel that my season has been going pretty well, but I also feel that I am skiing too inconsistently. So, far most of my goals have been met and we will have to wait and see how NCAAs goes to see if all of my goals are met. I would have to say that this has been one of my more competitive seasons with the arrival of Thomas [Oyberg] at UAF and the news guys here at NMU. I think that they have really raised our entire conference as a whole.
6. What goals do you have for the rest of your collegiate career?
   Well, I only have this year and hopefully next year at NCAAs, and my goal is to bring another championship back to NMU.
7. What goals does the NMU men's team have for NCAAs?
   We are looking forward to NCAAs because we have been skiing faster and faster here at the end of the year and we are looking forward to having All-Americans in each race. We are not ruling out a podium finish either--the top step would be just right.

Kristina Owen, Michigan Technological University

1. Photo: Paul Damrow

   Where are you from?
   I am from Wenatchee, Washington.
2. What high school or club did you ski for and what was your best result in high school?
   I skied for the Leavenworth Winter Sports Club, and my best place was a 17th at JO's my senior year.
3. What are you majoring in at Michigan Tech? What do you intend to do after college? Do you plan to ski after college?
   I'm majoring in mechanical engineering. After college I'd like to try and just ski for a while, but we'll see how that goes. If not, a coaching job would be pretty sweet. And I guess I'll always have this engineering thing to fall back on.
4. What do you like best about Michigan Tech? What do you like best about the ski team?
   I love how everyone here was the nerd in high school. The three to one male/female ratio isn't bad either. And I absolutely love my team, cuz they're the coolest, craziest people I've ever met.
5. You have improved a ton in the last two years, from 63rd on the USSA National Ranking List in 2003 to 16th currently. To what do you attribute this improvement?
   His name is Joe Haggenmiller, and he's the best coach in the world.
6. You were Junior Olympic National Champion in the classic race last year. Will you describe this race for us?
   Ohhhh...kind of a blur. A lot of things went right, obviously, especially some of the big names being gone at NCAAs.
7. What goals do you have for this year?
   I want to be All-American at NCAAs.

About the author... Corey Coogan reports on U.S. collegiate skiing throughout the season. Coogan has published an updated version of One Week in March: a manual for prospective Collegiate Nordic skiers. A devoted racer, she competes for Alpina/Madshus Racing and Finn Sisu ski shop.

Related links

• Collegiate coverage on Skinnyski