Frigon, Sandsten, Woodhouse, Allen, Kenney, McConville To Lead ‘Cats
DURHAM, N.H. – University of New Hampshire 37th-year ski coordinator/Nordic head coach Cory Schwartz and 12th-year alpine head coach Brian Blank announced their respective captains for the 2019 season.
The Nordic team will be captained by senior Ben Allen (Portland, Maine) and sophomore Kaja Sandsten (Oppdal, Norway).
Ben Allen
"Ben does a nice job of communicating with the team and helping [assistant coach] Steve [Monsulick] and I set the tone," Schwartz said. "Even though he's not necessarily one of the top scorers, he has earned a lot of respect from the team. He's definitely grown into this role over his four years.
Kaja Sandsten
"Kaja is a little bit quieter than Ben, but at the same time she does speak out and does a good job of leading by example," Schwartz added. "She brings a lot of experience from Norway, and if she gets healthy from her leg injury, we feel she can be an All-East, All-American type skier."
Patrick Kenney
The alpine women's captains are senior Geneviève Frigon(Laval, Quebec), a two-time NCAA All-American, and junior Emma Woodhouse (Collingwood, Ontario), the 2017 alpine team MVP and NCAA competitor. The men's alpine skiers will be captained by senior Will McConville (London, Ontario), a 2018 Chi Alpha Sigma National Collegiate Athletic Honor Society inductee, and sophomore Patrick Kenney (Hingham, Mass.), who was the lone men's alpine Wildcat to compete at last year's NCAA Championships.
Emma Woodhouse
"Gen and Will were the unanimous choices by everyone on the team as the two seniors," Blank said. "Emma is also a strong leader and complements Gen, who has a busy schedule as a chemical engineering major and can't always be present. Patrick, though younger than our typical captains, shows promising leadership skills and is one of our best skiers."
Sohvi Virkkula - New Alpine Assistant Coach
Blank also announced that former Wildcat Sohvi Virkkula will serve as the team's new alpine assistant coach. As a senior in 2018, Virkkula was the Wildcats' top finisher (23rd) in the giant slalom at the NCAA Championships in Steamboat Springs, Colo. The senior finished a season-best sixth in GS (Feb. 6) at Vermont, took eighth (Jan. 21) at Colby and ninth (Feb. 16) at Williams.
"Sohvi is coming off a successful career here at UNH and brings a fresh perspective as someone who can relate to what student-athletes are going through," said Blank. "She has a lot of experience ski racing at high levels, and she's enthused to join the staff."
The UNH ski team begins the 2019 EISA season at the Saint Lawrence Carnival on Jan. 11-13. Alpine races are scheduled for Whiteface Mountain and Nordic events will take place at Mt. Van Hoevenberg.
UNH will play host to the EISA's second carnival of the season with giant slalom (Jan. 18) and slalom (Jan. 19) at Cannon Mountain, and the women's 15K/men's 20K classical races (Jan. 18) and skate sprints (Jan. 19) at Jackson XC.
