When the UO Alpine women’s team qualified for nationals in 2024, it couldn’t swing the plane ticket to Lake Placid, New York for the race. So when USCSA announced that nationals would take place at Mt. Bachelor in 2025, the team made it a priority to qualify.
“I think we all thought that because the race is right here at Bachelor, it would be such a shame if we didn’t get to go,” Sage Sappenfield, UO Alpine freshman, said. “So I really wanted to perform well to help us get over that final push to make nationals.”
After a successful week at regionals in Steamboat, Colorado, the women’s team secured the third of five qualifying seats for nationals. The race will take place March 10-16, and only the top five point-scoring athletes will be eligible to compete. This year, those athletes are Sappenfield, Shona Flake, Jenna Lynch, Mia Schroeder and UO Alpine President Kate Kundahl.
This year is Kundahl’s final season with UO Alpine, and it will be her first time attending the nationals after three back-to-back qualifications her sophomore-senior year. She said when the 2025 race schedule was released, she felt “super lucky” as both regionals and nationals would be on her home turf: Colorado and Oregon.
Kundahl and Sappenfield began their racing careers in Colorado where they both grew up, and they said competing at regionals in Steamboat was an extremely special experience. Sappenfield saw several of her friends from Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy at the race, and Kundahl’s mom came to watch them compete.
“I felt like a proud parent,” Kundahl said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, this is my awesome team. And I want to tell everybody about it and introduce it to everyone.’”
Regionals 2025 was the first race UO Alpine has flown to, and Kundahl said they focused on fundraising early in the academic year to afford travel to Steamboat. Fortunately, nationals will take place just three hours from Eugene, allowing for the athletes’ friends and teammates to watch them race.
“My friends get to come out and see the mysterious thing I do on the weekends when I’m not around,” Kundahl said. “Some of them are taking the day off work on Thursday or skipping their classes so they can see my little swan song race.”
Nationals will be the last race of Kundahl’s career, and she is looking forward to it with one major goal: have fun.
“I’m soaking it in,” Kundahl said. “I’m just there to be with my team and hopefully get some good results, but I’m not putting my finishes on the line. I don’t want to end my ski racing career with a crash.”
Sappenfield is tuning her competitive edge for the race. She said she has been skiing on the cautious side this year, concerned that a crash could jeopardize the teams standing for nationals. After placing ninth in the giant slalom and fourth in the slalom at regionals, Sappenfield has a shot for a top-10 finish at Mt. Bachelor. But for the most part, she is just excited to compete in one more race before the season finishes.
“I used to race anywhere from 10 to 20 races in a year, and now I’m only racing six,” Sappenfield said. “I think that huge drop in frequency of racing makes each race a little bit more special.”
As UO Alpine wraps up their season and says goodbye to their seniors, the team is focused on what has always been most important to them: spending time together and skiing as much as possible.
