Vail Mountain School skier wins first high school Nordic race just 2 years after picking up the sport
Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
Let’s be clear: Teddy Brunner is a natural athlete.
The Vail Mountain senior picked up Nordic skiing — not exactly the easiest sport to grasp as a teen — two years ago. On Friday, he won his first Colorado High School Ski League race.
“It’s phenomenal,” said Wyatt Smith, the Rangers’ interim head coach while Shawn Ellenbaum recovers from an injury. “He pretty much put on skis once prior to last year.”
In the final regular-season event, Brunner blasted past Charlie Wiedel in the gradual uphill homestretch, covering the 6-kilometer Gold Run Nordic skate ski course in 14 minutes, 35.40 seconds. His Steamboat Springs opponent finished a half second back while Summit took the next five spots en route to a team win.
“We knew we were going to hold a steady pace going into three, three-and-a-half K,” said Brunner, who started in the second row of the mass start but quickly found himself in the lead group of four, which included Wiedel, John Ryan and Carter Niemkiewicz.
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“I knew I could get a good draft behind them on those downhills and even the flats; I saved some energy and I think that’s where the magic happened,” Brunner continued. “We went on that downhill and I knew if I was going to pass someone it has to be now.”
Summit scored 226 points to easily claim the team win, with Poudre (189) and Middle Park (184) following in second and third. Eagle Valley, which has been neck-and-neck with the Tigers throughout the year, was without its top two skiers but still managed to take the fifth spot.
“We’re just trying to get healthy for next week,” said Devils coach Paul Steiner, who was missing Jonah Barber and Tyler Blair, the winner of the last CHSSL race at Tennessee Pass. Steiner was stoked for the opportunity to test out a mass start, which provided positive practice for the classic day at the state meet this weekend.
“All the young kids, the first-timers, they got to experience that,” he said. “It’s hard to understand that, ‘hey you’re on the second row, you’ve got to get out of that row ASAP.’ The mindset, the hunger is there.”
Eleven Devils, including seven boys, have qualified for the state competition, which will be held on Friday and Saturday at Snow Mountain Ranch. Steiner is also sending four girls. He said he’s most looking forward to the relay event.
“That’s a pendulum swing for any team,” he said. “If you can produce in that, you can go from fourth to second in a heartbeat.”
Freshman Riley Parish led Battle Mountain with a 29th-place, state-qualifying finish. Parish (17:48.67), rushed over to Breckenridge after contesting the final giant slalom of the season in the morning.
“I was just thinking to myself I do running and this is a longer course and I’ll have the endurance,” said Parish, who went back to shredding gates after his work at Gold Run was done. “Just trying to push myself as hard as I can and see how far I can go.”
Parish credited the team’s veterans for helping him gain steam as the season has progressed.
“It got off to a slow start, but I just had so many good seniors and upperclassmen to push me,” he said. “And seeing them in races, if it was a loop, they’d go by me and push me and I’d try and stay with them. It’s just really good to have those guys there.”
Coach Lisa Isom said even though the Huskies will have one of their smaller postseason contingents in recent memory, there’s still plenty of reason for optimism.
“The cool thing is we also have a third of almost 40 skiers that are brand new to Nordic skiing and some of those kids are ready to work,” she said. “They’ve been working already this season and I think the future looks so bright.”
The Huskies will have 12 athletes competing at the state skiemeister event, a competition they’ve won the last four years on both the girls and boys side. Eden and Ruthie DeMino are currently first and second in the standings while Gabe Dozois is Battle Mountain’s best hope of keeping the streak alive on the boys side.
“He works so hard,” Isom said of the senior, who, like Brunner, also picked up Nordic skiing just a couple years ago.
Brunner said he was inspired to pick up Nordic skiing from his brother, Will, who won a state cross-country title and back-to-back 3,200-meter state track championships for the Huskies.
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Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
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Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
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Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
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Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
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Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
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Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
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Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
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Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
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Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
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Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
“He was kind of an inspiration for me. Running was his thing, but he also did Nordic, and I was like,’ you know, maybe I can make Nordic my thing,'” said Brunner, whose main sport is actually rowing. He puts in a workout on the indoor trainer each morning in his garage.
“I read ‘Boys in the Boat’ and I think I knew I wanted to get into an endurance sport,” he said. As of right now, Brunner is looking at schools for rowing, but would be open to competing on the skinny skis, too. Two schools with both options on his list are Dartmouth and Harvard.
When asked what the takeaway from his short — but already quite successful — ski story is, Brunner said, “I think picking something you’re really passionate in and putting your heart into it — I think that’s the way.
