Skier of the Week - Cowboy Chase/Laramie Loppet

We have been waiting all season for this particular skier of the week. While she has been the logical choice several times during this stellar season we were waiting for this specific moment to acknowledge her amazing accomplishements this season!

Let's start with the racing. Last season at this time Kat couldn't even walk well. Running was out of the question and skiing was excruciating. We were forced to red-shirt her, not by a plan but because she simply could not race. What a difference a year makes! Kat went from being unable to complete the season to being our top UW Woman and reached 4th in the Overall Rocky Mountain Conference Rankings. Kat only missed the top 5 in one race the entire season and made the podium twice, such amazing consistency is rarely seen but she made it look easy!

This weekend was not exception as she placed 4th in the classic race, skiing the lead leg of the Team Sprint, followed by a grueling 21km in which she was 6th. She lead the UW Women to 2nd place in the Conference and we hope to see her shine at Nationals!

What lead to this weekend on skis was dedication, hard work, and grit. What lead to the race happening this weekend was even more impressive!

Kat is a Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Management Major and as such she got excited in the fall about the idea of planning the Laramie Loppet. We certainly had no objections to someone taking the lead to make the race bigger and better. We had no idea the concentrated effort Kat would throw into it. In December, when we don't even remember that there IS a home race, Kat had already commissioned a new logo, created posters, and was putting them up around town at our first race! It was crazy and she continued with this planning and organization right through to the end.

Kat took responsibility for buying swag, creating and hanging posters, answering questions, redesigning the webpage, updating the registration, planning food for the dinner, and about 100 other things.

The result was that we made over $1000 MORE than the previous year and had some super cool socks!

Kat truly stepped up for the team to help us create a truly special event and THEN she skied super fast!

For all the incredible work you have done throughout the season, both on the skis and off we name you Skier of the Week!

YOU ROCK OUR WORLD!