Becky Woods

HEAD COACH NORDIC SKIING
Becky Woods

A two-time EISA Coach of the Year, Becky Woods '89 has been the head Nordic skiing coach at Bates since 1994. A native of Auburn, Maine, she has coached four All-America winners, including Sylvan Ellefson '09, who was fourth in the 10K freestyle at the 2008 NCAA Championships.

During her collegiate career at Bates, she was a two-time captain, participated in three NCAA Championships and was a member of the All-East team. Woods received the Auburn-Lewiston Sports Hall of Fame President's Award in 1996 and has served on the NCAA skiing rules comittee since 1998.

 

Email: rwoods@bates.edu

Office Phone: 207.786.6339

Martin Benes

ASSISTANT COACH NORDIC SKIING
Martin Benes

Martin Benes '07 returns to Bates, where he was a four-year member of the team and served as co-captain his senior year. After departing Bates with a B.A. in Classical and Medieval Studies, he returned to his home club in California where he coached junior skiers at the regional and national levels.

Last winter Martin returned to New England as an assistant with the Dartmouth College Ski Team. He returned to California this past summer to continue working with the juniors he has coached through two Junior Nationals.

Martin is glad to rejoin the Bates team and is looking forward to working with a talented group of athletes this winter. Off the trails, Martin will be helping out Coach Flynn on the links as the Golf team assistant.

Email: mbenes@bates.edu

Office Phone: 207.755.5954

Bob Flynn

ASSISTANT COACH NORDIC SKIING
Bob Flynn

Coach Flynn posesses a impressive history in the Bates Athletics department through his continuous, untiring involvement for more than 40 years.

He was head skiing coach at Bates from 1968 to 1990 and was instrumental in the program's move to Division I competition in 1972, and in bringing the 1976 NCAA Skiing Championships to Bates. Flynn was also head baseball coach from 1991 to 1999. He is a member of the Lewiston-Auburn Sports Hall of Fame, the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame and the Maine Ski Hall of Fame.

In addition to Skiing and Baseball, in 2008 Flynn also returned to the helm as the Head Coach of Men's and Women's Golf, a position he held previously from 1990 to 1998.

Email: rflynn@bates.edu

Office Phone: 207.786.6441

 

 

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BATES NORDIC BLOG

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

A Quick Glance at the Team

As we are just under two weeks away from the official start of the season, its time to take a quick look at the team for the upcoming race season.

On the women’s side, only Nicole Ritchie graduated last spring, and has been pursuing a professional rowing career. Captain Abby Samuelson will lead the women’s team into the winter, once she finishes up her final cross-country running season. Abby spent the summer living and training in Portland while interning for Nike marketing. After racing last season injured, Abby will be looking forward to staying healthy this winter and having a strong race season. Natalie Ruppertsberger is the only junior currently on campus and is excited to build off of her first NCAA Championships appearance as well as last season’s top-three finish at Middlebury Carnival. Kirstin Gill, Megan McClelland, and Ingrid Knowles are all currently studying abroad in France, Portugal, and New Zealand, respectively. They will all rejoin the team when they return, ready to challenge for travel team spots.

There is also a strong sophomore contingent gearing up for the season. Beth Taylor, Dayna Stimson, and Sophie Leonard are all back on campus looking to build on strong first-year performances. In addition, Kelsey Dion has been rowing with the crew team at Bates, recently winning a women’s time trial.

First-year Catherine Tuttle will also be making the switch over from rowing to skiing later this Fall. Tuttle is joined by Samantha Forrest and Gretchen Sellegren, both of whom hail from Bozeman, MT and Dragan's BSF program. Gretchen is coming off a strong year in which she was a two-time medalist at Junior Nationals in Truckee, CA. Samantha was also a member of the Intermountain Junior National team.

For the guys, five men graduated last spring, including Sam Evans-Brown and Sylvan Ellefson, both NCAA qualifiers. In addition, Connor Cushman, Tim Whiton, and Dylan Mogk are all onto the next chapters of their lives. You can follow Sylvan and Dylan on Twitter, while Sam keeps a blog of his proletarian adventures. Connor is working for the Maine Winter Sports Center and living in Portland, while Tim will continue to be a presence on the Carnival circuit, as he recently accepted the assistant coaching position at Bowdoin.

The men will be lead this year by captain Harold Poole and his fellow senior Ben Smeltzer. Harold will be looking to build off the first top-ten Carnival finish of his career at last years Regional Championships. Smeltzer will be another strong skier this season, even while working on a yearlong Physics thesis. The two seniors are joined by a strong youth contingent.

Lucas Milliken leads an incoming class of six. Lucas was a Junior National team qualifier last season and posted strong results after a solid season of racing Eastern Cups, while skiing for Burke Mountain Academy. He is joined by Danny Kuzio, Corey Hill, Dan Brodhead, Isaac Kreisman, and Nate Fuller. All six of the first-year men are New England natives. In addition, sophomore Jimmy Burnham of Carlisle, MA will be joining the team.

There will be lots more to come in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned!

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posted by Bates Nordic at 9:36 AM 0 Comments