Colorado Mountain College ski team puts new talent to test

By Shauna Farnell for Colorado Mountain College

The CMC Eagles Ski Team is bolstered by new talent this season and together, athletes and coaches have established a powerful dynamic despite major hurdles both on and off the racecourse. Buoyed by fresh talent, the CMC ski team has sprinkled small displays of star power throughout challenging race conditions so far this season.

Six freshmen joined the team this season – Maddie Welling, hailing from Tahoe, California; Whitney Diamond from Ogden, Utah; Campbell Butzlaff from Seattle, Washington; Joshua Nelson from Minneapolis, Minnesota; Chase Kelly from Aspen; and Lucas Ellis from Leeds, United Kingdom.

Welling and Ellis, both of whom competed with former U.S. Ski Team coach Sasha Rearick’s Apex2100 International Ski Academy last winter, as well as Kelly, have quickly proven their talent in the first few University races.

The college newbies join seniors Matthew Macaluso and Gunnar Barnwell, juniors Will Utendorfer, Jr., Theodore Kim and Filip Krota and sophomores Jessie Ferguson, Anastacia Stocker and Gerrit Kursh.

Ferguson, who broke her legs in two separate falls last season, and Stocker, who also missed the entirety of last season due to a head injury, are fighting back to form this season. Macaluso, who is a Vail native and the Eagles team captain, would typically register a standout performance at most races, but he, too, is fighting through injury, having broken his foot last spring.

Still, the Eagles have covered a lot of ground in 2025, competing in three university race series. These began with the Denver Invitational – a pair of slalom races at Loveland and giant slaloms at Copper Mountain in early January. Temperatures hovered frigidly in the single digits and teens for most of the event, but the younger team especially showed their fire.

Starting down the line wearing bib 45, Ellis, CMC’s first British skier, dove into his inaugural university races with points to put down. He pulled off a 16^th place in the Loveland slalom and a 27^th in the Copper GS while Krota, his fellow overseas teammate from Croatia, landed 25^th in the slalom.

Next up, the team piled into vans for a road trip to Bridger Bowl, Montana, to compete in the Montana State University Invitational in early February.

“Conditions were tough,” CMC head coach Scott Tanner said. “It snowed about a foot the day we got there. The women’s GS got canceled midway through and we barely got the guy’s race off.”

Nonetheless, the Eagles forged ahead.

Before the women’s GS was canceled during the second run, Welling had finished 27^th in run No. 1 and was poised to clock a top 20. On the men’s side, Ellis blazed to 19^th place in the Bridger Bowl GS while Kursh took 24^th. Krota once again shined in slalom, throwing down a lightning-like second run that was more than a second faster than most of the field. With a more conservative first run, he finished 18^th.

Next up was the Utah Invitational at the steep and challenging Utah Olympic Park outside of Park City. The eight university teams arrived to spring-like temperatures that climbed to about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, but soon gave way to a blizzard and wind, leaving athletes to once again navigate variable and challenging course conditions.

Welling was a couple hundredths of a second out of the points in the women’s GS, finishing 31^st, while Stocker and Ferguson showed promise in their comeback season, taking 19^th and 20^th, respectively, in the slalom.

Kelly notched a career best university result with a 22^nd in the slalom as Kursh, one of the last racers to start, was in full-send mode, just a few feet away from a winning second run when he straddled the very last gate.

“I gave it my all,” Kursh said. “I came through a turn, it was broken up with a bunch of ice balls. It was actually a really good run. The biggest thing for me in these college races is dealing with horrible snow conditions when you have a not-so-great starting position. I know I can do it, but it’s about having to change my approach in different conditions.”

Another obstacle impacting the Eagles this season is the fact that college funding for the team is scheduled to end in spring 2026.

“As of right now, our team will disband at the end of next year,” Tanner said. “We’re hoping to find some solutions, but it’s hanging over our heads and putting pressure on the athletes. They’re good skiers, but that type of pressure could amount to the difference between finishing and not finishing.”