At the NCAA Nordic skiing champions at Lake Placid, New York, Methow Valley native Jori Grialou (center, in black), competing for Bowdoin College, had a slight edge over her friend and competitor Gretta Scholz (right, in blue), another Methow Valley native who was skiing for Colby College. Novie McCabe and Walker Hall, both of Mazama, also competed for the University of Utah at the meet, with McCabe winning both the 10,000M and 5,000M events.
Methow Valley natives excel at college level
The 2022-23 Nordic ski season was another banner year for the community and the Methow Valley Nordic Skiing Education Foundation.
With five Liberty Bell High School graduates skiing in NCAA events this year, and four qualifying for the NCAA championships, it would be difficult to find another high school of its size with that many athletes participating at that level, never mind just one sport and per-capita qualifiers.
At the NCAA meet in early March at Lake Placid, New York, the University of Utah’s (by way of Mazama) Novie McCabe doubled as NCAA champion in both the 10,000-meter and 5,000M events, a rare feat that added to her 5,000 victory in 2022.
Also qualifying were Winthrop’s Gretta Scholz (Colby College), Jori Grialou (Bowdoin College) and Mazaman Walker Hall, also skiing for the Utes. Greta Laesch, at Williams College in Massachusetts, was not at Lake Placid, but was a regular competitor with Grialou and Scholz at college meets in the northeast U.S.
We had a chance to catch up with McCabe, Scholz and Grialou over coffee at the Mazama Store recently, and it turned into a newsworthy event fairly early in the conversation. Hall and Laesch were both out of the valley on family matters at the time.
Most notably, McCabe is foregoing her senior year of skiing at Utah, instead moving to Alaska to train with coaches and skiers at the University of Alaska-Anchorage in preparation for the 2023-24 World Cup Circuit and upcoming 2026 Winter Olympic Games slated for Milan-Cortina, Italy. She does plan to complete her senior year at Utah via on-line classwork and plans to graduate with a BA in political science next spring.
McCabe was recently awarded the Gold Rush Award for 2022-23 by US Ski and Snowboard, an annual award that goes to the female Nordic athlete that has “represented the U.S. in cross country skiing and has demonstrated outstanding qualities of grit and grace throughout the year,” according to a release from the US Ski and Snowboard program website. Among past Gold Rush award winners is Liberty Bell grad, Methow Valley Nordic alumnus and World Cup/Olympian Sadie Maubet-Bjornsen.
As a sidebar, McCabe did say she hopes to spend some time training with the 2014 and 2020 Nordic Olympian, but expects that to be somewhat limited with Maubet-Bjornsen and husband Jo reportedly expecting their first child.
Scholz will return for her senior year at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and intends to continue her college skiing career after qualifying for this year’s NCAA championships. Earning a trip to the NCAAs this year put the Mountain Lion alumnus squarely on the front of the Colby winter sports webpage.
Despite a warmish morning and the snow having been gone from the valley floor for about two months, Scholz took advantage of the morning interview time to don her roller skis and skate her way out Goat Creek Road to the Mazama gathering spot. She prefers the 5,000M freestyle sprints, but is working to improve her 20-kilometer classic skiing. While fighting off a bug the week of the NCAA championships, Scholz battled her way to a 34th-place finish in the sprints and two days later placed 36th in the 20K classic.
Majoring in biology, Scholz is still thinking of which path she wants to take after her undergrad work.
Scholz’s league rival — and good friend — at nearby Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, Jori Grialou had a pretty good freshman year. She and Scholz saw a lot of each other on the snow during the year. Indeed, at Lake Placid, they were not even a handful of positions apart in both races, Scholz edging out Grialou in the sprints, Grialou turning the tables in the 20K classic.
Memory recalls they were often close at the snow-covered tracks at the McCabe complex during their high school years, as well as on the dry ground during the fall high school cross country season. Grialou’s preference in college events is the longer 20K classic.
Her freshman year was highlighted recently when she was awarded the Bowdoin College First Year Female Athlete of the Year. The award presenter, Bowdoin Women’s Field Hockey coach Nicky Pearson said of Grialou, “She is one of only three women in Bowdoin history to qualify for the NCAA championships in her freshman year and was named Most Outstanding Skier on the Bowdoin Women’s team.” Pearson also quoted Bowdoin Nordic coach Nathan Alsobrook: “Jori brought great energy into the program and is a great friend, teammate and student.”
While undecided as to a major, she is leaning toward the humanities or English as a major and not sure where she will be lead with that in the future. Both Grialou and Scholz will spend most of the summer living, working and training in the Winthrop area before they had back east later in August.
Nordic notes
• Sam Naney, who succeeded Leslie Hall two years ago as the Youth Program Director of the Methow Valley Nordic Ski Education Foundation has resigned to pursue other interests, creating a small, yet significant chain reaction at the top of the organization. Executive Director Pete Leonard is shifting from that position to replace Naney as the Program Director and Youth Program Head Coach. Nathan Grothe will take over the reins as Executive Director.
• Biathlon Director Betsy Devin-Smith is also paring back on her schedule, with Raleigh Gosseling named as her replacement as both an Assistant Program Director and Biathlon Coach. More to come on both stories as the season approaches.
• Most of the alumni mentioned above made a return to the McCabe complex recently to watch younger sibs Dashe McCabe and Stella Scholz compete at the Washington Student Cycling League Championships. All three were joined by Walker Hall at the bike event.
Hall had returned from the Seattle area where he had been attending his grandfather’s memorial. He has been re-invited back to the US Ski Team’s Nordic Developmental Team and will also return to Salt Lake City for his junior year at Utah in their Nordic program.
Hall was 8th in the 10K sprint and 17th in the 20K classic at the NCAA championships this past March at Lake Placid. Hall and McCabe were key to the Utes’ national team title over rival Colorado. He has since ski-daddled to Alaska for the summer before his return to the Utah campus in late August.
• Two time Olympian (and mom) Laura McCabe has let us know she and daughter Dashe are headed for Switzerland for the academic year where Dashe will complete her high school matriculation. McCabe assured that the move is temporary for her and she will be returning to the upper reaches of the Methow later next year.
